Space Policy in the 21st Century

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Megawatts
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Re: Space Policy in the 21st Century

Post by Megawatts »

It is not easy to predict the future. Will corporations turn space into a ’Wall Street?’ Will the moon be mined? Most likely. And the planets? Well only a fool would say no!

What I didn’t see in the article is one of the most important possibilities of space exploration and colonization. Self government! When colonies on the moon and other planets become self-sufficient, will a growing unrest develop within those colonies? I think it will, whether the colony was formed by a corporation, a government or a joint venture.

Just imagine living and working for years or even generations on a distance mining installation or research center and you have been self sufficient for many of those years. Earth will become unimportant, but its long arm dictating rules, regulation and demands will continue until you had enough. At this point in the far future, your colony gives everything to earth, yet you receive nothing in return!!

Just another thought.
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kailhofer
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Re: Space Policy in the 21st Century

Post by kailhofer »

Well, this essay certainly covers a lot of ground.

I do have to say that the conquest of space by corporations is not necessarily evil.

Some corporations do indeed act rather immorally. However, if one looks around one's neighborhood, one will see that there are millions of corporations all around us. Chances are that corner gas station or Mom & Pop shop is going to be at least an LLC. Partnerships or wholly-owned is awfully rare, and for good reasons considering tax structures and liabilities. So, those people down at the café are hardworking, honest folk, but tend to be corporations by definition.

This is a technicality, I realize. "Big Business" and Mom & Pops are worlds apart.

However, I think it is important to look at history. If no one thought there was money to be made across the sea, explorers would never have left their homeland. Europe wanted a cheaper route to or source of goods from the orient, so Columbus got that nod. Northwest Passage to "discovering" ways to the Indian Ocean, people were in it for the money or resources. At first, it was governments who sponsored the expeditions, but later it was private groups funding settlers in return for their guaranteed commerce, the "Big Business" of their day.

The United States went to the moon to beat the Soviet Union to the punch, but in so doing, also funded a lot of private enterprise, bolstering the economy with the direct income and subsidiary products from technologies that were discovered.

Money is the power behind exploration. It's not glamorous or noble, but there it is. Find a way to make space profitable, and we'll go tomorrow (or at least start).

I hope they do, too. I'd like to go.

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Re: Space Policy in the 21st Century

Post by doc »

This is a technicality, I realize. "Big Business" and Mom & Pops are worlds apart.
On the other hand, "Mom and Pop's Space Travel, LLC" is an interesting story-kernel.
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kailhofer
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Re: Space Policy in the 21st Century

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On the other hand, "Mom and Pop's Space Travel, LLC" is an interesting story-kernel.
Too true. Maybe that can be February's challenge...

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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Space Policy in the 21st Century

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

Lest we forget, private enterprise is working on space flight capability independent of NASA, ESA, the military, and other government agencies. Scaled Composites / Virgin Galactic is the best known case (although their proposed service just barely qualifies as suborbital flight); this story is about a more ambitious project (although how they'd get the resulting vehicle TO the moon is another question):

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology ... ander.html

For an interesting fictional take on a private-enterprise conquest of the inner solar system, viz. Michael Flynn's quadrilogy(?) (Firestar, Rogue Star, Lodestar, Falling Stars)... or Ben Bova's various interconnected books (mostly named after planets, e.g., Mars, Venus, Jupiter, ... also Powersat and The Rock Rats.
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