Space Entrepreneurship

Our Earth is surrounded by the answers to our problems. Saturn’s moon, Titan, for example, rains hydrocarbons and, according to Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini researcher, is “a giant factory of organic chemicals." In other words, Titan is a gas station 50% larger than our own moon. Saturn’s rings are mostly water. Comets may also be a rich source of fresh water, liquid hydrogen and oxygen, i.e. rocket fuel. Near Earth asteroids “could provide precious metals like natural stainless steel to be used in space construction projects, such as the space cities envisioned by the Permanent Project. One cubic kilometer of a nickel-iron asteroid is estimated to contain seven billion tons of iron, one billion tons of nickel, and sufficient cobalt to supply the Earth for three thousand years. The total current value would exceed five trillion U.S. dollars,” according to John Lewis, author of Mining the Sky.

As sure as America was “destiny” for 16th, 17th, and 18th Century Europeans, the future for the people of Earth will be one spent traveling, settling, and working our solar system. The search for gold, and later the desire to spread their Christian faith, was enough to prompt European monarchs to finance dozens of uncertain, risky quests. Fortunately, the risks were taken. The seeds that were planted bore fruit that grows, still, growing the wealth of the world ten-thousand fold.

Since there are no local aliens to convert, the potential for wealth, harvesting the mineral resources of our solar system, alone, will have to be enough to spawn 21st Century space entrepreneurs and pioneers. To date, the hard work of breaking through our atmosphere and establishing a permanent presence in space has been accomplished by governments, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] in the United States, the European Space Agency [ESA], the Russians, the Chinese, the Japanese. As great as our achievements have been, I think it’s clear we have failed to capitalize on the promise of the Apollo missions so long ago.

The people of the United States spend over a half trillion dollars annually propping up people who for whatever reason cannot manage to take care of themselves, but when it comes to investing in the most important work of securing humanity’s place in the cosmos, we drop a couple of dimes in the basket. Since 1969’s moon landing, NASA’s annual budget [in real and adjusted dollars] has never exceeded 20 billion dollars. And many Americans think even that’s too much.

Currently, dozens of individuals across the globe have amassed enough personal wealth to fund NASA’s annual budget using their own dollars. What prevents private individuals from investing in space exploration? Government’s failure to secure property rights on the moon, near-Earth asteroids, Mars, or anywhere else in our solar system.

Presently no legislation or treaty exists to protect the property rights of the space entrepreneur planning to establish a permanent, human settlement on the moon, for example. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibits governments from claiming land on the moon and elsewhere, but the issue of private ownership remains unresolved, according to the Space Settlement Initiative. Why would anyone, however determined, risk billions without some assurance that they’ll get to keep what they produce or discover?

Forward-thinking Alan Wasser, former chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Space Society and author of the Space Settlement Prize Act, is a notable voice in the battle against government apathy to address the inevitable commercialization of space.

“Presumably it is only a matter of time until new treaties are negotiated, establishing a functional private property regime and granting suitable land ownership incentives for privately funded space settlements. The U.S. will, of course, abide by such new international law when it has ratified such a new treaty. But, given the urgent need for privately funded human expansion into space, as soon as possible, something must be done immediately, on a provisional basis, to correct the present inefficiencies in the international standard on property rights in space and to promote privately funded space exploration and settlement...”

To encourage a future where private interests will set up shop on the Moon, the United States will be launching several unmanned probes, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [LRO] on February 27, 2009. Perhaps less romantic than the 19th Century Lewis and Clark Expedition, the robotic LRO will survey the Moon’s surface searching for landing sites and reasons to inspire future, private investment. If there’s water on the Moon, the LRO will find it. We know asteroids produced more than craters on the Moon’s surface. The Moon may be a rich source of “Platinum Group Metals [PGM’s], indispensable for efficient fuel cell operation.” [Moonrush: Improving Life on Earth with the Moon’s Resources, by Dennis Wingo.] The LRO and its siblings will pave the way for NASA’s Constellation space craft destine to land on the moon in 2020.

If the Moon’s resources can be harvested profitably, and governments work to protect property rights, capitalism will drive the human development of our solar system, one world at a time.