Legitimate Science Mission or Billionaire Space Race?

Summary

Until recently it has only been government funded agencies or international collaborations of these which have ventured into space. However, in the last few years there has been a sudden launch of private individuals funding space missions. At present this new space race is between three billionaires and their space companies. Are these billionaires in it to try to help answer the fundamental sciences questions of today? Or are they just racing against each other to prove who’s better?

Private space exploration

July 2021 saw the beginning of private space travel. Sir Richard Branson, with his space tourism company Virgin Galactic, just won the race on 11 July 2021, being the first to launch a fully crewed space flight. This first flight was flown by two pilots accompanied by four passengers, which included a Virgin Galactic trainer, to oversee the mission from inside the cabin, and the first three paying customers. The flight also carried 13 research payloads. The flight went past the edge of space, roughly 86 km up. (Though some argue that 100km is the edge of space!)

Nine days later Jeff Bezos, with his space company blue origin, flew his spacecraft with crew for a 10 minute trip to space. The crew included Wally Funk, 82, who became the oldest person ever to fly in space.

blueorigin ns15 crewcapsulewindow v2 dark — **On July 20, Blue Origin will fly its first astronaut crew on board New Shepard to space and back.**
**https://www.blueorigin.com/first-human-flight**

SpaceX Crew Dragon joined the successful private missions on 16 September 2021. The flight, know as “Inspiration4,” was chartered by Billionaire Jared Isaacman. This was the first crewed orbital mission which has no professional astronauts! Isaacman, who has more the 6000 hours of piloting experience was the commander. The other 3 crew members were physician assistant, a data engineer and a geoscientist and science communication specialist.

Space X, Elon Musk’s space company, have also launched private astronaut missions to the International space station; a legendary astronaut, two Saudis and a wealthy adventurer. Private companies transporting astronauts to the ISS or other destinations is hoped to be opening the door to commercial development.

inspiratio crew — **The Inspiration4 crew poses for a selfie in the cupola of their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. (Image credit: Inspiration4)**
**https://www.space.com/inspiration4-spacex.html**

These billionaires claim they want to make space more accessible to all. However, at present they are only making it accessible to other extremely wealthy individuals or those who are extremely lucky to be chosen.

Privilege or progress?

There is a debate about whether the billionaires space race benefits the planet and the people or merely adventures for the wealthy. Similar questions were raised in the original space race was the amount of focus, effort and resources really worth it or should it be invested elsewhere.

Great public interest

Like the original space race the private space race is also capturing the public’s interest. For examples US morning TV spent as much time on Bezos space launch in one day as they did in the whole of 2020 for the climate crisis!

Worries of the increase in space tourism

One of the major worries with increased space travel is the vast cost it will have on the environment. Rockets need huge amounts of propellants to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. Either kerosene or liquid hydrogen or methane are used as fuel, which when burnt, emit large quantities of chemicals into the Earth’s atmosphere all the way up to the top layers, including carbon dioxide, water and chlorine. While spacecraft emissions are small compared to aircraft at present, they are increasing at a rate of nearly 5.6% a year. Additionally, nitrogen oxides, hydroxyl radicals and water are also released in rocket launches which can deplete the Earth’s ozone layer.

Others argue that rather than exploring the final frontier we should be focusing on real issues facing the Earth today such as affordable healthcare, decadent homes for the poorest in society, education of children and regenerating the devastating loss of the natural world.

Public benefits

There are expected to be lots of spin off benefits to society from the billionaire space race, as there was from the original space race. It sparked many technological breakthroughs that improved our lives beyond. Just a few examples include; advances in computer science (e.g., the integrated circuit), aerodynamics (resulting in more fuel-efficient vehicles), and materials science (e.g., polymers used in modern hip replacements).

Thus, this new space race is likely to have lots of benefits which we can’t predict before, but we think one thing which is likely to occur is dramatically reducing the cost of space launches. Which could potentially lead to developments with satellite internet, space-based solar power or even near-earth asteroid mining!

Conclusion

The billionaire space race currently going on, is exciting and inspiring to many who dream of space travel. While it may still only be possible for a few rich or lucky individual’s the excitement and spin off benefits can be shared by millions. Although there are many worries which go along with increased space flight such as adding to global warming and taking attention and focus away from key areas. I believe the benefits will show through to have been worth it.

This post was written by Dr Heather Campbell for Mission Astro.

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