After the successful completion of Inspiration 4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, there’s no shortage of excitement surrounding the space sector. Tech gurus have been promising Mars settlements and moon bases, and now people seem to buy it.
The first crewed mission to space happened in 1961 when Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union was sent to circle Earth. The plan involved his ejecting [1] and parachuting [2] to the ground before the capsule violently crash-landed. The scientific community has seen steady progress ever since, but the activities were carefully led by governments, and thus, for the lack of a better word, not fun.
Now, the hype of what the future holds is a mix of science and science fiction. People like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have their sights set on setting up space colonies. But what exactly is it that Musk and Bezos are trying to achieve? And how can we explain the renewed interest in space?
In the past decades, governments monopolized space explorations due to the costs and risks involved. These activities remained limited in their scope to justify high investment. To pour tax money into space, the results had to be a sure thing that would benefit citizens. The space industry generated $366 billion in revenue in 2019. But 95% of it came from the space-for-earth market, which concerns satellite activities for telecommunications and national security.
Thus, commercial space travel is ushering in a new era where the private and public sectors will share the stage. The implication of this is quite significant. Private companies have the power to innovate by undertaking high-risk-high-return investments, and if further deregulation happens, astronauts hired by these companies might be able to exercise more freedom in space.
Ultimately, private firms are not tethered to the state’s pride and security. They are eager to send ordinary people to outer space and pursue their own interests. Thus, a new chapter led by private businesses may lead to a flourishing space-for-space economy, where goods and services are produced and used in space. Mining asteroids or building equipment in space that would be expensive to deliver from Earth are some examples. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have the intention and capabilities to make this possible.
Today, the space-for-space sector is limited to supplying NASA astronauts on the International Space Station. But Space X has “grand visions of supporting large numbers of private space travelers” while United Launch Alliance’s mission is to lead a CisLunar economy, a sum of commercial activities in the vicinity [3] of the moon and Earth.
In the past two years, commercial space tourism has received much media attention. A seat is pretty pricey though-- a trip with Axiom Space has a price tag of $55 million while a more economic option by Virgin Galactic will cost you $250,000. But the truly exciting potential seen from the budding space tourism industry is the future of space-for-space led by private space companies.