I used to watch Star Trek (TNG, DS9, & Voyager) and then go to bed and dream of living it. I didn’t even have to be the captain (although as I got older, I was): even just a kid on board (like Westley, my hero when I was in grade school) would have been beyond cool. So was his mom, a strong female role model after I got over my crush (pun intended). My mother shared & fueled my obsession, making me a costume/pajama out of velour with four pips on the collar so I could be a captain in my sleep. She even bought us both communicator pins (my father would made snide remarks about how there’s no sound in space so we generally ignored him when it came to ST), which she still wears on her robe. I lost mine some time in college, much to my dismay. I own an embarassing amount of ST books, including the encyclopedia and tech manual (although, while looking for those amazon links, I found star charts! my birthday’s coming up…). It was always a sure hit for my parents when it came to gift-buying. As I got older, I got more “readable” books, including I Am Spock (autographed, how much of a geek does that make me?!) and the Physics of Star Trek, which might have been my mother’s answer to my father’s ongoing snide remarks.

Physics remains one of my favorite books, although I no longer study the subject. I know just enough to understand what the book is talking about. I heartily recommend it to anyone who is even half the geek I am (if you’ve only dressed as Captain Picard with hair for hallowe’en once, you’re still only a quarter the geek I am…at most). It goes through the actual science involved in everything from warp speed, to the transporter (one of which was in the works as of the writing of the book), the holodeck to alien life (ditto). And it gave me more hope than I should probably be allowed.

Colonization of the moon has been in the news recently (and if anyone out there is taking volunteers, I’m so there!). We have the technology (as another sci-fi series once claimed), all we need is the political will. There’s a space station! They don’t act like Maj. Kira & Cmdr. Sisco, but it’s still a space station. Space tourism is gaining popularity, though it is still not accessible to the average plebian. Recently, a friend of Martha Stewart went up with meals prepared by her, which was broadcast on her show. She is the one who brought style to KMart and expensive hobbies like scrapbooking to the mainstream. Maybe she’ll help Richard Branson with bringing space tourism to the mainstream.

And, today! (which was yesterday, because it took me so long to compose this), I heard about this. Once we successfully establish intergalactic flight, we’ll be making treaties (okay, wars) in no time!