The Privatization of Space Exploration: Business, Technology, Law and Policy

by Lewis D. Solomon

Space was at the center of America's imagination in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy's visionary statement captured the mood of the day: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The Apollo mission's success in July 1969 made almost anything seem possible, but the Cold War made space flight the province of governmental agencies in the United States. When the Apollo program ended in 1972, space lost its hold on the public interest, as the great achievements wound down. Entrepreneurs are beginning to pick up the slack-looking for safer, more reliable, and more cost effective ways of exploring space. Entrepreneurial activity may make create a renaissance in human spaceflight. The private sector can energize the quest for space exploration and shape the race for the final frontier. Space entrepreneurs and private sector firms are making significant innovations in space travel. They have plans for future tourism in space and safer shuttles. Solomon details current US and international laws dealing with space use, settlement, and exploration, and offers policy recommendations to facilitate privatization. As private enterprise takes hold, it threatens to change the space landscape forever. Individuals are designing spacecraft, start-up companies are testing prototypes, and reservations are being taken for suborbital space flights. With for-profit enterprises carving out a new realm, it is entirely possible that space will one day be a sea of hotels and/or a repository of resources for big business. It is important that regulations are in place for this eventuality. These new developments have great importance, huge implications, and urgency for everyone.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2008

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Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book brings together the latest developments in space exploration and puts them in context. It first discusses the history of NASA; its inception, rise, stagnation after the Apollo program, and current bureaucratic inertia which prevents innovation and thriftiness and caters to the large aerospace firms. He then discusses the rise of private firms pioneering space, notably the following: Mojave Aerospace LLC, Scaled Composites LLC, Virgin Galactic Airways, Space Adventures Ltd., Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. "SpaceX", and Bigelow Aerospace Inc., all of which are pioneering private enterprise in space and will be the drivers for a new century of faster space exploration fueled by the competition for faster, cheaper, bigger and bolder which the free market creates. For my purposes, his summary of the legal environment in space exploration for governmental agencies and private enterprises was the key chapter. A good introduction to a burgeoning set of companies which will drive space exploration, and the legal environment in which they work. Solomon, a professor at Georgetown, makes a persuasive case for revising the '67 Outer Space treaty and completely abrogating the Moon Treaty, which does not protect private property rights on the moon. The final chapter also discusses the space elevator, which will significantly bring down the cost of moving goods and people into space and can be built for approximately $10-12 Billion.

[Nate Huston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick and easy survey of various prominent commercial & private space ventures. Short on policy analysis, but a nice introduction to the major players and significant impediments & challenges to further commercialization.