Note: The following excerpt has been used with the permission of a former client and/or the publisher. Please note that I can adjust my prose style for a particular genre, and the following is not intended to represent my full range of styles or the number of genres I consider. For nonfiction, the level of complexity can be adjusted depending on client preference. .

It's an exciting time for those who are drawn to the idea of space travel given that companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, owned by Elon Musk and Richard Branson respectively, are allowing civilians to go into earth orbit or experience suborbital flight and brief moments of weightlessness. The latest celebrity to enjoy this luxury was William Shatner, who played the legendary Captain Kirk on Star Trek. But beyond these bold new initiatives on the part of the private sector, what are the next steps that humanity will take as it seeks to go where no one has gone before?

Apparently, the next stop is the moon, both for the wealthy entrepreneurs named above and NASA. It is estimated that, within five years, a permanent colony will be established at the moon's south pole, where satellite imaging has detected the presence of ice beneath the lunar crust. This location has the advantage of allowing a moon base to mine for water that can be used for human consumption as well as a necessary ingredient for various rocket fuels and propellants.

The moon, however, is regarded merely as a staging area for the next phase in the exploration of the solar system. The real target is Mars, which mankind has dreamed of visiting since the earliest days of astronomy and science fiction. Even though a new round of lunar landings have not yet taken place, planning has been underway for decades to reach the red planet and establish a permanent colony there as well. What is so exciting is that such an ambitious mission is no longer just an idea on the drawing board. The hardware – rockets, space capsules, and support cargo vehicles to bring equipment to Mars – is already being constructed and tested. Additionally, astronaut training for missions to both the moon and Mars is currently underway. It appears that mankind will now pick up the mantle of Neil Armstrong and voyage far into space >in order to usher in a new era in the history of the human species. From the moon and Mars, mankind will be able to establish outposts that can be usedto explore the asteroids and the outer solar system, which includes the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their hundreds of moons.

But humans are an inquisitive and stubborn species, and their thirst for knowledge and exploration is unquenchable. The farther out in space they >are able to reach, the more they will wish to expand their grasp and journey into the unknown in order to travel to other stars and planets hundreds of light years away. The technology to travel close to the speed of light >in order to achieve this objective is, at present, speculative at best, and superluminal velocities – that is, travel faster than the speed of light – is currently thought to be impossible according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. And yet there are private think tanks and scientific consortiums already theorizing about missions to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to Earth. Many say that interstellar travel is a pipe dream. Tell that to the men and women who will walk across the surfaces of the moon and Mars in the next twenty years. They already know that barriers and limitations are meant to be shattered.