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For exploration purposes, the humans
versus robots debate has been going on since the
start of the space age. Most space advocates, however,
don't see space as just for science but as a place for
humans to live and settle. To initiate and support humans
in space, there need to be commercial services and products
created there. Here we look at some possible businesses
for people in space.
In the 1980s there were many who predicted that the
manufacturing in space of speciality products like protein
crystals, pharmaceuticals, and microelectronics would
grow into big businesses. Microgravity provides for
a number of interesting effects, such as allowing some
types of fragile but scientifically and industrially
important crystals to grow to much larger sizes than
on the surface of the earth.
It should be noted, however, that experiments on the
Shuttles, Mir and with sounding rockets did provide
some strong indications that microgravity leads to interesting
effects and perhaps someday might allow for the manufacture
of useful products. (See the section on microgravity
links for more information.)
Unfortunately, the lack of cheap and frequent access
to space prevented researchers from carrying out the
amount of research and development needed to discover
goods of high value and to make their manufacture in
space feasible and commercially viable. There are very
few goods that would make a profit if it costs several
thousand dollars per kg to deliver the raw materials
to the orbiting factory.
NASA has continued to support R&D (though much
of this has been cut to provide funding for the Exploration
program.) For more info, see
When Dennis Tito flew to the ISS in 2001, it produced
an enormous boost for the promoters of commercial space
tourism. Previously, the concept was considered a wild
fantasy. However, even with the subsequent flight by
Mark Shuttleworth, the high cost of such flights still
made it seem an extremely limited market.
However, in 2004 Burt Rutan's team won the the X PRIZE
and set off a new race to become the first company to
offer suborbital spaceflight rides, which while still
not cheap ($100k-$250k), will involve a much bigger
market. As of the fall of 2005, there were around 300
people who had already place deposits or paid the full
amount to companies like Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures
for rides as soon as they became available. Virgin Galactic
said they had already collect over $10M and the flights
for the first 2 years are already booked.
It is hoped that the suborbital business will incrementally
improve spaceflight transportation and eventuually offer
low cost access to orbit, as well. The RLV
& Space Transport News weblog follows developments
in the area of commercial space access.
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