NASA, who?

This week’s post deals with two aspects of the commercialization of the space industry, the first part being the privatization of space exploration for scientific purposes, and the second being the emergence of a space tourism industry (shout out to Jordan for the idea!).

1) In my mind, privatization—at least in part—of the space industry is a proper and necessary step. Government programs (i.e. all the big players you’ve probably heard of: NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, etc.) have gotten us far, but for the most part, their power is waning. [See this great Time article for more about the Space Race.]

Government agencies have serious constraints, namely limited funding, regulations, and bureaucracy and politics. Giving private companies more opportunities to get involved in the space-exploration industry—say, by allowing them access to NASA launchpads—fuels competition and thus increases advancements.

I don’t know how this is playing out on a global scale, but in America, at least, NASA has accepted privatization—whether out of choice or necessity, I’m not sure. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet a couple of years ago, with Atlantis’s last flight in July 2011 marking the end of the space shuttle era. However, as a participant in the International Space Station, NASA must meet certain requirements, one of these being a resupply requirement. NASA has contracted private companies for help:

And that’s not all. According to the Cygnus BBC article I linked above, “The carriage of freight is the first service to be bought in from external suppliers; the transport of astronauts to and from the station will be the second, later this decade.” By buying these “services,” NASA hopes to save money and then invest this money in other missions, such as the exploration of Mars and the asteroids.

If you’re interested, Wikipedia has a great set of charts detailing the different private spaceflight companies and their progress so far.

 

2) A young industry that will probably boom in the upcoming decades is space tourism. Though NASA would never agree to bring civilians on a joyride in space, private companies could, and some already are! For example, Virgin Galactic has already run two test flights and plans to start commercial spaceflights in 2014.

This company charges around $200,000 for a suborbital flight including four minutes of weightlessness—an exorbitant price for a glorified hybrid plane/rollercoaster ride. It’s not quite a trip to the moon, but we’ll probably get there eventually. And to be honest, if I had $200,000 to spare, I’d probably do it. The list of celebrities signed up for a Virgin Galactic flight so far includes Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Hawking (who was offered a free ticket), Tom Hanks, and Katy Perry.

 

*Super cool NASA news tidbit of the week: “Nasa plans first 3D printer space launch in 2014

**Super uncool NASA news tidbit of the week: because of the government shutdown, the NASA website is not running.

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3 thoughts on “NASA, who?

  1. I am in agreement with what Freddy stated, as of late Government Funding for NASA has been going out the window as the government simply cannot afford to do so. During these periods of recession the U.S. should not be losing such ground in Space Exploration and private companies provide that alternative growth for the industry and gives the U.S. government a more manageable way for funding. Further this industry needs that type of government relationship similar to the relationship of the Government and Silicon Valley in the 50s when the industry was not profitable on the consumer side but has now repaid its investment in full. Though this is not to say NASA should just outright disappear, the relationship is necessary for providing companies with contracts and giving the future industry a base to work with the government.

  2. I am so glad that you mentioned the X prize foundation. You’ve clearly done your research. Some people argue that the government should provide incentives to companies to privatize different aspects of the government that have historically been public endeavors in order to alleviate funding to particular programs. It is often cheaper to hire someone out of house in the private sector to solve a problem than deal with the construction of the entire program and the cost that is necessary to establish a new public program. The X prize foundation differentiates this common practice even further by allowing all companies, regardless of size, to compete against one another with the incentive of significant monetary gains as well as the accreditation for the project. Awesome post!

  3. I love the idea of private companies taking steps to get into the newly privatized space industry. There’s honestly so much it can do for the economy, for scientific research, and the development of human civilization. SpaceX and Elon Musk have been doing a phenomenal job at leading this new market and I really hope they continue to innovate and inspire other companies to do the same. Virgin Galatic and Sir Richard Branson have also been doing an awesome job at taking the lead in privatized space flight (for rich people with nothing else to do with their money). My hope is that as we continue to explore different planets in the Solar System, we can harvest new resources to offset the expenses of space travel and watch commercial space travel be a more common form of transportation.

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