Private industry's push into space is slowly building momentum. Bigelow Aerospace is currently, and successfully, testing inflatable structures in Earth orbit. SpaceX continues to develop its rocket booster, which is designed to deliver payload to orbit. Several companies are pursuing development of suborbital ships which will carry passengers, with test flights hopefully scheduled within the next couple of years. All that is progress.
To really pull off a private space age, however, financial and legal infrastructure must be built. Instead of relying on rich individuals for financing, the companies in this new arena at some point will have to compete for investors' capital in the stock and bond markets. Also at some point, space ventures will need to be insured at some reasonable, consistent, and enduring level. Property rights beyond Earth and the legal status of off-Earth activities will have to be clearly defined before large amounts of capital will be risked there. Slow progress is beiyng made in these areas.
Such are the challenges of establishing any new industry, of course. Oil and gas rights did not exist before the petroleum industry. We should know fairly soon whether the private push into space will get off to a healthy start.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment