Space Tourism
The Economic Viability of Commercial Space Travel
Surveys conducted by the National Aerospace Laboratory in Japan during the 1990s, said that citizens in Japan, Canada, the United States, and Europe have a personal interest in space tourism (ranging 60 to 80 percent of those surveyed, depending on the country). This shows that people do value the opportunity to travel into space.
People Want to Travel
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a report of the space industry in 1996, that “conceptually, tens of millions of us would like to take a trip to space if we could do so with reasonable safety, comfort and reliability, and at an acceptable price.”
In 2001, computer game developer Richard Garriott paid $35 million for a ride aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, one similar to the Sputnik satellite first released in 1961. He spent approximately 12 days in orbit to say “The view of the Earth is life changing.” Garriott’s expedition demonstrates that space tourism is feasible.
Now, 35 million dollars is not an affordable price for most of the general public, but this price is decreasing. The surveys said that there is a “willingness to spend upwards of a month’s salary just to get into space once,” but exactly how much is this opportunity valued? CNN said, in reference to the suborbital flights Virgin Galactic is preparing to sell, that 300 people have paid “at least the majority of the [$200,000] fee to reserve the first flights, and about 80,000 others have registered interest.” XCOR Aerospace is planning to sell one-hour rides at $95,000 a person. This price is .27 percent of what Garriott paid in 2001. Ninety-five thousand dollars is still much more than what most people earn as a yearly salary, but the price is substantially less, demonstrating that the price for a trip is decreasing, and getting closer to an affordable price in this emerging market.
Abundant Resources
But the greatest benefit that could come from a space tourism market is the opportunity for those who want to travel into space for other purposes to do so. The most potentially beneficial purpose is the harvesting of natural resources. According to Adelta Legal, an Australian law firm that specializes in space law, said "On the lunar surface… there are significant deposits of… aluminium, iron, calcium, magnesium and many others in trace amounts. These materials could be used in their natural form or refined into various structural, thermal or electrical materials. On an asteroid the mineral resources are likely to provide richer rewards, provid[ing] 'a billion tons of iron, 200 million tons of nickel, 10 million tons of cobalt and 20,000 tons of platinum metals: net market value, about $1 trillion.'"
The next question is economist Ronald Coase's legal inquiry: who owns it? Currently, nobody owns these resources, as they are currently in space and nobody owns outer space. Therefore, it is safe to assume that once people are able to go to outer space with relative ease, then these resources would be quickly exhausted, only adding to the burden of finite resources on Earth. A race to the bottom would take place. But, this race wont' ever finish because these natural resources are known to exist and are known to be able to add to Earth's manufacturing and production capabilities. Therefore, those that would capitalize on this opportunity best would be mining companies, organizations willing to secure ownership of asteroids, or parts of asteroids. This would be an almost guaranteed positive investment since these resources already provide a return on Earth, where these resources are already found to do so. Space is just another environment, an potential extention of the global economy and global resources. Extending into this realm through the first step of space tourism would lead to increased prosperity in the long run.
It's a Worthy Investment
Dr. Patrick Collins, professor of economics at Azabu University in Japan, said, in 2006, in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, that "unlimited resources are available to us in space if we make the small effort required to access them – clean energy, raw materials, living space, waste sink and others. In this view, making the modest effort required to realise low-cost space travel… offers a clear prospect of limitless resources which will enable rising living standards for everyone forever." Collins' prediction can only be realized with private ownership, which could only be made possible if commercial space travel became affordable and available to everyone. The industry would start specifically for tourists, but eventually people other than tourists would take advantage of space travel. Private ownership, i.e. private enterprise would ensure that all these natural resources in outer space aren't free for the taking, as these enterprises would most likely, be the only ones able to mine these resources and ensure that there's enough to sustain a successful enterprise.
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