SpaceShipOne Reaches Space, No Money There

A private company, Scaled Composites, has spent about $20 million on putting a man in space. They succeeded by a margin of 408 feet on Monday. It is an astonishing achievement that means space is now a place for the private sector. And it will be a fine thing so long as no one expects to make much money doing it.

While scientists can debate the value of a human presence in space exploration, there isn't much debate that the economics of space travel are marginal at best. If the moon were awash in oil, bringing it to Earth would be uneconomical -- the same goes for gold, diamonds and every other natural resource. Agriculture and manufacturing are even less viable in space (the nonsense that was sold to a gullible public about crystals growing at the International Space Station remains nonsense).

The only industry that has a hope is tourism. There are enough super-rich to make space a vacation destination. But for now, there is nothing for a tourist to do in space. No museums, no golf, no sightseeing tours of ancient monuments (so far as mankind is aware). It has only a novelty appeal. There are people who like yachting, and space tourism will be much like that, presuming the yachting is done on a lake with no fish or anything interesting on shore, and no wind with which to deal.

The demand will, initially, outstrip supply by a factor of thousands. And that will be good enough for a few firms to turn in a few profitable years. Space, however, remains the preserve of scientists and philosophers. To the extend that space tourism gets the public re-engaged in science and philosophy it will all be to the good. But even if Scaled Composites wins the $10 million Ansari X prize for the first private flights (under strict rules) to 100km above the Earth, it will still have lost $10 million on the project.

That said, one wouldn't turn down a chance to slip the bonds of gravity and feel, however remotely and faintly, what it must have been like for Gagarin and Shepard.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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