What would you do if you had a spare $200 million? Jared Isaacman used it to blast off into space. In the Polaris Dawn SpaceX mission, Isaacman traveled farther from Earth than any human since the end of the Apollo missions over 50 years ago and took part in man’s first ever commercial spacewalk. And he funded the whole mission, estimated to be around $200 million.

Enough people are willing to pay huge sums to go into space that orbital tourism is becoming a viable industry. An $834 million annual industry today, it is expected to surpass $5 billion annually over the next decade, according to market research company Brainy Insights. For around $300,000 to $450,000, companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will rocket you to the edge of space. For a more budget-friendly experience, $50,000 to $200,000 will get you a balloon ride that peaks nearly 20 miles above the surface, still high enough to see the curvature of the planet and the thin blue line of our atmosphere.

Why do some spend the price of a house or a new sports car on such a fleeting experience? Is it just a quirk of a few super-rich space enthusiasts?

Throughout our history, men have sacrificed far more than cash to break through new frontiers. Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook and Jean-François de La Pérouse all died mapping the oceans. David Livingstone, Mungo Park and Alexandrine Tinné died trying to map out Africa—then called the Dark Continent because it was so little known. Of the 676 people who have attempted to fly into space, 19 have died. Now billionaires like Isaacman, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are willing to put their fortunes and perhaps even their lives on the line to venture farther into the unknown. Musk joked, “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”

POLARIS PROGRAM / JOHN KRAUS

Where does this kind of hunger come from?

The answer is in our origins.

Genesis 2:7 reveals that man was created out of the dust of the earth, physical matter. But man isn’t created to remain physical. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49).

Even within this physical life, human beings are incomplete, created to need God’s Holy Spirit. “The only thing that will impart to [human beings] this sense of satisfaction, completeness, abundance, is God’s Spirit—God’s nature—God’s fullness,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote. “Yet his carnal mind does not recognize that fact. Being incomplete, lacking in the spiritual waters and heavenly food—God’s Word—that would fill him to satisfaction, he has a gnawing soul-hunger that leaves him miserable, empty, discontented. He seeks to quench his thirst and satisfy his soul-hunger in the interests and pursuits and pleasures of this world” (Plain Truth, August 1962).

This “gnawing soul hunger” could have, should have, driven Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of life and receive the Holy Spirit. But Genesis 3 introduces us to the existence of evil and of an evil spirit being. Satan the devil offers a different fruit for assuaging this hunger. Appealing to Eve’s vanity, he offered her the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Since then, each of us has tried to fill this hunger on our own and found ourselves yet still starved of truth and purpose.

God has appealed to mankind through the prophets, through the Bible, through the Church. “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? …” (Isaiah 55:2). But the serpent is still active, offering abundant reasons to fill that hunger with anything but submission to God: comfort, entertainment, lust, drugs, business success, political power, exploration and great deeds. Some provide a temporary sugar rush, but all fail to satisfy.

But this is not the full story. Once man is given the Holy Spirit, does he cease to reach for the stars?

Emphatically not. God created man with a God-type mind. One that can learn to act, think and reason with God. And He created us with an almost unbelievable potential—one that actually extends beyond the confines of this planet.

God Himself has great plans to “plant the heavens” and populate the universe (Isaiah 51:16; 45:18). Romans 8:22 tells us the whole universe is groaning, waiting for those plans to be fulfilled through mankind.

Jesus Christ said that He and His Father are constantly working (John 5:17). That is inherent in God’s character and nature: He wants to expand His Family without limits. The gnawing soul hunger God created will drive us to explore the stars—but soon mankind will not be trying to undertake this project on his own. Instead, that hunger will drive us to God for His Spirit and character. And then, once we are tuned in and submitted to our Creator, then He can use us in His endless expansion project that will extend out into the limitless universe.