Abstract After more than half a century of spaceflight, our activities in space are still limited to a relatively small set of markets whose growth is driven mainly by government funding. Worse still, human access to space is restricted to a few people flying very infrequently to a single destination in low Earth orbit (LEO). Contrasting today's reality with the high expectations of the 1960s – as epitomised in Stanley Kubrick's film “2001: A Space Odyssey” – begs two questions: what went wrong and can we fix it? The objective of this paper is to address these questions and, in doing so, indicate how the nascent NewSpace industry may help us realise past dreams by enabling a paradigm shift in our space-based activities.
Highlights ► Shows main obstacle to future space activities is not technology but financing. ► Suggests space launch costs, reliability and availability have compound problems. ► Indicates how NewSpace ventures could break the current space paradigm. ► Reviews leading ventures and explains why most focused upon launch services. ► Identifies ways in which government initiatives are nurturing NewSpace ventures.
NewSpace—delivering on the dream
Acta Astronautica ; 92 , 2 ; 178-186
2012-08-20
9 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
NewSpace , Reusable , Launcher , Commercial , Markets
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