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The Corporate Takeover of the Final Frontier
“Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Humara” are not just the lyrics of a famous patriotic song, but also the same words uttered by Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space. Despite that, we have made significant progress since those days. In July 2021, a rocket tore through the clouds into the sky from a launch pad in the desert of West Texas. Rocket consisted of not veteran astronauts but mere civilians. The civilians included Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, his brother Mark, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and an 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. The flight, made possible by Bezos’s company Blue Origin, was a symbolic moment. It was the beginning of something big that has the potential to change the world as we know it: the dawn of commercial space travel. This brief journey beyond Earth’s atmosphere was more than a billionaire’s thrill ride; it marked the beginning of a new era that could reshape our future in profound ways.
The Birth of Commercial Space Travel
Commercial space travel, once the domain of science fiction, is now an emerging industry in the world. The idea of non-professional astronauts travelling to space became a reality in the early 2000s when SpaceShipOne, funded by Paul Allen and designed by Burt Rutan, completed a suborbital flight in 2004, winning the Ansari X Prize. This milestone spurred interest in space tourism, leading to the development of private companies focused on making space travel accessible.
By the 2020s, the industry had grown exponentially. Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic were not just launching rockets but also developing reusable spacecraft, reducing the cost of space travel. According to a 2023 report by the Space Foundation, the global space economy reached $469 billion in 2022, a 9% increase from the previous year, with commercial spaceflight contributing significantly to this growth.
The Science of Space Exploration
While the idea of space exploration might seem useless or even resource-exhausting for some, it does have some serious scientific implications. The presence of private space companies like SpaceX means that the field of space exploration has enough investment and the right minds behind it. For instance, SpaceX’s Starship, a massive, fully reusable rocket, has the potential to change interplanetary motion forever. Moreover, their contract with NASA, which underlines their partnership to help Astronauts commute to the International Space Station, has significantly lowered the cost of space travel.
However, the most significant thing is private organisations’ ability to test their theories and conduct experiments to push the boundaries and accelerate technological advancements. Microgravity environments like the lower Earth orbit offer a unique place to conduct experiments in medical science, biology, material science, and many other fields. So, there is no doubt that private space exploration is a boon for the scientific community.
Societal Impacts
The impact of commercial space travel might be a boon for the scientific community, but it’s not that straightforward when it comes to its impact on society. The increasing competition in the commercial space travel industry has raised concerns over the rules and regulations of space travel. Introduced in 1967, the Outer Space Treaty forms the basis of international space laws. The governments of various countries created it at a time when state governments were the only players in the space race. That, however, has changed now. The involvement of the private sector necessitates an update on the treaty to address issues like liability, increased space traffic, unethical use, and space debris prevention. Commercial space travel can become a curse for the human race without a proper solution.
Commercial space travel can affect a few more things. For example, the high cost of space travel ensures that only a few wealthy people can make the trip, not your average Joe. This is evident by the ticket price of a Virgin Galactic flight, which is around $450,000. This raises concerns over the democratisation of commercial space travel, making it a playground for the ultra-rich.
Last but not least, the environmental impacts of space travel are also dire. It takes many tonnes of fuel to propel a rocket into space, which, as a rule of thumb, produces carbon dioxide and many other pollutants. According to a 2022 study published in Earth’s Future, a single rocket launch could generate between 225 and 300 metric tons of CO2, equivalent to the annual emissions of 50 to 100 cars. This fact is even more daunting considering that Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, made it clear that the proposition of an electric rocket is not plausible as to travel in space, you need something to push against you, as Newton’s third law demonstrated. This means that every time we launch something into space, we’re poisoning our environment for a slow death.
What Does The Future Hold
Even after these implications, experts are optimistic and believe that with technological advancements, they can minimise the environmental impact of space travel. Moreover, the UN has been interested in revamping the Outer Space Treaty to something which can make a difference in today’s world. Companies like SpaceX aim not only for space tourism or exploration but also for establishing human settlements on other planets. Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity a “multi-planetary species” is ambitious, with plans to send the first crewed mission to Mars by the late 2020s. Space holds a lot of opportunities for us humans, but whether we will capitalise on those opportunities or abuse them is still a mystery.
