Why I wouldn't Travel To Space
By Zoe Ho
Although I love astronomy, there are more than enough reasons why I wouldn’t travel into space. Even If I were the first person to go to Mars I would still drop out.
The first reason why I wouldn’t travel to space is because you could get forgotten or stranded. If you are old enough, you might remember, in 1991, the astronaut Sergei Krikaelv. He was stranded in space for 311 days because . Because he spent so much time in space, he traveled 0.2 seconds into the future (You should look it up if you don’t believe me). Or if you want a more recent example, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They were stranded in space for over 9 months because of a helium leak and a failed engine. If I were them, I’d have already written a 100-page complaint to NASA.
The second reason is all the dangers of space. There are 5 major red alerts when you are in space, being in an area where it is too hot leads to overheating. If you’re in an area where the temperature is way too cold, your body could freeze up and become ice. One other very scary danger is that, in 90 seconds, bubbles can form in your veins and block blood circulation. If you don’t have enough oxygen during a space walk, you could drown in space. The last major read flag relates to your health. If you’re in space for at least 9 months or more, your bone tissue will weaken ( meaning your bones could not be as strong, and you could break them easily). Your muscle tissue will also weaken. An example I like to use is, if you go to space as the strongest wrestler in the world, you could come back after more than 10 months with the strength of an average person.
The third reason moves in the direction of food, astronauts have to eat freeze–dried food ( it’d give me the ick to eat freeze-dried steak ), but I have to be the first to admit I love freeze-dried fruit ( apples and mangos especially ). Eating that type of food for 3 meals plus 3 snacks a day would be a no for me. But soon enough, they’d be eating lab-grown steak and lamb*. And obviously that would be tasty, but it wouldn’t change my mind on going to space because I could go to my local diner and eat some steak there.
*Lab-grown isn’t slaughtered meat, it’s hormones taken from the selected animals and added together to make a delicious meal.
Finally, if the aircraft or spaceship that I’m in has an accident, I could die, and dying is my is one of my biggest fears.
If you planned on being an astronaut one day, I truly hope you do become one and fly to space!