Will a Space Startup Be the Future Google?

“Knowledge of the universe bestows awesome power. To understand the secrets of atoms and galaxies is to become like gods.”

~W.J. Kaufmann III, Galaxies and Quasars

On July 20, 1968 Apollo 8 landed on the moon, barely 22 years after mankind had first placed a man- made object in orbit. Unfortunately, the Moon landings were short lived; in December 1972, the Apollo 16 mission was the last time that humans walked the face of the moon. Since Apollo 16, we have moved on to the International Space Station (ISS), sending satellites to other Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, robots to rove on Mars, and Voyager probes that have left our Solar System.

Until The first X-Prize competition changed the standing of private companies’ vs. government, all major advances in space technology have been directed and funded by national governments. Its challenge was for a private industry to develop a reusable spacecraft. “On October 4, 2004 SpaceShipOne rocketed into history, becoming the first private manned spacecraft to exceed 328,000 feet twice within the span of a 14 day period signaling a seminal event -the shift to space exploration as an entrepreneurial venture.

The X-Prize Foundation has been a catalyst for spurring private companies into competition to develop space technologies. The prize was established by Dr. Peter Daimandis in 1995 to foster increased competition for "private companies and individuals to develop new and innovative breakthroughs for the benefit of mankind."

The X-Prize winner SpaceShipOne took off vertically similar to an airplane, and landed the same way. Its design enables it to have a faster turnaround on the ground, cheaper to produce, and cheaper to maintain than the 30-year-old"railroad' into space" Space Shuttle design.

SpaceShipOne, bankrolled by Microsoft’s co-founder, Paul Allen, was produced by a partnership between the Virgin Group of Companies and Scaled Composites, showing that private industries can and should develop space technologies free from government funding and oversight. Virgin Galactic is now creating a private spaceport in New Mexico -offering private individuals to purchase a ticket to travel into space.

Objects today that we may think of as ordinary and not very “high-tech” could most likely be traced back to a breakthrough in space technology -the result of "The Hidden Revolution," after a book by author Jim Schefter who wrote: “From foam padding adapted for football helmets to flexible tires on the Apollo 14 pull-cart that didn't turn rock hard in frigid temperatures incorporated into winter radial car tires."

The next X-Prize competition is under way, with a purse of $2.5 million for the winner, the Lunar Lander Challenge. It calls for the development of a “...vehicle to simulate a trip between the Moon's surface, to lunar orbit and back to the lunar surface." No government agency has been on the moon for 35 years, will it be that a private company will re-establish mankind’s presence on the moon?

Isaac Asimov wrote about the reasons we must revisit the Moon and beyond: “Why spend billions to place a man on the Moon? If we don't, we may lose the Earth. If we do, we may gain the universe. You couldn't ask for better odds.”. The next space race may not between competing nations, but between countries governments and the private industries.

The knowledge we'll gain in biology, chemistry, medicine, materials research, and just about every aspect of modern life will make awesome gains.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond

July 16, 2008

Will a Space Startup Be the Future Google?

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