SLI Marathon Blog

space, space facts, Planetarium,

While scientists and astronomers continue to debate the merits and feasibility of a Martian or Lunar colony, much of the public eye has turned to more domestic issues. The Space Age, we’re told, is over and done with. The world has more important things to worry about. But for those of us who still [refer to occasionally glance from our phones or our computer screens to gaze up at the night sky, the possibility of journeying to space yet remains a hopeful, if faint, ambition. But, if given the opportunity, what would you do to go up on the next launch?

This isn’t a question that you’ll find in any newspaper today, but it was, oddly enough, a topic broached more than half a century ago in 1950 by the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. As part of a promotion for a new exhibit on space exploration called Conquest of Space, the planetarium announced to its public that they were accepting applications to be space-tourists.

The question was not broached lightly; the museum took the time to make an actual timetable for their space tours that projected the rocket’s speed at 25,000 miles per hour. At this speed, the possible tours ranged from a relatively brief nine and a half hour jaunt to the moon all the way to a trip to Saturn that would take a solid 1,333 days (just over three and a half years). And that’s plus the time that could be lost to unforeseen delays: the timetable also reminds it’s patrons that it “cannot be held responsible for delays en route caused by meteor showers or other phenomena”.

The letters came pouring in over the next few years, and the Planetarium saved most (if not all) of them. Several of them have been put on public display on the planetarium’s website in an effort to promote another exhibit dedicated to space facts, Beyond Planet Earth. Even though scientists and science-fiction writers alike have speculated for years on man’s desire to reach the stars, some of these letters may have come as something of a surprise to even the most dedicated sci-fi fan.

For instance, one man by the name of ‘Stardust’ asked for a seat on the Mars tour, but charitably offered to give up his seat if he was picked up by a UFO prior to the tour’s launch. Mars was to be his jumping off point to the many other solar systems out there.

Another letter, typed and formal in its tone, included some rather polished sketches of a suggested rocket design. These schematics included details on how to land the craft, spacesuit designs, and a cross-section of the crews living quarters.

One letter, marked ‘Space Material’ by its recipient, is particularly interested in visiting Venus. Why? Because he wants to see for himself whether or not there are really dinosaurs living on it. His greatest ambition seems to have been to see a brontosaurus or tyrannosaurus in the flesh.

The letters came from all walks of life, every age demographic, and were from places as far away as Yugoslavia and Peru. Schoolchildren, old men, doctors, and teenagers were all unified in their desire to see another world.