Next Tourist Attraction is Out of This World... Literally

Remember that ancient phrase, "The sky is the limit"? Well, besides the fact that Yuri Gagarin proved that saying wrong on April 12, 1961, Elon Musk is planning on making it possible for tourists to fly around the moon in 2018. 

Musk, one of the United States' most well-known and accomplished innovators, is the head of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company. SpaceX says the unnamed pair who are preparing to take the trip have "already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission [and] like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration." The passengers will travel in the Dragon 2 spacecraft, and their launch will be accomplished by a Falcon Heavy rocket.

I remember when I was younger, I turned to my friend with the wild thought, "Woahh what if everyday people could go to space for their birthday?" Although we are not quite there yet, SpaceX and NASA give me hope that one day we may make the moon and space more accessible to the public spectacle. Additionally, I recently read an article written by noted astronomer, Phil Pliat, analyzing the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2018. The budget says that they will, “support and expand public-private partnerships." This includes companies like SpaceX. In November, John Logsdon, the former director of the Space Policy Institute, told the Washington Post, "It is very plausible to speculate that the new administration will insert a mission to the lunar surface, probably international in character, as a step on the way to Mars... If we want to assert international leadership, we would take a position in leading a coalition to return to the moon." Reading this, I had almost forgotten that power is an incentive for these endlessly fascinating trips. I pondered space travel as a world effort rather than competing countries like we did against Russia during the Space Race. I do realize the tremendous difficulties of working as a planet, but nonetheless it scares me to think about how possible future issues of space colonization or domination of certain wonders of the currently unknown will be resolved by competing nations. Hopefully, another small step for man, is not a giant disaster for mankind.

- Sarah

Salt Lake City’s Innovations Early College High School

"We create a culture, curate content, and hire the right teachers,” says Ken Grover, the founder and principal of Innovations.

Out in Salt Lake City exists a rising school where there is an absence of bells, traditional classes, and unmotivated teens. Grover created Innovations to let students take charge of their own education through online and teacher instruction. All learners have a mentor who helps them establish goals and schedules suited towards their individual pace and interests. Students may come and go whenever they please, so long as they stay for six and a half hours per day between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Although the students must follow and complete the Common Core curriculum, they have room to take other classes of unique interest to them that are tailored towards their future professions. The school's location makes it convenient for students to take college classes so that they can get a head start. "Innovations occupies the corner of an airy new building on the South City campus of Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), along with the district’s Career and Technical Center (CTC). The state reported that last year about 1 in 10 Innovations juniors and seniors took community-college classes and more than half took courses through the CTC [...]  Innovations pays tuition for students who take community college classes and pays a fee for CTC enrollees.," writes Joanne Jacobs, author of the article High School of the Future.

"Last year, Innovations had its first student—a Latino male—graduate with an associate degree as well as a high school diploma. This year, five to seven 12th graders are on that track," Grover says. That is very impressive, especially considering how young the new institution is. Innovations seems like the school that I, along with many of my peers, had always wished existed, but always thought would be impossible to successfully function. It offers such an endless amount of opportunities. Rather than having a strict department limiting a pupil's potential, the pupil's passion and imagination are the limiting factors in his/her education. A crucial point of Innovations is that the student's success relies on the student being motivated to strive towards their best abilities. I am glad to see that the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is promoting personalized institutions like Innovations. These types of blended-learning schools have the potential to create an everlasting impact on many more students.

- Sarah