Astrum Space - What Billionaires Really Want from Space

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

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 McColgan, and you're listening to the Astrum Podcasts. 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 real-navs? 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 the beginning of a fledgling space tourism industry where wealthy individuals can pay to spend time in space. This could have larger effects than you might think, as we'll explore later in the episode. 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 crewed spacecraft.

Branson reached out to scaled composites and convinced them to make the verging group their sole customer of future spacecrafts if they succeeded. They did so on October 4, 2004, with spaceship one 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 Theodore. on Carmen, the first person who'd tried to define such a boundary. Spaceship 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 2 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, the spaceship 2, the spaceship 2, the air, and it is released, and it's then begins climbing, arcing higher and higher until it was pointed straight up. 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 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 reentering 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. In July 2022, Virgin Galactic successfully carried its CEO Richard Branson into space. Since then, however, it became mired in controversy. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the craft soon after the completed launch, as information came out that warning lights had come on in spaceship two that should have led to the flight being aborted, but they were ignored. Furthermore, apparently the craft drifted from its original airspace on its way back down. Until these technical issues can be resolved, no more flights would be allowed to take place.

Virgin Galactic originally intended to fly passengers into space by the end of 2022. However, this date has been pushed back to early 2023 while they make sure everything is in order. As well they should be. Ticket prices for a flight on spaceship 2, or possibly spaceship 3, by then will cost $450,000, far outside the price range of most people. It's only fitting that if you are spending that kind of money on something, it ought to be safe. Still, technical issues like these ones will likely be ironed out in the days ahead. There is another issue that some people raise, however, millions have gone into the development of these technologies. 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 off 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 Shepard, 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 those seeking the simple thrill of flying in a plane. 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' rocket, the new shepherd, is a little different in design from Branson's. It has a more standard thruster that carries an obvious-examble-based-rexswain. 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 Galactics

two hours, although it will no doubt carry a similar price tag for tickets. And Bezos is already looking ahead. Although 107 kilometers is over the Carmen 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. Our last billionaire, however, has his eyes on an even further goal. Elon Musk's company, Space X, 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 2. 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 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 that 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 was recently valued at $100 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, 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 interests 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 a

This is why billionaires travelling into the edges of space in their own rockets is exciting, even when it is mired in controversy and technical issues, or if it seems to some like a waste of resources. It not only marks the beginning of an age where trips for the average person travelling to another planet could one day be real, but it could lead the way for humanity truly being an interplanetary species. And there is something hopeful in that. Well, that's all we have time for today. I hope you've enjoyed listening to this podcast on commercial space flights.

If you like what you've heard, please feel free to follow us for more podcasts on other fascinating space topics. But for now, I'm Alex McColgan and this has been Astrom. All the best, and see you next time.