… I’d go into space.

I’ve been fascinated by space for many years. Other girls want to be doctors and teachers when they grow up; I want to be an astronaut. I’m not so interested in the particulars of space technology – I don’t collect miniature space crafts or read all about the physics involved – but more in the social and human aspects of it, and the endless possibilities it can lead to. A lot of good science fiction has been written about orbital cities or manufacturing bases, lunar colonies, exploration of other planets…

Many reasonable people have many reasonable arguments against manned space flight: it is a waste of resources, since it’s much cheaper (not to mention safer) to send little electric cars to Mars and just follow them remotely.

Regarding publicly funded projects such as NASA, I’d probably agree: if the aim is to generate useful scientific results, you get more bang for the buck if you keep human bodies out of the picture. But for the rest of us, there are good arguments for manned space flight: it’s exciting, it’s interesting, it’s a challenge. Exploring the world lies in man’s nature. Space is like a mountain waiting to be climbed.

Luckily I’m not the only one to think so, and state-funded space projects are no longer the only ones around. Scaled Composites kicked off private space flight two years ago, when their SpaceShipOne won the $10m X-prize for being the first private manned spacecraft to reach an altitude of 100km. It only took a year for them to announce plans for commercial space flights. Virgin Galactic has not only a very cool brand name, but its mission statement includes the simple yet fabulous goal to “allow affordable sub-orbital space tourism”.

They’re not alone in trying to get people into suborbital space: there’s Space Adventures’ Explorer, XCOR’s Xerus, Incredible Adventures’ Rocketplane XP and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, and probably others that I don’t know about. (No, I don’t follow them all – the Economist kindly listed them all a year ago (subscription).)

Transport is of course more useful if there’s something at the other end of the trip (those orbital stations and moon bases). Last week I read that another private venture is now taking care of that as well. Bigelow Aerospace launched Genesis I, a prototype for an inflatable orbital station. And in order to help space business along, he’s financing a follow-up for the X-prize: $50m for taking at least five people to an altitude 400km and completing two orbits.

I’m excited by this. I want to see the Earth from space, and stars in an endless black sky. I want to float around in weightlessness. I want to feel that the universe is a vast and wonderful place. And I simply want to go into space just because.

The cost of space tourism is no longer in the millions. Still well beyond the reach of my bank account, but if development continues at the current pace, it’ll be down at reasonable levels – comparable to long trips to exotic places on Earth – before I grow old.