I've a bad habit of puzzling over things just to see what they're made of, and I thought about taking a ride on the Shuttle.
It is easy to fantasize about what you'd do with a million dollars. So long as it is "found money" with no obligations, dreaming goes wild. But in real life money always comes with obligations, whether you care to recognize them or not. I'm not sure I could live with myself if I chose to drop a couple million bucks on a fling, even as exciting a one as a space flight. Small luxuries sometimes, but something of that magnitude is over the top.
Maybe I'm a little hypocritical: why would an occasional dinner out be OK and not a flamboyant trip? Or maybe scale really matters, and proportionality is the key.
And the notion of displacing real science on the ship makes me a little itchy. As a scientist myself, I get a little annoyed when PR interferes with work or learning or teaching.
When I think about it carefully, what I really want is not just a ride on the Shuttle, but a good reason for being there as well: to be trusted with some task important enough to launch me. That's even more far-fetched, I guess.
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