Posted on 05/26/2018 6:10:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The future for American commercial space activity is bright. Space entrepreneurs are already planning travel to Mars, and they are looking to the moon as the perfect location for a way station to refuel and restock Mars-bound rockets. As much as this sounds like the plot of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” it is coming closer to reality sooner than you may have ever thought possible.
A privately funded American space industry is the reason. This industry is making progress in leaps and bounds. The global space economy is approaching $350 billion and is expected to become a multitrillion-dollar industry. There are more than 800 operational American satellites in orbit, and by 2024 that number could exceed 15,000. Thanks to public-private partnerships, for the first time in seven years American rockets will soon carry NASA astronauts into space. Long dormant, Cape Canaveral is now bustling with activity. America is leading in space once again.
Space tourism may only be a year away. Tickets for human flights into lower earth orbit have already sold for $250,000 each. Earth-based mining companies may soon face stiff competition from the mining of gold, silver, platinum and rare earths on asteroids and even other planets. A race is already developing to create the technology that will bring those crucial resources back to earth.
Competition is already fierce, with Russia and China challenging the United States for leadership, and about 70 other countries working their way into space. But today’s space race is different. It is driven by innovative companies that are finding new solutions to get to space faster, cheaper and more effectively.
As these companies advance new ideas for space commerce and nontraditional approaches to space travel, they seek the legitimacy and stability that comes with government support and approval. They yearn for a government that acts as a facilitator, not just a regulator. Government must create frameworks that enable, rather than stifle, industry.
Unfortunately, our system for regulating private space exploration and commerce has not kept up with this rapidly changing industry. For example, when it comes to licensing cameras in space, we review small, high school science-project satellites the same as billion-dollar national defense assets, leaving too little time and too few resources for crucial national security needs.
On Thursday, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 2, which will make important strides toward modernizing our outdated space policies. These changes include creating a new office, the Space Policy Advancing Commercial Enterprise Administration, within my office to oversee coordination of the department’s commercial space activities, establishing a “one-stop shop” to work on behalf of the budding private space sector.
This will be a major change. At my department alone, there are six bureaus involved in the space industry. A unified departmental office for business needs will enable better coordination of space-related activities. To this end, I have directed all Commerce Department bureaus with space responsibilities to assign a liaison to the new Space Administration team, including the International Trade Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, National Telecommunications and Information Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
When companies seek guidance on launching satellites, the Space Administration will be able to address an array of space activities, including remote sensing, economic development, data-purchase policies, GPS, spectrum policy, trade promotion, standards and technology and space-traffic management. The new office will also enable the department to manage its growing responsibilities in space.
The department will take on a greater role when it comes to regulation and promotion of space activity. But as the agency charged with promoting job creation and economic growth, we will not engage only in oversight, but will support American companies so they can compete and lead on a level playing field.
Collectively, these efforts will unshackle American industry and ensure American leadership in space. This is essential to technological innovation, economic growth, jobs and national security. But, perhaps more important, it is rejuvenating the American passion for space exploration.
I can still remember when President John F. Kennedy declared that America would put a man on the moon and when Neil Armstrong took that first step on the lunar landscape. Glued to televisions, Americans were filled with excitement and national pride during the Apollo missions.
Last month I felt that same passion as I visited the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs with Vice President Mike Pence. “As we push human exploration deeper into space, we will unleash the boundless potential of America’s pioneering commercial space companies,” the vice president told the crowd.
This is a very special time in space history — there is a convergence of technology, capital, and political will. The United States must seize this moment.
And where would these commodities come from, and for what purpose?
There has to be supply and demand that exceeds the cost of the enterprise.
And we don't?
But usually within the lifetime of the investor....
China might try something silly in the next 20 years, but it would be quickly abandoned, as any sort of sustainable colony.
It’s the moon so - glory holes.
This is like the beginnings. Earthers vs. Mars vs Belters.
I do and like it. So glad Amazon picked it up after the Sci-Fi channel canceled it.
It's actually quite realist in how the ships move through space as compared to Star Trek where they fly like they are in an air atmosphere. I wish they had 20 something episodes a year like some other shows. I guess the CGI and complex sets sometimes makes that unlikely though. Maybe one day when Holo decks become real. Holo-sets?
? It’s on scyfy now. Do you mean for a future season?
Space entrepreneurs are already planning travel to Mars, and they are looking to the moon as the perfect location for a way station to refuel and restock Mars-bound rockets.
...
That’s not true. Using the Moon for refueling is a government idea. The leading private company, SpaceX, plans to refuel in Earth orbit.
You can guess which idea is more economical.
The department will take on a greater role when it comes to regulation and promotion of space activity. But as the agency charged with promoting job creation and economic growth, we will not engage only in oversight, but will support American companies so they can compete and lead on a level playing field.
Collectively, these efforts will unshackle American industry and ensure American leadership in space. This is essential to technological innovation, economic growth, jobs and national security. But, perhaps more important, it is rejuvenating the American passion for space exploration.
...
This part is great and very Trumpian.
Anyone see Ancient Aliens where they speculate the Moon might be an Alien space station sent there to spy on Earth?
...
Sounds like an episode starring Obama as the bad guy.
You must have been to some wild parties, man.
The point is that these animal behaviors are not the human norm. I’m not ashamed to be human. That’s a liberal attitude and a source of their manipulative power.
“wrong”
Clown.
And?
You appear to misunderstand me. I’m not ashamed to be human, a white male, or not on welfare; something the left all find repulsive somehow.
The facts are the facts though. Our species has doubled in just 70 years or so. Soon we will need to migrate off this planet because our species consumes far more than any other. We are .01% of all the mammals yet we have constructed and built 99% of the structures.
Compared to any other known species we are indeed a virus overtaking our host; earth. We have a ways to go but take the Southwest for example. It’s basically a desert but we have terraformed much of it into something else. We have too many people for the ecosystem to handle. One day nature will let us all know this in a merciless way. We should be smarter than we are about how we use the resources we have. I’m not a greenie or against hunting and farming. I just see what we are doing. We should be more careful. The sheer number of people in SoCal who get the lion’s share of the Colorado River water is draining that resource people in AZ and NV also need. Phoenix and Las Vegas are sprawling cities in the middle of a desert never meant to handle this many people as well.
Our side wants the fewest possible regulations and the other side wants too many. I’m saying there’s a middle ground in there that’s good for us, the animal kingdom, and the planet without going overboard either way.
Exploiting those asteroids will take propellent.
LOX and ethanol make an excellent propellent and can be produced by a simple farm.
(And you can’t have too much ethanol!)
Assuming $10k a pound, it won’t take much demand to justify producing it on the Moon.
I wonder if the usual average of three felonies a day would be enough to get one transported.
Thieves in England in the eighteenth century were transported to Australia and High School students in my day, caught with drugs, were forced into military service by Judges, so being transported to the Moon for three strikes isn't that much of a leap for mankind.
Should have been a reality 15 years ago. So no it will not be sooner than I expect.
No U.S. manned moon colony.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.