privatizing space exploration is beneficial essay ap lang

The Pros and Cons of Private Space Exploration

Space exploration isn’t just limited to NASA and other government entities anymore. Recently, we’ve seen a switch from government-owned agencies to private space companies. As a result, many wealthy individuals are interested in exploring space for different reasons. While private space exploration has numerous benefits for the entire planet, many wonder about the downsides.

Let’s dive into private space exploration and examine the pros and cons.

What Is Private Space Exploration?

Richard branson, establishing contact with extraterrestrial life, are you over the moon about private space exploration.

Let’s start by defining space exploration as using technology and astronomy to explore outer space. Space exploration enables us to confirm or reject the scientific theories developed on Earth.

The 20th century was a turning point for space exploration due to numerous discoveries and milestones. Humans have successfully launched the first satellite, sent the first mammal to space, taken the first photograph of Earth from its orbit, landed on the moon, traveled to outer space, etc. While these discoveries are incredible, space exploration has existed for centuries, and everything humans have learned in the past has made the achievements possible.

Until the beginning of the 21st century, most space exploration was directed by government-owned agencies like NASA (the U.S.), Roscosmos (Russia, previously the Soviet Union), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), ISRO (India), etc. Then, we noticed an emergence of private space companies. While government-owned agencies continued to operate, private companies started conducting their own research to achieve different goals.

What exactly is private space exploration? It’s still the use of technology and astronomy to explore outer space. The only difference is that private space exploration is funded by an entity instead of a government agency. Most private space companies are owned by wealthy individuals investing millions of dollars into the technology and workforce.

Major Players

You may have heard of the space race, a 20th-century competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The two countries competed to prove their superiority in terms of technology and achievements. The Soviet Union was the first to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite and send a mammal — a dog named Laika — into space. The U.S. was the first to launch a weather satellite to space and obtain photos of Earth. Then, the Soviet Union hit back and sent the first man to space. Ultimately, the U.S. won the race by being the first to send men to the moon.

Today, we are in the middle of another competition: the billionaire space race. Several major players have entered the space exploration and tourism industry with different ambitions and goals they want to achieve as soon as possible. Here are some of these players:

Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur and business magnate. He’s known as the founder of the Virgin Group, a corporation that owns more than 400 companies worldwide.

In 2004, Branson founded Virgin Galactic, a spaceflight company headquartered in California. Branson established the company because he recognized the importance of space tourism and commercial spacecraft.

On July 11, 2021, Branson and three employees traveled to outer space. Branson became the first private space company owner to travel to space and the first person to travel in the space vehicle he funded.

Jeff Bezos is an American businessman known for founding Amazon. As of July 2022, Bezos is the second-wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of over $135 billion. In 2000, Bezos founded a human spaceflight startup called Blue Origin.

The company’s primary goals are reducing costs, increasing space travel safety, and developing a revolutionary launch vehicle.

In 2022, Jeff Bezos became the second human to travel to space in a vehicle he funded, only nine days after Richard Branson. New Shepard’s vehicle is among the top innovations because it uses clean-burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, making it one of the cleanest space vehicles ever.

We can’t talk about the major players in the private space industry without mentioning Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person with a net worth of more than $220 billion.

In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX, a company that designs, manufactures, and launches spacecraft and rockets. Musk’s goals are reducing space transportation costs and creating reusable innovative space vehicles. The ultimate goal is to colonize Mars.

Although Musk hasn’t traveled to space (yet), unlike Branson and Bezos, his company has made the headlines several times. In 2010, SpaceX became the first company to successfully launch a payload to orbit and return it to Earth. Moreover, the company’s Starlink satellites provide information to the NOAA and improve space weather forecasts that are vital for safe space exploration. Musk stated that Starlink satellites would offer internet access from every Earth location once fully operational.

Besides the three, many other notable names in the industry want to take the lead in the billionaire space race. Hence, many can’t help but wonder whether the privatization of space exploration is the right path.

Private space exploration has its advantages and drawbacks. Let’s check them out.

Many people claim private space exploration has numerous benefits. Here are some of them.

Traveling to space was only a dream until the second half of the 20th century. We’ve seen many innovations and technological advancements that have allowed humanity to reach numerous milestones. Yet, although we’ve learned a lot about outer space, the vast majority of the universe remains unknown.

This uncertainty and the challenges of space exploration represent the driving force for innovations. We are hungry for knowledge, excitement, and discoveries. This results in a continuous effort to develop more advanced, reliable, and efficient systems.

Private space company owners may have different ambitions, but they all contribute to the modernization and development of the technology used for space exploration.

Private space exploration supports innovation and prosperity. We’ve already seen artificial satellites, cleaner vehicles, and other ground-breaking discoveries, so who knows what’s next?

Inspiration

In 2021, millions of people watched Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos fly to space in the vehicles their companies developed. If anything, such missions show us that anything’s possible, sparking curiosity and inspiration.

Private space exploration pushes the limits and inspires people to think outside the box (or the planet). It makes us question our limits, expands our views, and plants seeds for new ideas. Learning more about the universe allows us to change our perspectives and priorities.

A great example of how space exploration can affect us is the Earthrise photo of Earth taken from lunar orbit in 1968. This photo shows the Earth and some of the moon’s surface. In the photo, our planet looks isolated and fragile, and many think it shows how small we are and how we need to take care of the Earth.

Partnership

Contrary to popular belief, private space companies can’t do whatever they want. They must follow specific laws and regulations that allow them to operate and conduct research. Although there is a division between the public and private sectors, like in any other industry, these two sectors often work together.

SpaceX and NASA are excellent examples of a partnership between a private space company and a government-owned agency. SpaceX has become NASA’s “space taxi” because the company transports NASA’s astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

This and similar partnerships can only encourage more discoveries and innovations.

New Discoveries

All private space company owners entered the industry for a reason. Whether it’s colonizing Mars or creating reusable space vehicles, one thing is sure: the ambitions and dreams of these wealthy individuals have and will lead us to new discoveries about the universe.

Investments

As you may know, space exploration is costly. Every mission costs millions of dollars, not to mention the added costs of research, preparation, and construction of the space vehicles. Hence, it’s no surprise that all private space company owners are wealthy.

These individuals know how expensive space exploration is and are willing to invest billions of dollars into the industry. But, of course, they invest this money to achieve their goals. But it’s essential to look at the big picture here. Any discovery by private space companies could be beneficial for all of humanity.

Addressing Global Challenges

We often forget how dependent we are on space technology. For example, many don’t know that NASA is responsible for discovering the technology for vacuum cleaners, invisible braces, and even baby formula. In addition, space exploration allows us to enjoy the internet, navigation, camera sensors, and cardiac pumps.

Therefore, space exploration isn’t just about space. Learning about and overcoming the challenges related to space exploration has led to many discoveries in areas like health and medicine, transportation, public safety, IT, the environment, etc.

Thanks to space exploration, we may be able to combat some challenges we’re faced with on Earth, including disease, air pollution, and climate change, to name a few.

Knowledge Generation

Space exploration enables us to learn so much about the universe. In fact, space is so big that we will probably never be able to explore it entirely. Everything we learn about outer space can be used not only for further space exploration but for other sectors and industries.

After all, we are curious creatures with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Looking at the last few centuries, we can see how far our drive to learn and improve has gotten us.

More Jobs for People From Space Industry

According to the Space Foundation , more than 140,000 people work in the private space industry in the U.S., which is impressive. Since the sector is growing rapidly, private space companies hire more people. All kinds of workers are needed, regardless of their educational background. Besides astronauts and scientists, companies are hiring administrative workers, IT experts, engineers, electricians, chemists, and essential support personnel.

One of the biggest mysteries is whether life exists outside of our planet. Although we still don’t have the answer, private space exploration could help us find extraterrestrial life, if there is any. While the universe is vast, and the chances of us stumbling upon extraterrestrial life forms are minimal, there’s always hope.

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of private space exploration, it’s time we looked at some drawbacks.

Space exploration is costly. While wealthy individuals owning private space companies have no problem investing billions of dollars into the latest technology, one can’t help but wonder whether this is a waste.

Many people argue this money could go elsewhere. For example, the money invested in private space exploration could be used to improve human lives on Earth in numerous ways. Instead of investing in space exploration, billionaires could invest in medicine, environmental protection, renewable energy sources, and fighting poverty.

Although many people criticize private space exploration, there isn’t much we can do to stop it. After all, private space company owners have money to invest and can support whatever cause they believe in.

Traveling to space is risky and, unfortunately, can result in tragedies. Unfortunately, in the last few decades, many people have lost their lives in space.

While technology has come a long way and space travel has become much safer, it doesn’t mean there’s no risk. Even after years of research and millions of dollars invested in the best equipment, tragedies can still happen.

Everyone who decides to travel to space, whether for scientific or commercial purposes, enters the rocket knowing they may not return to Earth.

Closed Circle

Private space exploration is reserved only for billionaires like Bezos, Musk, or Branson. Hence, this industry is limited to a few privileged individuals. This sparks an ongoing debate about whether the new billionaire space race benefits humanity. Many argue that private space exploration is only a way for wealthy individuals to enjoy self-indulgent adventures; others claim these individuals are vital for solving the world’s biggest challenges.

Either way, private space exploration remains a closed circle to most “ordinary” people.

Space exploration isn’t really the best way to preserve the environment. Since figuring out a way to fight pollution is one of the burning topics, it’s understandable many are against space exploration in general.

With the emergence of private space companies and their satellites and launch vehicles, we’ve seen an increase in space traffic. But unfortunately, every launch takes a toll on our environment; the carbon left behind affects the stratosphere and damages the ozone layer.

While some space vehicles like Bezos’ New Shepard are less damaging to the environment than others, the adverse effects are still present.

International Tensions

We’ve already mentioned the space race from the 20th century that involved the two Cold War participants, the Soviet Union and the U.S. The two countries raced to achieve spaceflight superiority.

As more private space companies emerge from different countries, many fear that conflicts of interest and disagreements could lead to international tensions.

Health Concerns

Although it may seem fun on TV, spending time in space isn’t exactly a walk in the park. There are numerous health concerns one needs to be aware of.

Spending a lot of time in a confined space with no family and friends can affect our mental health. While on a mission, astronauts have no privacy and no ability to stretch their legs or even breathe fresh air. Although every astronaut needs to undergo extensive screening and evaluation before they’re hired, their behavior can change once they’re in space for an extended period. Anyone who spends days or months in space can suffer from symptoms like sleep problems, anxiety, depression, and fatigue.

Another health concern is space radiation. The radiation from space increases the risk of cancer, cardiovascular problems, and cognitive impairment and slows cell regeneration.

Spending time in space causes bone and muscle loss. Astronauts can slow this down by exercising while on a mission, but some bone and muscle loss is inevitable for now.

As you can see, space exploration takes a toll on human health in many ways. Hence, one can’t help but wonder whether achieving some wealthy entrepreneur’s dream is worth jeopardizing human lives.

One of the worst aspects of space exploration is that the results are never guaranteed. One can invest billions of dollars, hire the best experts, and spend years conducting research, and there could still be no results or ground-breaking discoveries.

So, maybe this money, time, and resources could be redirected to something else where the results could be more likely to benefit humanity.

We’ve placed this in both the pros and the cons. Why? While discovering extraterrestrial life would be significant, there’s no way of knowing whether this would be good or bad. We can’t say if the potential extraterrestrial life forms are peaceful. They may have the power to destroy our entire planet, so many who believe there’s life out there say exploring space is like poking a bear.

Some support private space exploration, while others argue it wastes time and valuable resources. Either way, it seems this industry is here to stay, so it’s best to focus on the positive aspects and accept this shift towards the private sector. Although dangerous and unpredictable, private space exploration may be the path toward exciting new discoveries.

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What are the pros and cons of privatizing space exploration? originally appeared on Quora : the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world .

Answer by Robert Frost , Instructor and Flight Controller at NASA, on Quora :

What are the pros and cons of privatizing space exploration? The premise is too binary. The objective isn’t to hand over space exploration to the private sector. The objective is to expand upon the utilization of space by finding opportunities where the private sector could benefit.

The role of government in space exploration is to do the things that the market can’t support, but the people agree are beneficial. When we send a spacecraft like New Horizons to take close up pictures of Pluto, we do so because, as a people, we understand that science is important. We understand that learning about the universe is good for our society. We understand that knowledge has value for its own sake and that we often cannot predict how that knowledge may have additional practical value at some later time. This kind of exploration simply isn’t practical for the private sector because there isn’t a way to, in the near term, make a return on the investment.

Imagine how something like the Hubble Space Telescope would work if it was a product of the private sector. In order to be something worth doing, for a private company, there would need to be a way to recoup the cost and to return a profit sufficient to attract the investors that would fund that cost. So, how does one profit from something like the Hubble Space Telescope? One would have to charge researchers to use it and one would have to sell the data obtained from it. Both of those things would impede the progress of science. The American people (via their representatives) decided that we were willing to each pay $1.60 a year to put this giant telescope in space and operate it so that researchers around the world could use it at no cost and so that teachers around the world could uses its images and data, at no cost, to educate their students, and so that every person could gaze upon the wonders that telescope delivered to us and be marveled by our universe. Over 14,000 scientific papers have been published using data from Hubble. Over 1.3 million observations have been made.

There have been profitable technology spinoffs from the Hubble Space Telescope. For example, imaging technology developed for Hubble has found reuse in imaging of breast tissue to make early detections of cancer. But private companies can’t invest the kind of resources needed to build, launch, and operate a spacecraft like New Horizons or a telescope like Hubble with the hope that they’ll find ways to profit, later.

We will continue to need the will of the public to invest in scientific exploration with satisfaction achieved by the knowledge returned. But, there are many ways to utilize space that may be profitable for the private sector and may be inappropriate for government endeavors.

The aviation industry rose up almost overnight during World War I, as the government demanded an ever-growing need for aircraft for war use. But, once the war ended and those contracts started to be canceled, there was a very real risk that the aviation industry would completely implode. There just wasn’t a profitable market in sight. One place where aircraft were needed was postal delivery. The Contract Air Mail Act of 1925 (the Kelly Act) authorized the postmaster general to contract for domestic airmail service with commercial air carriers. This encouraged private companies to startup air freight businesses and compete for contracts. These mail carrying flights became regular and scheduled and bright enterprising entrepreneurs came up with the idea of selling tickets for passengers to ride on these aircraft, along with the mail. Airplanes became larger and as the industry became established and efficient the market grew. People became more trusting and tickets became cheaper, making passenger aviation a normal way to travel. Soon, the air carriers were making enough profit from the passengers that they didn’t really need to carry the mail to stay in business.

The commercial space industry is in a similar early state, today. The government has needs the private sector can fulfill and through those needs is subsidizing the research and development those private entities need to do to develop their technologies to the point where they can affordably meet the appetites of a market. By providing money to companies like SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra-Nevada to develop human rated spacecraft to ferry our crews to and from ISS, we are helping them develop human rated spacecraft that they can use to take private paying individuals into space. SpaceX recently announced that they have two interested customers willing to pay to ride that Dragon spacecraft to space, around the Moon, and back to Earth.

The more these companies do these things, the more they can amortize the costs. The more they can amortize the costs, the less they need to charge customers. The less they need to charge customers, the larger the potential market of customers. Hopefully, eventually, they will reach a state where they can profit without government business.

At each step along the way, as the public funds the risky and expensive learning process, lessons are learned so that private entities can afford to do similar things. The world’s space agencies have funded the research, development, construction and operation of the International Space Station so that important research that will benefit society can be done. Along the way we have learned a lot about building and operating space stations and private companies like Bigelow have been able to benefit from our investment by using that knowledge to make the first steps into private space stations.

This happens over and over. We learn how to land a probe on a comet or asteroid and the information learned doing that is provided to private entities who have the vision to do similar things for a profit. If we learn how to land on an asteroid, extract a sample, and return it to Earth, they can expand upon that and land on an asteroid, mine that asteroid, and return valuable materials to Earth.

There are areas of space utilization that will be best fulfilled by the private sector and there are areas that are and will continue to be best fulfilled by the public sector. The relationship between the two is symbiotic, not parasitic.

This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter , Facebook , and Google+ . More questions:

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Public or Private: How to Save NASA

The United States was the first country to put a man on the Moon, and ever since then NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has been a beacon of hope for the American people. However, there is a current debate about privatization of the United Space Agency.  Regardless whether or not it is privatized, it will continue to face significant problems.   NASA is a huge organization with an even bigger budget, but it produces no revenue to sustain itself.   Privatization of the governmental agency would mean transferring the program from the public sector, which is controlled by the government and supported by the taxpayers, into the private sector, where NASA could get all its funding from corporations.   The space agency would then have to be split up into multiple small private entities which would run on profit and NASA as we know it today would cease to exist.  NASA cannot be abolished because the American people would lose an agency that holds historical significance.  It would also set back scientific progress and be disastrous for national security.  However, even if the agency became more efficient with its spending there is not enough money to fund all its needs.  Therefore NASA should partially privatize by turning over low space orbit activities to the private sector, and focus on deep space exploration.

When I was in twelfth grade I got to experience first hand why NASA could not keep functioning the way it had been. When I started working at NASA’s JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Southern California, my mentor Gabriel decided the first thing we would do was to go on a tour of the campus and look at all the projects that JPL was working on.  We walked inside a building that looked like an airplane hanger, to see a ten foot tall machine resembling a spider. I looked at Gabriel with surprise and asked, “What in the world is that?”  He smiled and replied it is ATHLETE, which stands for All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer.  Still not fully understanding what it was, I asked him to explain further. He said that it was the newest lunar rover NASA had in production.  He went on to explain that an astronaut would sit in a circular module on top of the six legged machine, which would be lined with a circular screen to give the astronaut a 360 degree view of the outside planet from the comfort of a seat in the module.  He said this is just a prototype, and that it’s been in the production and testing phase for years. 

I saw Gabriel was saddened by this statement, so I asked him how long it usually took for an idea to be made into something that could actually be sent into space.  He said it could take ten years or more for something to get off the drawing board and go through testing until it could be completed and sent into space.  I then asked him why it took so long. He replied that usually the deal breaker was that NASA had to wait for funding to come from the government, even when the design was finalized. Gabriel noted that a lot of projects do not even get funding for prime time after years of work.  Funding could be delayed many times, or NASA would have to wait for the next time the government would allocate a new technology grant.  He said he even had a project he was working on years ago that the government promised it would fund but cut funding at the last moment.  He said there are so many great ideas at JPL, so much they could do, but there is just not enough money to do it all.  It was this experience that led me to realize that NASA needed reform.

NASA holds a great historical significance to the American people and this would be lost if NASA was privatized.   NASA’s Mission Statement is, “To improve life here, To extend life to there, To find life beyond” (Lopez).  Since its creation in 1958, NASA has been doing just this.  NASA was there to race the Soviets to the Moon and bring security to the American people since they viewed the Soviet Union as a threat during the Cold War.  Almost every American knows the famous words of astronaut Neil Armstrong as he first stepped onto the Moon in 1969: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  During the current major recession, NASA remains an indisputable positive symbol of the government that the American people can look up to and think highly of, while many other parts of the government are not held in such a positive light.  If NASA was privatized, the American people would lose a federal agency of historic significance and a positive part of their culture that the government made possible.

NASA is also essential to the American people because it has produced significant advancements in technology that private corporations could not.  In the annual journal Spinoff, NASA showcases all the technological advancements it has commercialized.  NASA has brought us scratch resistant lenses, personal alarm systems, virtual reality, solar energy, Teflon and many other now commonly used technologies that the American people do not even realize NASA invented (Spinoff).  The agency has also been conducting pure scientific research that has no commercial value, but nevertheless benefits humanity.  NASA conducts research on protein crystals in zero gravity since gravity can interfere with the crystal growth process.  These protein crystals are crucial to the treatment of diabetes, cancer and heart disease research, and this would not be possible if the crystals were grown on Earth (Boen).  NASA also funded the Hubble Space Telescope, a visible and infrared telescope, which has permitted vital advancements in our understanding of deep space astronomy. The Hubble Space Telescope has helped prove the existence of dark energy and the age of the universe.  Ed Weiler, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, "Hubble is undoubtedly one of the most recognized and successful scientific projects in history," (HubbleSite). The Hubble Space Telescope has now been in orbit for twenty years and has been producing priceless pictures making it NASA’s longest lived and best recognized project (HubbleSite).  The Hubble Space Telescope website now has the option for any American to post a facebook or twitter message to the telescope, and have their communication sent to the telescope and saved in Hubble’s archives just like the rest of the images.  The website is also filled with interactive trivia, fun facts and photos from the telescope that are available to the public. There would be no benefit for a private company to do this, because it involves giving back to the people, without any profit.  Since NASA is not in the private sector it has been able to fund research in lifesaving technologies and many knowledge advancing projects without having to focus on making a profit.  This is another reason why NASA cannot be privatized.

A very big issue with respect to NASA losing jurisdiction over space is the potential for power to fall into the wrong hands.  Bruce S. Lemkin, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs states, “Our partner air forces understand the value of air and space power and its effective [use] against the broad range of threats we will encounter in the coming years” (Lemkin 1).  Lemkin shows us how the threat of space terrorism is already a real factor in day to day life because we are already taking steps to be prepared for it.  At the moment, NASA controls all spacecraft and satellites that Americans send up into space, and it is in contact with all other nations on what they send up into space.  This governing power NASA has would be lost if it was privatized. Things like space-based strike weapons would be a real threat according to the Space Security Index, an annual assessment of space security (Jaramillo 2).   Nowadays the war on terror is in the spotlight and on every American’s mind.  Therefore, it is very important to the American people to be as prepared as possible for any instance of terrorism.  If NASA was privatized it would lose this power over outer space, and it would open up the opportunity for space terrorism to occur.

Although continued survival of NASA is essential for the reasons stated above, it cannot stay afloat the way it is currently operating. Even if NASA eliminated waste, fraud and abuse, and ran a more efficient space program by prioritizing programs and getting rid of the ones that eat up the budget, it would not be enough.  In the end, Congress, which authorizes and appropriates a certain amount of money to NASA yearly to fund all its projects, has the ability to cut NASA’s funding at any time, and they do so because of the country‘s massive debt.  The United States has fallen into a recession and the government has to fund hundreds of agencies who all need more money yearly; there is just not enough money to go around.  Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama stated in a press conference, “If this budget is enacted, NASA will no longer be an agency of innovation and hard science. It will be the agency of pipe dreams and fairy tales" (Shelby). Senator Shelby warns that if NASA’s budget keeps getting cut, the agency will not be able to perform all of its scientific advancement, and there would be no point having NASA around at all.  NASA needs to find a way to continue functioning by cutting back more of its programs.

NASA should delegate low space orbit to the private sector, and therefore be partially privatized. William Watson, the Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation makes this same point when he states, “Our government space program has become over-burdened with too many objectives, and not enough cash. Allowing private companies to handle routine orbital duties could free up NASA to focus on returning to the moon and going to Mars” (Dinerman). William Watson makes it clear that NASA should turn over some of its power to the private sector but still retain the things it could really do research in and are the best at, namely deep space exploration.  The private sector would not want to be involved in deep space exploration because there is no commercial value, and the private sector does not have the luxury of doing this.  NASA can because it is funded by the government and is a not for profit organization, and therefore it has to do it.   NASA has been making tremendous advancements that reach to the edges of our galaxy.  These include the highly publicized Hubble Space Telescope and many other deep space and interstellar satellites.  If NASA allows the private sector to take over low earth orbit activities, it would free resources and save the United States taxpayers’ money (Stadd and Bingham 243).

Precedence has been set for this exact idea by President Obama’s new plan for NASA.  President Obama recently stated in the NASA 2011 Budget report, “NASA’s attempts to pursue its moon goals, while inadequate to that task, had drawn funding away from other NASA programs, including robotic space exploration, science, and Earth observations” (Obama).  President Obama cancelled Project Constellation, which was supposed to build new rockets and spacecraft to return American astronauts back to the Moon.  NASA had already spent $9.1 billion on this program, and President Obama shut it down because he concluded it was wasting too much money without achieving significant scientific advancements, and siphoning funds away from other vital NASA programs (Harwood).   This leaves a huge void that the private sector can fill by sending astronauts into space and creating more fuel efficient shuttles and spacecraft to transport civilians into space (Chang). 

The private sector is ready to take on the needs that NASA can no longer fulfill because of budget cuts.  An example of a private company is Virgin Galactic, who recently announced that its SpaceShipTwo will be ready shortly to take civilians, whom they call astronauts, into low earth orbit for the “small” price of $200,000.  SpaceShipTwo will be ready to go into space commercially within the next few years (space.xprize.org).  SpaceShipOne, which fueled the SpaceShipTwo project, actually won the Ansari X Prize in 2004.  This ten million dollar prize was awarded to the first non-governmental organization that launched a reusable manned spacecraft into space two times within two weeks.  The whole point of this competition was to encourage the building of reusable cheap spacecraft by the private sector (space.xprize.org).  There are many other private companies making advancements in space technology, and if NASA would partially privatize and give up low space orbit activities, many more companies like Virgin Galactic would immediately pop up to fill the void.

Given the overwhelming evidence that suggests that privatization of NASA is illogical, NASA should not be privatized at this time.  However, NASA cannot keep functioning the way it has been, because of yearly budget cuts from Congress.  Instead, NASA should relinquish low space orbit activities to the private sector, and focus on deep space exploration.  We need to raise awareness about the issues facing NASA and be open to the idea of partial privatization and the greater involvement of the private sector in the United States space program.  Congress needs to be more open to partial privatization and not just write it off.  This needs to happen so people like Gabriel who have worked at NASA for many years, will be able see their projects finalized and put to use.  An appropriate workable combination of the private and public sector activities is the future of the United States space program.

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Boen, Brooke. "NASA Research Helps Map Protein Structures - Key in the Development of New Disease-Fighting Drugs."  NASA . NASA, 12 Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. <http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/pcg.html>.

Cain, Anthony C. "Regional Security and Air and Space Power."  Air & Space Power Journal  17.3 (2003): 12-15. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=15&hid=108&sid=1db07308-5bb4-4183-813c 2b757e6b6347@sessionmgr114&bdata=JmxvZ2lucGFnZT1Mb 2dpbi5hc3Amc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=aph&AN=11164414>.

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Articles copyright © 2024 the original authors. No part of the contents of this Web journal may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author or the Academic Writing Program of the University of Maryland. The views expressed in these essays do not represent the views of the Academic Writing Program or the University of Maryland.

The Pros and Cons of Privatized Space Exploration

Not everybody is over the moon about it

Last week, Avatar director James Cameron  painted a rosy picture of privatized space exploration, suggesting that the president's anemic NASA budget will clear the way for competitive market forces to jump-start the industry. In the days since, others have come forward to praise Obama's plan to divert national funding to private aeronautics companies. But not everyone is thrilled to see NASA become such a low priority for the government (and almost no one has echoed Cameron's sentiment that "rockets really run on dreams").

• While America Rests, Others Won't   Charles Krauthammer is dismayed at the thought of the U.S. falling behind other nations. "Sure, decades from now there will be a robust private space-travel industry. But that is a long time. In the interim, space will be owned by Russia and then China."
• NASA Is Irreplaceable in the Public Imagination   In a New York Times roundtable, John Logsdon argues that "the principal benefits from human spaceflight are intangible, but nevertheless substantial." The moon missions of the '60s instilled in Americans a sense of "international prestige and national pride," something Logsdon thinks is best produced by initiatives at the federal level.
• A Sensible Division of Labor   Foreign Policy's Esther Dyson thinks Obama's proposed marriage of public funds with private development resources is for the best. Dyson reaches back into the past for a telling analogy:

The U.S. Defense Department may have created the Internet, but had it kept control of the technology, it's unlikely the Web would have become the vibrant public resource it is today. That credit goes to the investment and activity of private citizens and private companies, starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

• What Would Marx Do? Probably Not This   At The Huffington Post, James Bacchus dryly points out that the president's vision for a private space industry doesn't square with one of the most common criticisms leveled at him. "If the President is a socialist, as so many of his adversaries claim, his space proposals certainly don't show it. He wants to stake the future of much of the U.S. manned space program on the success of free private enterprise."

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The Privatization of Space Exploration

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Space was at the center of America's imagination in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy's visionary statement captured the mood of the day: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The Apollo mission's success in July 1969 made almost anything seem possible, but the Cold War made space flight the province of governmental agencies in the United States. When the Apollo program ended in 1972, space lost its hold on the public interest, as the great achievements wound down. Entrepreneurs are beginning to pick up the slack-looking for safer, more reliable, and more cost effective ways of exploring space. Entrepreneurial activity may make create a renaissance in human spaceflight. The private sector can energize the quest for space exploration and shape the race for the final frontier. Space entrepreneurs and private sector firms are making significant innovations in space travel. They have plans for future tourism in space and safer shuttles. Solomon details current US and international laws dealing with space use, settlement, and exploration, and offers policy recommendations to facilitate privatization. As private enterprise takes hold, it threatens to change the space landscape forever. Individuals are designing spacecraft, start-up companies are testing prototypes, and reservations are being taken for suborbital space flights. With for-profit enterprises carving out a new realm, it is entirely possible that space will one day be a sea of hotels and/or a repository of resources for big business. It is important that regulations are in place for this eventuality. These new developments have great importance, huge implications, and urgency for everyone.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 12  pages, introduction, chapter 2 | 22  pages, the rise, stagnation, and possible revitalization of nasa, chapter 3 | 20  pages, building on winning the ansari x prize: mojave aerospace ventures, llc; scaled composites, llc; virgin galactic airways; and the spaceship company, chapter 4 | 10  pages, from space travel broker to joint venturer: space adventures, ltd., chapter 5 | 14  pages, the quest to reduce launch costs: space exploration technologies corp., chapter 6 | 12  pages, developing space habitats: bigelow aerospace inc., chapter 7 | 24  pages, the legal environment for private sector space enterprises, chapter 8 | 5  pages.

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