Dear Friends,
It seems to me that if the governments of the world want real economic growth, extending far beyond the end of the government’s expenditure of capital, they should be negotiating in a joint enterprise to build interplanetary space ships that are reusable and capable of ferrying human beings safely to, not only Mars and Venus, but to the Asteroid belt and the entire inner solar system as well.
The development of such a system would necessarily build a huge scientific and engineering infrastructure. Initially funded by government as an economic stimulus, it would be taken over by private firms. The way this could happen is that, as the enterprise gains more and more revenue streams, the international community would establish a limited holding company in charge of the firm, then announce a number of shares certain in the venture. Then the shares could be sold on the world markets to individual investors divesting government‘s of their share and freeing up government funds for tax cuts…
The revenue sources would be many. One would be charging nations or firms for rides to and from places of economic and scientific interest in the inner solar system. The asteroid belt offers access to stable mining platforms and a vast smorgasbord of mineral resources. Near Earth asteroids are another periodic resource of an amazing array of economically valuable minerals. Especially rare Earth elements. They are rare on Earth but plentiful in asteroids. A ready supply of which could lead to better transmission technology for electrical transmission with possible breakthroughs in superconducting at high temperatures, are one of many possible technologies that would be enabled by access to such a resource. Where is there a better place to collect solar energy than Mercury? Build the stations just on the night side. Build the solar arrays with local resources and raise them into the sunlight. The energy could be then stored somehow… maybe in some future quantum battery technology that many pop up… Or use the energy to process some ore locally for export to Earth. All these economic opportunities would be possible given access to transportation to and from. Advertising would be another source of revenue for the firm. Sell the outside of each ship like a billboard. The ad space would command a pretty high value for it’s visibility.
Manufacturing other equipment in orbit would be another revenue source for the firm. Once the infrastructure to build in low Earth orbit is developed it would be redundant to duplicate. If some nation or firm wanted something fabricated in Low Earth orbit they could contract with the firm. From competing space ships to mining platforms the ability to build in orbit would be extremely valuable to the human race.
The engineering challenges alone are worth the investment. Random research has some merit but focused research yields many more profound and useful insights. The example of Apollo and the technological breakthroughs that followed the halcyon years of the space age make the point. Investment in space has always yielded an improvement in the lives of people on Earth. A concerted push by many nations would yield far more technologies and insights than we can foresee with our limited perspective. And the technologies would be spread across many nations. Giving each some industrial advantage and diversifying world economic output.
Another positive externality would be the refocusing of the Earth’s inhabitants on something external and grand. Today we are focused internally on petty squabbles and historical wrongs… Fighting like children. Stand back and take a look. To anyone with perspective we are a bunch of spoiled brats in the modern world. We have it better then any other people in the history of mankind. What do we do with this prosperity? We cry about other people’s obesity, we try to hug those that want to stab us in the belly, we decry our ancestors (like they were any different that any other ancestors), we tremble at the thought of a virus and imagined ogres, and we squander our prosperity on poorly devised schemes to make money from nothing. Refocusing would do us some good. Not only us but the rest of the world could use a change in heart. A grand enterprise, that would pay dividends for ever, would be a pretty good means to this end…
