For Electric Literature, Anya Groner discusses the role of space tourism in modern science fiction, and explores how the focus of space exploration narratives have shifted from the technological aspects of interplanetary life to the anxieties and psychological challenges faced by space travelers:
Practical questions give way to unsettling existentialism and thrilling narrative possibilities. The scale of the universe is unfathomable. What does it mean to be a speck in the infinite? Do specks have the right to colonize new planets? Will life on a new planet cause adaptations that fundamentally alter our species? To what extent would we include plants, animals, bacteria, fungus and viruses in resettling? Which humans would go and which would stay behind? What are the consequences of failure? Of success?
