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The author is Wilbur Ross, current secretary of commerce, and it feels like he was compelled to write this piece after this interaction: >I can still remember

The author is Wilbur Ross, current secretary of commerce, and it feels like he was compelled to write this piece after this interaction: >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. It sounds like the space industry is growing and that's a good thing for space technology. As much as we laud American accomplishes in space exploration, it can be argued that the only investor and customer was the US, and the short term value extracted out of space was negligible. Today, there's much more market opportunities in space than previously. 15000 satellites by 2024 is an explosive growth of 20x in 5 years. Tickets selling for low orbit tourism - that didn't exist in the past. Asteroid mining - that still seems like a pipe dream, but I'm no expert, it may be more plausible than I realize. Regardless, it's a huge indicator of a healthier space industry if a substantial part of the investment into space is coming from private companies (SpaceX notably) rather than government grants.

DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago
It’s not really a space industry, it’s a Low Earth Orbit Industry. It’s technically space, but only on the loosest sense. It’s good that we’re finally driving down the price of lifting cargo to LEO, but sad that we’ve almost given up on anything beyond that. The total world R&D budget for everything beyond LEO would impoverish a single pharmaceutical company’s marketimg budget, so we’re probably far from deserving backslapping and high fives. Most of all, we’re far from colonies anywhere other than Earth, and barring a massive change of priorities as reflected in funding, that’s the future. Nothing about our ability to launch satellites a few hundred miles up translates to living on the Moon, or Mars.
- spyckie2 8y ago
  I'd argue that space research is a large enough expenditure that it can only be supported (as in systematically support, not a billionaire gifting their life savings) by the market. There's nothing sad about it, money has to come from somewhere. If you're talking between NGOs, government, or the market, which one has the most well funded and successful ventures , the market wins every time. It scales better than top down funding and provides longevity and sustained results. LEO is a great stepping stone and maturity there is a prerequisite IMO for further space exploration. The goal is not just landing on Mars - the goal is building up a space ecosystem, and this seems to be the right start.
  - DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago
    You can argue that, but of course the only non-LEO missions have all been government projects. It’s not as though Apollo missions were private endeavors after all. All of the US and European missions beyond LEO aren’t the function of the market. It’s also hard to see how the market would support long range probes and so much else that doesn’t offer a short term monetary reward. Still, maybe you’re right, and reality is just waiting to catch up to your bold capitalist vision of market forces solving everything.
forapurpose 8y ago
> he was compelled to write this piece after this interaction ... I'm surprised to see this here; I hope we are well beyond taking politicians' rhetoric at face value. It's political ad copy. He was compelled to write it as part of the staged PR for the administration's policy launch, and the message was carefully written to advance the administration's broader platform (nationalism, the ultimate priority of business), to try to associate himself and the administration with people the public admires (JFK, Neil Armstrong), to promote administration members (Pence), and to manipulate readers into supporting the administration. It's advertising.
forapurpose 8y ago
> a substantial part of the investment into space is coming from private companies (SpaceX notably) rather than government grants Those private companies receive substantial government benefits and support. Under this policy, the administration now has changed rules to suit what the big businesses want (as opposed to what benefits the public, the taxpayers, science, smaller businesses, other space users, etc.) and has setup a special office to help them. It remains to be seen if this benefits the public or is another giveaway of public interest and resources to big business.

DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago

It’s not really a space industry, it’s a Low Earth Orbit Industry. It’s technically space, but only on the loosest sense. It’s good that we’re finally driving down the price of lifting cargo to LEO, but sad that we’ve almost given up on anything beyond that. The total world R&D budget for everything beyond LEO would impoverish a single pharmaceutical company’s marketimg budget, so we’re probably far from deserving backslapping and high fives. Most of all, we’re far from colonies anywhere other than Earth, and barring a massive change of priorities as reflected in funding, that’s the future. Nothing about our ability to launch satellites a few hundred miles up translates to living on the Moon, or Mars.

spyckie2 8y ago
I'd argue that space research is a large enough expenditure that it can only be supported (as in systematically support, not a billionaire gifting their life savings) by the market. There's nothing sad about it, money has to come from somewhere. If you're talking between NGOs, government, or the market, which one has the most well funded and successful ventures , the market wins every time. It scales better than top down funding and provides longevity and sustained results. LEO is a great stepping stone and maturity there is a prerequisite IMO for further space exploration. The goal is not just landing on Mars - the goal is building up a space ecosystem, and this seems to be the right start.
- DmenshunlAnlsis 8y ago
  You can argue that, but of course the only non-LEO missions have all been government projects. It’s not as though Apollo missions were private endeavors after all. All of the US and European missions beyond LEO aren’t the function of the market. It’s also hard to see how the market would support long range probes and so much else that doesn’t offer a short term monetary reward. Still, maybe you’re right, and reality is just waiting to catch up to your bold capitalist vision of market forces solving everything.

forapurpose 8y ago

> he was compelled to write this piece after this interaction ... I'm surprised to see this here; I hope we are well beyond taking politicians' rhetoric at face value. It's political ad copy. He was compelled to write it as part of the staged PR for the administration's policy launch, and the message was carefully written to advance the administration's broader platform (nationalism, the ultimate priority of business), to try to associate himself and the administration with people the public admires (JFK, Neil Armstrong), to promote administration members (Pence), and to manipulate readers into supporting the administration. It's advertising.

forapurpose 8y ago

> a substantial part of the investment into space is coming from private companies (SpaceX notably) rather than government grants Those private companies receive substantial government benefits and support. Under this policy, the administration now has changed rules to suit what the big businesses want (as opposed to what benefits the public, the taxpayers, science, smaller businesses, other space users, etc.) and has setup a special office to help them. It remains to be seen if this benefits the public or is another giveaway of public interest and resources to big business.