Yet Another Space Commerce Report
The Economics of Space: An Industry Ready to Launch, Reason.org
“This can all happen within the current NASA budget. In a commerce-based approach, the private sector develops the space industry and NASA and other government parties buy transport and other key services, such as on-orbit facilities, as customers of the private providers. NASA has already begun buying some space transportation in this manner, just as we currently do with other transportation systems. Extending this good start and making it more consistent is the only way, within the current NASA budget, that leads to comprehensive advancement in space.”
Keith’s note: (sigh) Yet another space “commerce” study (with good ideas) that wants NASA to pay companies to develop things. In other words NASA needs to be an anchor tenant. Got it. Next.
Without NASA, there just isn’t the demand in the US space sector to sustain much of a commercial space business – never mind funding advancements in rocketry and other space technology. ISS is a key example of that, and it’s either going to be NASA paying the bulk of the costs or the station gets deorbited.
As long as that is folks think, that will be how it is. Any business model that includes NASA is just a model for being a government contractor, not a commercial firm.
And now, this…
If you’ve just joined us, I’ll briefly recap everything that has ever been said about the economics of space:
“The future of business in extra-orbital space is gargantually huge, pending the arrival only of someone to tell the rest of us what it actually is.
Meanwhile, space is really, really cool.”