Transportation: Then, Now, and the Future

My grandmother was born in 1896. The only means of transportation then was horse and carriage/wagon, a bicycle, a train, or boats. The automobile hadn’t hit it big yet, and the airplane was yet to come. When she died in 1980, she’d seen the advent of passenger planes and man walking on the moon.

Today, we have so many options to travel from one place to another. Hubs and I prefer driving to air travel. We like the slower pace, the luxury of stopping where and when we want. But, if we need to get somewhere in a hurry, we’re willing to take advantage of air travel. Sure, it can be a pain with the limits on luggage and the thorough searching of passengers and their carry-ons. Still, I’m glad those restrictions and searches are in place to protect all of us.

I’ve been fascinated by space travel ever since I was in grade school. Satellites and rockets. Alan Shepard and John Glenn were my heroes, followed closely by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Some nights, we can even see the International Space Station. And Space X will be offering trips into space for civilians.

When my two-year-old granddaughter is an adult, the options will be phenomenal. If so much changed in my grandmother’s lifetime and mine, imagine what Toddler Girl will experience. Will she travel to a settlement on the moon or Mars? Will scientists discover wormholes that can take her out of our solar system? Better yet, will they invent teleportation and she’ll get beamed from one side of our country to another?

Imagining the possibilities is why I write science fiction. My belief in love and happy ever after is why I include romance.

What possibilities do you see (or want to see) for your grandchildren?

Burial in Space

In Monday's issue of Space.com, I read an article about having one's ashes taken into space. http://www.space.com/23433-elysium-space-burial-human-ashes.html?cmpid=555127

I knew Gene Roddenberry and his wife (actress Majel Barrett) had their ashes flown into space. So did Scotty (actor James Doohan) and astronaut Gordon Cooper. Until I read the article I didn't know how they did it. The article explains what's involved. It costs just less than $2,000 for a small--very small--portion of one's ashes to make the trip. 

So it got me wondering...would I do it?

I've been fascinated by space travel ever since Alan Shepard's historical flight. I knew all the names of the first astronauts. I watched every televised space shot. I still have posters from NASA on the first flights. I read science fiction and science fiction romance and, as you probably know, I write sci-fi romance. To say I'm enamored by space travel is an understatement.

By the time passenger service into space becomes a reality, I probably will be too old to go or, more likely, won't be available to afford it. But now there's a way I could finally go into space. Okay, my ashes would. Would I even know? I do believe in an afterlife so I figure if I did somehow manage to convince my family that I wanted to be buried that way, I could look down and "see" my final trip into the vast beyond.

Would I do it? I'd definitely consider it. How about you?