Astrum Space - Should Billionaires Be Allowed to Dominate Space Exploration?

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

The billionaire space race is on. This Astrum episode explores the new age of private space exploration and how it's changing the future of space science. What does it mean for our destiny among the stars?▀▀▀▀▀▀Astrum's newsletter has launched! Want to know what's happening in space? Sign up here: ⁠https://astrumspace.kit.com⁠A huge thanks to our Patreons who help make these videos possible. Sign-up here: ⁠https://bit.ly/4aiJZNF

USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks, or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. You may have heard in the news last year that Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have become the first billionaires to get into space themselves. Whatever your thoughts on this, it marks a fascinating point in human history. In the past, the space race was exclusively a contest or collaboration of nations, but now private companies are beginning to enter the fray. Why this sudden change? And what does this mean for the future

of space travel and exploration now that businesses are starting to look to the stars? What might it mean for humanity's future? I'm Alex McColligan and you're watching Astrum. And while it might be a little too early to say for sure what the future brings, we can perhaps gain greater insights into these questions by looking at why some of these companies and individuals are reaching for the stars. The commercialization of space is not a new thing. In 1962, just five years after the first artificial satellite was launched by the USSR, the first commercial satellite, Telstar 1, was launched by the AT&T Corporation as a means of broadcasting American television programs to Europe. It was launched using a NASA rocket.

In 1975, Ortrug, or the first company to attempt to develop an alternative propulsion system for rockets, was founded in Stuttgart, Germany. And in 1984, the US President Ronald Reagan signed the Commercial Space Launch Act, intending to encourage companies to explore space. Satellites have been a staple of modern life. for many years now, enabling internet connections, and helping us to navigate through tools like SATNAVs, among other things. In other words, companies have already been commercializing space for some time. So what's different about these recent space flights?

Well, these flights are the first time that private companies have built their own rockets and flown their own founders into space. They represent a turning point in space exploration, and they represent a turning point in space exploration, and the beginning of a fledgling space tourism industry, where wealthy individuals can pay to spend time in space. This could have larger future impacts than you might think, as we'll explore later in the video. But let's first take a look at some of the companies that have been developing their own rockets to travel into space.

In particular, we'll be looking at Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. As the differing approaches of all of these companies offer us the best glimpses of the many possible outcomes of commercial space flights. To begin with, let's examine Virgin Galactic, as it was Richard Branson who won the race to be the first billionaire to fly into space on their own rocket. He did this on the 11th of July in 2021, but had actually created Virgin Galactic much earlier back in 2004. Branson's company, the Virgin Group, had taken an interest in the idea of space tourism

and had noted that another smaller company, Scaled Composites, was developing their own rocket, called Spaceship One. Scaled Composites hoped to win the Ansari X Prize for the first private crude spacecraft. Branson reached out to scaled composites and convinced them to make the Virgin Group their sole customer of future spacecrafts if they succeeded. They did so on October 4, 2004, with spaceship 1 flying to 112 kilometers in altitude and returning to the Earth safely and with a crew. It's worth noting that space is officially recognized as starting at 100 kilometers by many agencies, at a point known as the Carman Line, named after Theodor von Carman, the first

person who tried to define such a boundary. Ship 1 did successfully fly over the Carmen Line boundary. However, NASA sees space as beginning at around 80 kilometers. With that success under their belt, scaled composites and Virgin Galactic began working together to create a whole fleet of new spaceships, model name Spaceship 2, with scaled composites providing the technical know-how and Virgin Galactic providing much of the initial capital. Together they founded the spaceship company, with Virgin owning 70% of the shares, but eventually this rose to 100% when Virgin bought out the company completely. The rocket they designed had one aim in mind, space tourism,

to get six passengers and two pilots up into space, to allow them to see incredible views of the earth, and to experience a feeling of weightlessness. To do this, they used an interesting method. Instead of just creating a rocket, they actually attach their spaceship two to a specialized aircraft called White Knight 2, which carried the spaceship 2 up to an altitude of 15,000 meters. Then the spacecraft is released and activates its rocket booster, which takes it to supersonic speeds in just eight seconds. The spaceship 2 then begins climbing, arcing higher and higher until it was pointed straight up. It reaches over 80 kilometers. It reaches over 80 kilometers. The NASA definition of the boundary of space.

All in all, this trip up takes roughly an hour. At the height of Spaceship 2's climb, it cuts its thrusters and lets gravity begin to slow its acceleration. This drop in acceleration results in the passengers on board feeling weightless. Sort of like when you throw a ball straight up in the air, there is a brief moment when the ball is neither rising nor falling. This moment of perfect balance between upward moments, between upward motion and gravitational pull last for roughly five minutes, after which the spaceship too begins to fall to the Earth. It glides its way back down much slower than a capsule

re-entering the atmosphere by using a feathered re-entry system before gliding its way back to its launch pad. This part of the trip would also take about an hour, making for a two-hour round trip total. With the success of Richard Branson getting into space, Virgin Galactic will be looking to start flying passengers into space within this year. But why does this matter? Ticket prices for a flight on spaceship two, or possibly spaceship three, by then, will cost $250,000 far outside the price range of most people.

Shouldn't that money instead be invested in issues closer to home, rather than providing the rich with a fun day out? Well, as our next Billionaire has pointed out, space tourism might just be the way that space travel becomes accessible to everyone. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, created his own space company, Blue Origin, with this aim in mind. Bezos has always had an interest in space, mentioning in an interview at the age of 18, his desire to build space hotels, amusement parks, and colonies for 2 to 3 million people who would be in orbit. However, this was not simply as a way to make money. Bezos explained at the time that this was a way of preserving Earth. By moving certain amounts of the population

of the planet, it might reduce the strain on the environment. In 2000, when Bezos was wealthy enough from the success of Amazon to start making his dreams become a reality, he began Blue Origin, funding it privately with his own money. However, to begin with, Bezos kept the project fairly secret. He did not reveal publicly that he had founded the company, and even in 2003, when he started buying land for a possible launch site, the public was left wondering what he wanted the land for. Unlike Virgin Galactic, which leaned on investors to fund its research, and so was very open with its aims, Blue Origin did not make much public noise for about a decade. It accepted a contract from NASA in 2009 and did publish a rough report on the progress

of the rocket it was developing, but it was not until 2015 that it began to speak more openly about its goals. And those goals had not changed much from when Bezos was young. Blue Origin's first commercial rocket, the New Shepherd, named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space, was also a tourism rocket. But Bezos made it clear in speeches that he did not intend to stop there. In his mind, this was just a beginning. In 2016, he made a speech where he compared the space industry now with aviation back in its infant days. In the early days of airplane flight, a big portion of people flying were the same.

those seeking the simple thrill of flying in a plane, this tourism and entertainment factor expanded interest in the industry, which made it so many companies developed the technology further. Nowadays, almost anyone can buy a plane ticket. Although spacecraft tickets are extremely expensive for now, in the long run, Bezos said that the space industry could go the same way. Bezos's rocket, the new shepherd, is a little different in design from Branson's. It has a more standard thruster that carries an observation pod up into the sky, which then detaches. It also goes higher than spaceship too, crossing the Kaman line to a height of around 107 kilometers.

It also travels much faster. The whole trip, from takeoff to landing, will only last about 11 minutes, unlike Virgin Galactic's two hours, although it will no doubt carry a similar price tag for tickets. And Bezos is already looking ahead. Although 107 kilometres is over the Kaman line, it is still far from true orbit. Blue Origin's future goal is to get their next rocket, named New Glen, after another astronaut, into orbit. And as for the project after that, well, the name is New Armstrong.

It is clear that Blue Origin intends to make its way to the moon. is in line with Bezos's stated objectives to pave the way for industry to more accessibly get into space. Although he doesn't expect to see it in his lifetime, Bezos has said that he expects much of the Earth's heavy industry to one day be done in space.

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has his eyes on an even further goal. Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, is a little different from the other two. While Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin focus on space tourism, SpaceX has been more focused on commercial ventures. Since its founding in 2002, SpaceX has grown to dominate the market, taking half of the contracts to launch satellites into space. Part of its success in this area is due to the fact that its rocket, the Falcon 9, is reusable.

This reusability drastically reduces the cost of launches, making launching satellites and other cargo much cheaper. The Falcon 9 is much larger than New Shepherd or spaceship too. While the latter two are roughly comparable, at 18 meters in length each, Falcon 9 is 70 meters. Its thrusters are powerful enough to get it into orbit. It carries a reusable cargo capsule named the Dragon, the first of which carried supplies up to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 is able to carry 5,500 kilograms of weight into orbit, or more than more. if they're willing to sacrifice the reusability of the rocket.

This ability to transport cargo reflects a possible future purpose of SpaceX, to carry freight to Mars. Elon Musk has always made it clear that he intends to one day see a colony on Mars, and in 2001, his company conceptualized greenhouses that might grow plants there. Any such colony will no doubt need supplies from Earth, particularly in its early days, as vital equipment and personnel would need to be transported over. Any company with the large-scale capability to transport heavyweights between Earth and Mars would stand to make a lot of money. In 2001, Musk attempted to buy rockets that might start the process of getting supplies

to Mars, but realized that it would be cheaper to create his own. Thanks to the success of SpaceX, which is now currently valued at well over $75 billion, Musk has gained the funds necessary to further his dream. SpaceX is developing a new line of rocket known as starship, which they hope will be able to go to the moon and later be able to transport 100 tons to Mars before refueling there and flying back. It will be an incredible achievement, and although it takes roughly six months to travel to Mars, it will make the red planet far more accessible to humankind. Space tourism, lunar landings, orbiting facilities and refueling stations, shipping to Mars.

These are all the stated objectives of the commercial interest looking at space. And although they're still a long way from achieving some of those goals, the fact that they are making the progress they are makes those future goals seem all the more plausible. This is why Billionaires traveling into the edges of space in their own rockets is exciting. It not only marks the beginning of an age where trips for the average person traveling to another planet could one day be real, but it could lead the way for humanity truly being an interplanetary species.

Now, I know these companies have their controversies, which I avoided in this video. However, what company seems the most promising to you? Maybe there's a company I didn't mention that has real potential too. Do you think it's good for there to be healthy competition in this industry? Let me know what you think in the comments below. It would be pretty impressive if you somehow missed the news over this last weekend about the successful SpaceX NASA launch to the International Space Station. Some of you may be wondering, though, what is so significant about this?

We've been sending humans to space for a long time, and this trip isn't even to anywhere far away. The ISS is only a few hundred kilometers above the surface of Earth, after all. Well, there's a couple of things that make this exciting for space exploration, and space travel in general. The obvious one, the one everyone has been talking about with every given opportunity, is that this marks the first time astronauts have lifted off from American soil since 2011, since the discontinuation of the Space Shuttle Program. This is significant because it means the US is really back in the game now. During this gap between the end of

the Space Shuttle program and today, only the Russians had capabilities to send astronauts to space. Every launch went via them and their Soyuz rocket, costing the US an estimated $86 million per seat. Russia have put their price up over this last decade, perhaps cashing in on the fact that they had a monopoly on the market. The lowest NASA paid Russia was $21.8 million per seat back in 2007, and the design of the Soyuz hasn't really changed since then. This brings us on to the second most significant part of this mission.

NASA has commissioned private contractors to build the next generation of manned launch vehicles and capsules. The idea is that having some competition in this market will be a good thing for bringing prices down. So while the Russians have been charging $86 million per seat, Space X, on the other hand, will be charging about $55 million per seat initially. As more orders come in, they expect to be able to reduce this price tag down further to the $10 to $20 million mark.

SpaceX can go so low because they utilize reusable boosters, which should reduce their overall cost considerably. Another of the contractors, Boeing, are also testing their own capsule, although their price per seat will be considerably higher initially at $90 million. SpaceX has had a big head start. They have been flying robotic cargo missions to the ISS since 2012, which has meant Boeing has been playing catch-up to match a similar launch schedule to SpaceX. With time though, those costs should also be reduced.

This competition in the industry is good, because cheaper manned missions to space should mean a greater capacity for more missions in the future, which is great news for space enthusiasts. To give you some comparison about the costs involved with space-transismos, travel, NASA is still working on their own launch vehicle called the SLS. This will be more than just a taxi service for astronauts. It's designed to shift a serious amount of cargo far out into our solar system too. However, if you include all the R&D costs into each of its expected flights, we are looking at over $2 billion per launch.

Compared to Space X's Falcon Heavy, which Elon Musk claims, would only cost NASA $1,500,000 $150 million per launch. Now, the SLS would get a little less than twice the amount of cargo to low Earth orbit, 130 tons compared to Falcon heavy 70 tons. However, we are seeing signs already that maybe the private sector can do it better. We are still in early days yet. In the coming years, seeing the reliability of all the craft will be one of the most important factors to decide whether one way or another is the most successful path or not.

But the fact that there are now options will be crucially important for the future of spaceflight. So well done SpaceX and NASA, and good luck Boeing and the teams behind the SLS and all other space agencies around the world. Let's make this upcoming decade one to remember for space travel. The sky above us is becoming a crowded place. On the very fringes of our atmosphere, satellites are helping us to communicate. Find our way around, making our modern, busy lives possible. They are also watching us, allowing nations to spy on nations and providing the communications that are necessary for modern warfare.

At the time of making this video, there are about 12,000 satellites in Earth's orbit around our planet. More than 7,000 of these are part of the Starlink mega constellation, a mission by Elon Musk's SpaceX program to surround Earth with an interconnected web of satellites. And this is merely the beginning. The Starlink fleet is set to grow, with thousands more satellites to be launched, perhaps as many as 42,000. These units aim to bring internet connection to the furthest regions of the globe, from the

most barren Arctic tundra to towering mountain peaks, persisting in all the world. assisting in all the weather's, and when all other communication systems fail. But Starlink is not the only satellite venture from SpaceX. Less known is their military project, codenamed Star Shield, which aims to build a satellite constellation with the support of a $1.8 billion contract with the US Department of Defense. Despite the glossy and marketable name, Starshield is shrouded in secrecy. It's designed for government use to support national security, but how and at what cost? I'm Alex McColgan and you're watching Astrum.

Join me in our skies today as we attempt to decode the corporate speak of the Space X Star Shield operation and what it means for our security, privacy and everyday lives. We'll explore what Star Shield actually is and how it links to SpaceX's more commercial. satellite project, the Starlink mega constellation. As satellite populations continue to boom, we'll explore the background. That is our new age space race, how the players have changed and who is really in charge of this final frontier. Before we march into the atmospheric battlefield, let's take a closer look at a more family-friendly SpaceX satellite project, Starlink. First announced in

In 2015, Starlink was designed for the purpose of rebuilding the internet in space and aimed to place 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. Low Earth orbit is standard for most satellites, even the International Space Station, and can be anywhere between 160 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth's surface. The goal of this system is connectivity where you least expect it. You need only plug the system in and pointed at the sky with their antenna to get online. Besides digital gameplay in the mountains, or taking a work call on the beach, the idea of worldwide internet connection actually has the potential for some really positive social change.

Schools in remote areas of Fiji and the Solomon Islands have employed the use of Starlink to access digital teaching resources, which is making education more accessible for all. The Starlink fleet can be used to aid communication. in the event of natural disasters, as it's less vulnerable than standard undersea cables. This came to light in 2024, when a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Vanuatu took out the country's only undersea cable. Starlink was quickly able to deploy 300 satellites, which restored connection for emergency services and aided the national recovery operation. These success stories have contributed to Starlink's popularity surge, and the service now has

over 5.4 million subscribers across the globe, with an estimated revenue exceeding 3.2 billion US dollars. These are all great selling points. But what about the satellites themselves? How do they actually work? Well, the latest Starlink satellites are not small. They are 30 meters long, and weigh as much as a small car, orbiting merely 550 kilometers above the Earth's surface. They are launched in a stack, as many as 60 at a time on Space X's own Falcon 9 vehicles, reusable two-stage rockets that have already completed nearly 500 missions. When deployed, the satellites use navigation sensors to survey the stars and position themselves incredibly accurately.

Each unit contains three space lasers, which help it communicate with other units to form a global internet mesh. They each also have eight antennas to connect with receivers on the Earth's surface, and they can adjust their position with ion propulsion systems that use argon for precise maneuverability. As I mentioned before, there are now over 7,000 Starlink satellites currently in orbit, and this number is expected to grow. As you can see from this availability map, the fleet already covers much of the Western hemisphere, encompassing around 2.7 billion people. But SpaceX wants more, and several other countries

in Africa, Southeast Asia, and even Antarctica are likely to be connected in the near future. It's quite the satellite empire. There may not be loads of information about Starlink, but there's far less about Star Shield, SpaceX's other venture into the world of satellites. It can be said that Star Shield is like Starlink's darker military cousin, and there are plenty of reasons why. Like Starlink, it's composed of low-earth-orbiting satellites, but this time they serve the sole purpose of defense and are wholly owned and controlled by the US government, following the $1.8 billion contribution to the project by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2021. They have enhanced encryption and other than, other security features for secure data processing and employ a modular design.

This means that the satellites can integrate a wide variety of payloads, be it for communication, earth observation, target tracking, early missile warning and so on. Governments can mix and match, designing a Starshield satellite that best fits their specific requirements and defense objectives. The exact details of how Star Shield has been used are pretty vague, but there's no doubt that it is in use. The US Marines have pounced on the new tech, implementing units across its second Marine Division for both basic communications and more specialized tasks like targeting and fires. On their website, Major Tim Ren from the second division praised the satellites for their ability to maintain services during a service-level

training event, despite poor weather conditions and power outages, which knocked out. other satellite transmissions. Likewise, in 2023, SpaceX won a one-year contract with the United States Space Force worth $70 million, and there has been recent speculation that Space Force may continue to use SpaceX satellites rather than front the cost of building their own. The project is rapidly gaining attention from clients of the highest office and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. But how similar is Star Shield to Starlink? An important point to mention is that both Starlink and Star Shield can use the same

inter-satellite laser communication terminals, which use laser beams to form high-speed data links between satellites instead of traditional radio signals. SpaceX boasts the only communications laser operating at scale in orbit today, which basically means there is much less chance of other satellites privately owned or otherwise interfering with Star Shields data. This would obviously be appealing from a defense perspective, and clients can be fairly confident that it works, since SpaceX has been using this technology at scale for as long as Starlink has been running.

In many ways, Starlink is like the portfolio SpaceX has brought along to its interviews for Star Shield, and this is proven to be a pretty effective sales technique. It's clear from the marketing of both products that Starlink is meant to be a public consumer service while Star Shield is used for National Defense. But with such similar technology, is there ever any crossover? Indeed, the line between Starlink and Star Shield is blurred when you consider recent and ongoing conflicts across the globe. This year, Musk has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to state that his Starlink system is the

backbone of the Ukrainian army and that their entire front line would collapse if he turned the system off. And he has even done so, momentarily, on occasions. Starlink is used by the Ukrainian military for internet connection in remote war zones, and the Polish digitization ministry pays an estimated $50 million a year for the privilege. So Starlink is being used for defense purposes, and could easily be on power with Starshield as a military asset. It may only be providing internet connection, but it's what can be done with the internet

that turns it into a weapon. and to simply turn it off would change the tide on this conflict within a matter of hours. That's an awful lot of responsibility for whoever's running these satellites, perhaps more than anyone could have envisioned when Starlink was first proposed. In a different conflict, nearly 2,000 kilometers away, Starlink was allowed to start operating in a single hospital in Gaza last year, as an exception to the internet blackout Israel had imposed across the region following months of negotiations. This has enabled vital communications between humanitarian aid workers in this region,

though Israel is still reluctant to allow more coverage for fear that it could be used against them in the war. These are all sensitive and politically charged issues, and some fear that SpaceX's involvement will make them all the more difficult to resolve. Essentially, this technology has given private companies like SpaceX a seat at the table for military debates that they would never have been privy to without it. For those involved in conflict, having to depend on a private company rather than a humanitarian NGO or an elected government official for services that could determine their fate in that conflict is risky.

And yet it's often an inevitable choice in the landscape of modern warfare. Without this technology, they face the likelihood that it will be used against them with disastrous consequences. Perhaps Star Shield is SpaceX's way of disentangling Starlink from military uses, but this separation won't happen overnight, especially whilst these conflicts continue. And even if pieces won, there are logistical issues to sort out with both projects. As I mentioned, Starlink and Starlink and Starlinked use the same communication terminals and laser beam data links, which could make it harder for them to function independently of one another. But as long as they remain linked, We can expect things to get messy, especially if the same satellites can be seen as both

a valid military target and a vital service for citizens. But putting conflict aside, are there other consequences of our increasing use of satellites? How could they impact our skies and our dreams of exploring them in the future? In addition to questions about how these satellites will play into current and future conflicts, there are concerns about how much this hardware is not. now filling up the sky. Astronomers already complain about the amount of light pollution that is reflected by so many satellites, and the emissions that leak from Starlink satellites can blind radio telescopes on Earth. A study published two years ago in astronomy and astrophysics

investigated these emissions and found that the radiation leaks exceed regulations set by the International Telecommunications Union, and that the interference from the second generation of Starlink satellites was 32 times stronger than the first generation. Since this study was published, many more such satellites have been deployed, and SpaceX has not yet finished building its mega constellations. China is also entering this space race with their Go-O-Wang low-Earth orbit communication satellites in a project that looks remarkably similar to Starlink. They plan to send up a further 13,000 units, which will add to this growing congestion.

It's not just a problem for astronomers, it is already a problem for the operators of the satellites themselves. Earlier, I mentioned that Staling satellites are able to adjust their positions using their iron propulsion systems. Well, there is a very good reason for them being able to do that. In the year ending November 2024, the Staling constellation made 100,050 adjustments to avoid collisions with debris and other objects. That is one movement every five minutes. Estimates vary, but there are plans for perhaps four or five times as many satellites in low Earth orbit than are up there at present.

In addition to SpaceX and the Chinese government, companies such as Amazon and OneWeb have plans for their own mega constellations. Not only will all these units have to avoid each other, but getting them up into orbit will add to the amount of unwanted and unplanned objects that they will have to avoid. namely what you call space junk. Every launch generates debris, a type of space pollution, from parts of launch vehicles to entire rocket bodies. As far back as 1978, NASA scientist Don Kessler predicted that within 30 or 40 years there

would be so much debris in low Earth orbit that collisions would become inevitable. His predictions have so far come true. We know of more than 25,000 objects. larger than 10 centimeters up there, such as from fragments of destroyed equipment or even entire derelict spacecraft and launch vehicles. These are the easier objects to detect and avoid. There are also estimated to be over 1 million smaller fragments, from 1 cm to 10 centimeters littering the outer reaches of our atmosphere. This doesn't sound like much of a problem until you consider that these miniature missiles move at speeds of more than 25,000 kilometers per hour.

If you remember the principles of physics from school, you'll know that the energy given off in any collision is a function of mass and velocity. A bullet dropped into your hand, for instance, feels like nothing at all. Fire the same bullet from a rifle, and it can punch a hole through a steel sheet. These pieces of debris are traveling at more than five times the speed of a bullet fired from a rifle. As more objects crowd into low Earth orbit, some people believe it inevitable that one of these collisions will result in damage that sends even more debris traveling at incredibly high speeds into the path of other satellites, resulting in more and more collisions and more debris. This chain reaction is what we call Kessler syndrome, and you can learn

more about it on Astrum in our video dedicated to this topic. If Kessler syndrome does become a reality, it could wipe out every communication satellite and piece of hardware currently in low Earth orbit above us, including, for example, the International Space Station and the Hubble Telescope. It would leave such a vast amount of shrapnel forming a layer around our planet that it would be almost impossible to launch anything into space anymore. We would face the danger of becoming prisoners on our planet, trapped by the world. by a dangerous layer of our own rubbish that could take years, decades, or even centuries

to clear away. Now that is quite the doomsday scenario, and definitely not one for the claustrophobic, but is the situation really that serious? As the combined Starlink and Star-Shield network continues to grow, will it inevitably bring about its own destruction? Well, as long as the satellite population continues to expand the probability of collision will increase. This probability is how Starling satellites decide whether or not to adjust their positions in the sky, as they are programmed with a specific limit for the odds of collision and move

as soon as that limit is passed. So it's not that they know that a collision is imminent, they just move as a precaution to be on the safe side. The odds of collision that is widely accepted by NASA and others is one in 10,000. But in 2024, SpaceX quiet. changed Starlink's limit to 1 in 1 million. That seems extra cautious, 100 times more cautious to be exact, so SpaceX must have a reason to be playing it so safe. With a change like this, Starlink satellites have to undertake movements to adjust not every 5 minutes, but every 30 seconds or so. With so much extra movement from so many different company satellites, it becomes incredibly difficult for anybody to keep track of where all these satellites are supposed to be,

and a serious collision does actually become much more likely. Satellites won't just be adjusting as a precaution, they'll have to do so, or face destruction. A collision between satellites themselves could potentially kickstart Kessler syndrome, but that's not the only way it could happen. Instead, the collision could come, not from another satellite, but from a weapon designed to target it. Welcome to the world of counter space. We haven't mentioned Russia yet, which may seem surprising because they sent the very first functioning satellite into space called Sputnik 1 in 1957. But despite this early advantage, Russia does not really have much stake in the satellite space race. Back in 2023, they had a total of 220 satellites in orbit,

which was only about 2.5% of the global satellite population at the time. This is due to a lack of manufacturing power in Russia for satellites. In fact, they are only capable of building about 40 per year, which is dwarfed by the output from companies like SpaceX. So perhaps it was this struggle to make a satellite mega constellation that prompted Russia to look into other ways of exerting power on the world stage. In February 24, the White House confirmed it had evidence to suggest that Russia was developing an anti-satellite nuclear weapon. It's important to note that no nuclear weapons like this have actually been deployed yet,

and the public details of Russia's progress have been vague. But Russia did veto a suggestion to reaffirm the now 58-year-old prohibition on putting nuclear weapons in space, originally made by the Outer Space Treaty. And even if nuclear anti-sat weapons are still a way off, Russia is also developing non-nuclear weapons, such as lasers, ground-launched missiles and electronic warfare systems to target satellites. On the 15th of November 2021, Russia tested a direct ascent anti-satellite missile called A-235 Noodle, which successfully destroyed Cosmos 1408,

one of their own obsolete satellites. This littered low-earth orbit with the resulting debris and set off alarm bells at the Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, USA. Resulting from the test, more than 1,500 trackable pieces of debris were identified, with the potential to generate hundreds of thousands more smaller pieces as they continue their orbital path around the planet. This has been condemned by the US Army as a deliberate disregard for the security, safety, stability, and long-term sustainability of the space domain for all nations.

The fallout from this single test will pose a threat to activities in outer space for years to come and will make collision avoidance even trickier for satellites trying to maintain mega-constellations like Starlink and Star Shield. So Kessler was not shooting for the moon with his theory, and as we've seen, there are plenty of ways for it to come true. Whether it's a collision between satellites that got their calculations wrong, or an intentional attack from a hostile nation, the resulting debris could be enough to kickstart a chain reaction of destruction, and things won't be looking good for our future missions to explore space. There is another aspect of this story that we haven't considered yet. This proliferation of orbiting electronics does manage to continue without triggering its own destruction,

either accidental or deliberate, what happens to all this equipment when it reaches the end of its life? Right now, for the military Star Shield hardware to function, it needs the Starlink network across the globe. These satellites have a life of four to five years. And as we've seen, they cannot simply be left to add to the congestion and become more space junk when they are no longer. longer of use. As the old saying goes, what comes up must come down. SpaceX states on its website that its satellites are demisable, meaning that they fully break up and burn up during atmospheric re-entry. And if any fragments were to escape this fate, SpaceX assures that they would have negligible impact energy. This is somewhat reassuring, but SpaceX can't possibly promise 100% demiscibility

for all of its satellites across every situation for as long as Starlink and Star Shield continue, nor can any satellite operator for that matter. And sadly, after conducting some research into this, some scientists have noted that this impact energy may not be as negligible as we thought. This year, an article was published in Nature revealing that many companies do not have clear plans for removing old satellites from orbit, and that it can be very difficult to predict where they will land. The article detailed two events in the past couple of years,

where large pieces of space junk had landed in Kenya and Uganda at the speed of a small missile, which scattered wreckage up to 40 kilometres without warning. With more uncontrolled satellite re-entries like this, any location on Earth could be in a firing line, and even commercial airplanes are put at risk. What's more, many operators leave their space junk to decay naturally wherever it does land, which is a near impossible task for materials built to withstand the extremes of spaceflight.

This proves that there is at least some risk from satellite reentry, both for people and the environment, and that affected areas are often given little to no warning when things do. do go wrong. And even if the satellites do burn up during re-entry as they're supposed to, this can cause damage of its own. The part of our planet's atmosphere where this burning takes place is home to the notoriously fragile ozone layer. When the satellites, which are largely made of aluminium, burn up in the atmosphere, they produce nanoparticles of aluminium oxides, which are known to accelerate ozone depletion. A study published in 2020,

sought to investigate this impact and found that the demise of a typical 250 kilogram satellite can generate around 30 kilograms of aluminium oxide nanoparticles, and bear in mind, the V2 Starling satellites weigh around 800 kilograms. Once produced, these nanoparticles can remain in the atmosphere for decades, leading to a significant risk of ozone depletion. So even the safe demise of these satellites can have some major environmental impacts. We've made some huge efforts towards protecting our ozone layer, following the ban on chloroflorocarbons or CFCs back in 1979.

It would be a shame to see that effort go to waste because of some improper satellite disposal. All in all, it's clear that there are some major concerns arising from our modern-day satellite use. These issues go beyond just Starlink and Star Shield. But as a key player in this new space race, SpaceX will have a big role to play in deciding how to tackle them. Given the risks, we need decisive action so that space can remain a viable domain for us to explore, whilst hopefully maintaining the benefits that satellites can provide. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goal.

Because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for citizens back. When we began research for this video, we merely thought it would be interesting to find out more about the Star Shield project. Military innovation in science and technology has helped to create many of the things we take for granted in our daily lives, from microwave ovens to duct tape. And we are interested in all things space. Details on the inner workings of StarShield and Starlink.

have been hard to come by, which is understandable since these satellites are currently playing an active role in several major conflicts around the globe, but it's no less important for us to know how this technology is being used and how it can play into our futures. Satellite production has become its own space race for the 21st century, and for a whole host of players are trying to get a piece of the pie. The benefits can be huge, for the economy, education, innovation, disaster recovery, social equality, and more. But given the growing influence of those wielding the control, it's worth carefully considering how their role will change as the line between corporate leadership and political influence

continues to blur. Politics aside, satellites are shaping our planet's orbital zone, which itself is a finite resource. In our planet's low orbital zone, space is indeed. Indeed limited, and without careful planning, we may reach a point where satellites are the only thing we ever launch into orbit again. My goal with Astrum has always been to make space accessible to everyone with these videos, sharing the wonders of our universe and beyond.

I'm just hoping that, with these warnings in mind, SpaceX and other satellite operators will be able to achieve their goals, whilst ensuring that the skies remain accessible for the generations to come. After all, what is space without room for our ambition to explore and understand it? So thank you for watching and see you next time. There was a time when visiting Mars was a thing purely of science fiction, relegated to the likes of John Carter or Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Douglas Quaid from Total Recall. However, thanks to recent advances in technology, the first humans might be walking on Mars within

this decade. They'll be brought there by Starship, a rocket in development by Space X, which hopes to get humans to Mars by as soon as 2030. Once a colony is established, many others will start making the six-month trip to the Red Planet. Perhaps this is a thing that you might do in your lifetime. Even if made as a commercial vacation, the journey to Mars is no trivial cruise or long-distance flight. If you go, you will not come to back the same again. You quite literally could be changed forever. I'm Alex McColgan and you're watching Astrum.

Today we will be taking a look at Starship and imagining for ourselves what a voyage to the red planet might be like. Space ex-company founder Elon Musk has long aspired to take humans to Mars. In 2005, Musk first declared to the world his plans to create a long-term, high-capacity rocket, one capable of carrying massive weights into a large-capacity rocket. orbit. However, it took over a decade of development and tinkering with the idea for Starship to be first officially announced.

Starship is a super heavy lift launch vehicle, made to deliver 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit and beyond. It is fully reusable, able to launch and then land itself thanks to high levels of control from its multiple engines as well as its flaps, which extend to slow its fall in atmosphere. is a spacecraft of two parts. The first part, the super heavy booster, is a 69-meter-tall beer muth, filled primarily with two massive tanks of liquid oxygen and liquid methane fuel. It sports up to 33 Raptor engines, capable of producing between them around 76 million newtons of force. The Starship spacecraft, which is the second stage, sits on top of its

super-heavy booster. It's 50 meters long, with a diameter of 9 meters, and is equipped with a distinctive shiny exterior. This shine is important. Starship is not made from the usual carbon fiber, which is a material you might expect in a rocket, but instead a version of stainless steel, a similar material to what you might find in your knife and fork. Stainless steel is a surprisingly useful building material for rockets, it turns out.

It can heat up to temperatures of over 1,300 degrees Celsius without melting or warping. which is useful when you intend your rocket to perform atmospheric re-entry, but more than that, it is cheap and easy to mass produce. This speaks to Musk's vision. He intends to produce entire fleets of these. In his mind, Mars is somewhere that humans will set up a serious presence, and when that happens, it's only natural that materials, products, and personnel will need to make the journey to and from the red planet,

which brings us to Starship's payload. As previously mentioned, this mostly hollow space is able to carry around 100 tonnes. It has a 9-meter diameter circular base and is 18 meters high, tapered to a point, allegedly because Musk thought it would be funnier to have a pointier rocket. It can be used to carry satellites, which can then be released into orbit for commercial ventures. However, SpaceX has made it clear that when it comes to the trip to Mars, they intend to put humans in this area. Currently, Space X has not revealed what the interior design of this habitation will definitively

look like, but there are some preliminary ideas. So, let's explore those ideas. Let's imagine that in a couple of decades from now, we receive a call that Talas colonists are needed on Mars, and it's time to make the long trip. To begin with, you would travel to a SpaceX launch site, possibly in cooperation with NASA, and would meet up with your roughly 100 co-passengers. 100 passengers are how many SpaceX thinks it can comfortably fit inside of Starship, although Musk mentioned that this number could be as high as 200 if passengers were willing to really

cram themselves in there. You might do well to get to know some of these people now, as unlike with a regular trip in an airplane, you are going to be spending a lot of time with these individuals. On an airplane, it is often tempting to watch a film, read a book, or go to sleep. However, you can't only do that for six whole months. These are the people you are going to be eating breakfast with. You will spend your free time together. You may form friendships.

Human interaction is important for healthy psychology, and there is no way off this flight midway if you find there's someone you don't get along with. Better start off by making friends early. Together, you will then be ushered into the rocket itself. Likely for the initial launch, you and the others will need to strap into your seats. All that thrust beneath you will crush you with powerful G-forces that will push you into your chair.

More intense than the most powerful roller coaster, a certain level of physical fitness will be an important element of this part. If there is a medical emergency on the flight, you are not going to get proper hospital treatment until you get to the other side. You will likely have been screened before travelling. Launch and lift-off will only last about nine minutes. At some point in this journey, the super-heavy booster will take. attach and drop back to Earth. The booster is reusable, and by controlling its descent, it will land perfectly on a landing pad, ready to be filled up with fuel again for another voyage. Thrust will switch over to Starship. While in the atmosphere, it will use three of its

Raptor engines, but will switch over to the other three once the ship has reached true space. These secondary Raptor engines have larger nozzles, which are better suited to propelling the ship through space. All of this will be enough to get you up past the Carmen line and into space. You will now be travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour. However, as the boosters cut off and as gravity drops away, you will suddenly experience weightlessness. Gravity, as we discussed in this video, is only a form of acceleration. If we do not accelerate, even if we are travelling at thousands of miles an hour, we will float around.

This will be a major feature of the next six months of your life. By now, the seatbelt lights will come off and you can begin to explore your environment. Current plans expect Starship to be split up into multiple floors or areas. At the bottom will be crew cabins. You will likely share a cabin with one to two other people, and conditions will be a little cramped. Above that, there will be a common area for gathering and social interaction. will see exercise areas and equipment, an important part of space travel. On the International

Space Station, where astronauts also spend six months stints, exercise takes up two hours of their daily routine. You will need to do this too to prevent the loss of muscle mass and bone density. Without it, you will lose considerable weight and may not be able to stand up once you reach Earth's gravity again. There may also be some emergency shelters. Hopefully you will not spend too much time in these, but it'll be important to equate yourself with where they are in the event of an unexpected solar flare. One of the greatest threats of space travel is radiation. Prolonged exposure can result in cancers and other negative health effects.

Solar flares represent a hazardous spike in this radiation level, and the captain might at times require you to take refuge in these thick walled shelters for the good of your health. Real time will be a little different from what you are used to. The food you will eat in space must be able to survive for months on end without going bad. There is no opportunity to restock. The International Space Station does not even have a fridge. All of this means that vacuum sealed, rehydratable food will be the order of the day. Whatever you eat, be wary of mess.

You will not be able to sprinkle salt or pepper on your food, as the low gravity will send this flying into the air. Thus, these will be provided in liquid form. As for water, well, the only way to carry enough water for 100 people to Mars is to have excellent recycling systems. So anything that comes out of you will likely be siphoned off and recycled, only to be served back to you at your next meal time. It's best not to think about it.

Then again, this is not that different from what happens on Earth. All the water you drink has been through many other living things systems. multiple times. As I said, best not to think about it. Showers will not likely be present, as without gravity, water does not flow. Astronauts tend to use waterless shampoos and rub themselves with wet flannels. Toilets will be something you need to strap yourself down to use, and they will be vacuum-powered to get rid of waste and to stop it floating around. Sleep will take a little adjusting too, as there will be no true night and day anymore, and gravity will not pull you down onto a bed.

Think you could get used to all of this? Well, here is where the really strange things start happening. As you travel through space, you will start to experience changes. Under the effects of low gravity, you will start to grow taller. Some astronauts gained an entire inch of height after six months in space. Your face will become redder and puffier, as your heart, so used to fighting against gravity to pump up blood through the space. to pump up blood through your system will find itself too good at its job in a weightless

environment. This change can lead to health issues, thickening of carotid arteries, and sight issues. These are not all fully understood by scientists, as there are not many examples of humans in space to test from. But perhaps the strangest of all, your very DNA will change. There is always some adaptability in human DNA. Certain genes are turned on or off at certain times in our life, under certain conditions. In a twins study performed by NASA in 2019, two twins with identical genetic material were tested. One were sent up to space for six months, the other remained on Earth.

When the two reunited and were tested again, it was found that the astronaut twins' DNA had changed in how it was expressing itself, creating differences between him and his brother. There were shortened telomeres, weakening of the immune system. and issues with bone formation. It's worth noting, upon arriving back on Earth, most of these changes in genetic expression reverted back to normal after six months. However, 9% of them did not. In ways we do not fully understand yet, spending time in space changes you, most likely because

of the radiation the astronaut experienced. So eventually you will arrive at Mars. Starship will fall at an angle and will use its flaps to shed an incredible 99% of its kinetic energy aerodynamically, travelling in a long arc through the atmosphere before eventually bringing you to the planet's surface. You will step out into the biodomes and sniff the manufactured Martian air. Starship will be checked over and then refueled using oxygen and methane extracted from Mars itself. As for you, you will have plenty of time to ponder. All journeys change us, but yours may be the one that you can never change back from. The you that

left Earth will never truly return home. But then, perhaps that's just how it always is. We are nearly 1,000 members on Patreon, and it's so exciting to see our community grow. If you want ad-free videos, wallpapers, and to join a community of hundreds that love space, sign up below so we can finally reach 1,000. It's more than a number. It's a milestone for everyone who's been part of Astrom's journey. Each new Astromnaut makes this constellation bigger, the conversation deeper, and the experience richer for everyone. So if you've been watching from the sidelines, now's the perfect time to join the community.