As Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk feud for control over not only the title of the richest man on Earth but also the richest man in space, the race for popularizing the space tourism is ahead. As arguably the Cold War was one of the biggest factors behind space exploration in the past with national pride on the line to see who gets to be the first superpower in space, nowadays Nasa can sigh in relief as the private sector takes over.
Nowadays, the political landscape is rather different but private companies remain to be the beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded grants in a new space race between the US and China. And since space exploration is still one of the most regulated industries, government inevitably becomes their key customer. Hence, it is important to remember that space exploration is not a philanthropic endeavor but rather a commercial operation with recent private rocket launches drastically affecting the stock price of respective companies. As a result of that, the public interest for space is reignited and now the space tourism is estimated to reach valuation of up to $5bn by 2025.
However, some people remain unpersuaded that this is the best usage of taxpayer money among the pandemic crisis, ridiculing not only the intentions of companies but even the rockets’ shape. A particular controversy was incited by Jeff Bezos saying “because you guys paid for all this” during his post-launch thanks. In light of the incredibly poor conditions of Amazon workers during the pandemic, many people took it as a personal ridicule, further heating up the debate. Another often overlooked aspect of space tourism is the very heavy environmental load. While a flight from New-York to London contributes to the emission of 0.2kg CO2 per person per mile, this number goes up to 12kg CO2 in case of rocket launches. Of course, while rocket launches remain to be rare, it is not a very significant contributor of pollution, but we have to ask now whether space travel is likely to become a new hobby for the rich contaminating out planet?
References:
https://www.ft.com/content/532c41c9-0087-4fed-8168-078c8aed3f5a
https://www.ft.com/content/2844a88a-1226-4537-9b44-09a0dfb1191a
Hi, Nice post it was a good read! I agree with the environmental concerns that you demonstrated. I have read that currently carbon emissions from space industry is increasing at 5-6% a year, and given high per passenger rates, it does make you wonder that it wont be long before these emissions are greater than typical long-haul air travel. I think commercialising space is a dangerous game, where on the one hand it can help with technological advancements; but on the other it can be argued that these resources are perhaps better spent on managing the pandemic better, helping uplift communities out of poverty and many other critical environmental issues around the planet.
I am quite curious to find out till what extent the private space tourism will kick off, given its a still incredibly expensive and still some risk associated with it, but billionaires tend to find a way to make even something absurd like space tourism into a cash cow.