Bored to Death: Human Spaceflight in 2050

Article

“Bored to Death: Human Spaceflight in 2050” by Matthew H. Hersch
Published in Quest Volume: 31 #1 (2024)

Abstract

In 1961, Dr. Donald Michael, a noted social psychologist, predicted that the next several decades of human spaceflight would be difficult, dangerous, and dreary. The slower-than-predicted pace of real-life space exploration in the decades that followed his predictions makes these speculations relevant for imagining human spaceflight in 2050. What Michael imagined for our era—“profoundly boring” space missions in “low-stimulus environments,” not quite routine or cheap enough to be available to all—suggested space exploration would be hard on humans for the foreseeable future…so much so that Michael wondered whether computerization would inevitably alter conceptions of what space labor was and who, ultimately, would do it.

Citation

Hersch, Matthew H. “Bored to Death: Human Spaceflight in 2050.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 31, no. 1 (2024): 37-41.