Imagine life on a spaceship. Disposable clothes, vacuum-packed ready meals and drinking everything through a straw. Just four inches of titanium between you and certain death.

This is the subject of Orbital, by the English author Samantha Harvey, winner of this year's Booker Prize.

The novel shows how living in space can change an astronaut's perspective. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in the course of a day. Continents pass by in a quarter of an hour.

Exploring space encourages developments in engineering, robotics and communication technology. It also allows scientific experiments that help us to understand the human body, global weather patterns and the origins of life.

Visiting space can give people a sense of the vastness of the universe and how precious our own planet is.

Yet space travel is extremely wasteful, with rockets using up as much fuel as a million cars. And it makes no sense to focus on outer space when our own planet still contains mysteries.

Space travel for the masses is still many decades away. In the meantime, everybody can read Orbital. This is the magic of fiction: allowing you to travel into space from the comfort of your chair.

Should a day in orbit be part of the curriculum?

Yes! Travelling into space would teach students about the wonders of engineering and technology. It would also help them to value the planet and its limited resources.

No! The world is full of wonders; there is no need to visit space to feel inspired.