Space Based Economy
Can Space Support its Own Separate Economy from Earth?
Delta-V a novel by Daniel Suarez published in 2019 is an incredible story about asteroid mining. It follows a group of volunteers gathered by a mercurial visionary billionaire and his quest to create a space based economy through asteroid mining. Not only was this a fantastic story, but the research and science behind it was all real. Daniel Suarez is one of my favorite authors and he’s know for doing voluminous research for his books. He became such an expert on the topic that he does talks for NASA.
Konstantin was the asteroid mining space ship used in the book and there’s a ton of technical information on Suarez’s website.
Support Spacecraft used in the book is also shown in technical detail on the author’s website.
I listened to this book on Audible and it was a fun experience following the hero, James Tighe, and the rest of the crew from their initial recruitment, through training, and on the space mining mission. One of the major subplots of the book was all about the billionaire players in the space business. Not so different from the real world with Elon Musk with SpaceX and Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin.
Critical Mass published in 2022 is the sequel to Delta-V. This story focused on the rescue mission back to the asteroid. The sequel also follows our explorers as they make a go of mining on the moon. Again, the science behind the book is all real. There’s a huge amount of resources that can be mined on the moon and either be used in space for exploration or in some cases brought economically back to earth.
SpaceX is the leading company in the space business. The company’s rockets are routinely used by NASA for transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX also does a huge business with the US and other governments deploying and maintaining numerous satellites.
Blue Origin is one of the prime contractors selected for the upcoming NASA Artemis moon program. There are also a large number of other contractors involved in this next moon project.
Should Industry take over the Space Business from Governments?
Is Spending Billions on Space Exploration Sustainable?
Who Should Control Space Commerce for Space Based Resources?
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These are hard questions!
Spending billions on space exploration is probably not that bad, maybe even modest, relative to other out-of-control expenses (the military comes to mind, as does the US healthcare system).