Improving space activities to contribute to economic development
- Paper number
IAC-09.E3.P.4
- Author
Mr. Toshiki Hasegawa, HASECOM, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Patrick Collins, Azabu University, Japan
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Space activities by space agencies have received much investment over the past half-century, but the scale of commercial space activities is still small, and non-military space industry employment in the richer countries has fallen in recent years. Fundamentally this is because there is little consumer demand for the goods and services which the space industry supplies. The key problem for space activities is that the cost of travel to orbit is far too high - and has not fallen at all in 50 years. For this reason, recent efforts to develop space tourism services seem promising, as they have the potential to grow to large scale and substantially reduce the cost of travel to orbit. In addition, sub-orbital space travel services can be started at low cost - less than the cost of developing an expendable launch vehicle. Hence it is possible for private investors to pay for such a project. So far most investment is in the USA - involving a range of companies, from Scaled Composites to Bigelow Aerospace - but companies in Europe and elsewhere are also starting to participate. However, the total amount of investment is still small. The low cost of sub-orbital travel also makes it possible for later-developing countries to "leap-frog" ahead of more advanced countries, which are held back by their commitment to traditional space activities based on high-cost, expendable vehicles. For example, the investment needed is less than the Korean government has spent on its new satellite launch vehicle. As countries develop economically, their industrial capabilities grow to include more and more different activities. In this way Korea has rapidly developed advanced skills in manufacturing ships, computers, cars, aircraft components, the T-50/A-50 Golden Eagle aircraft - and has recently even a satellite launch vehicle. However, due to the above problems, satellite launch is not likely to grow into a commercially profitable activity for Korea, nor therefore will it become a source of many new jobs. The paper suggests that developing sub-orbital space travel services is an economically beneficial direction for space industry investment. A major benefit is that the low launch costs which a large-scale space travel industry will create will facilitate a wide range of further related developments in space. These may include the realization of space-based solar power supply to Earth, which is said to be one aim of the Obama administration's "Green New Deal" policy, and which has been the subject of research for more than 40 years. Another possibility is the development of a "space elevator" for delivering payloads to orbit at low cost, which has recently seen considerable progress. The subject of space tourism has now moved beyond the "taboo phase" of the 1990s, when people even used to speak of "the T word". However, the subject of space elevators is still more-or-less in the "taboo phase", during which people speak of "the E word". However, with recent progress in the development of carbon nanotubes and other advanced, high-strength, light-weight materials, the system's feasibility is improving rapidly. This includes not only technical design issues, but also studies of economic feasibility and case studies. These and other new space-related industries could grow to large scale and contribute greatly to reducing unemployment world-wide, and in addition will give new hope for a prosperous and peaceful future for all mankind. Unless investments in developing new industries do not include such ambitious projects, it is difficult to foresee the creation of sufficient new employment to pull out of the current recession.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-09.E3.P.4.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.