The long-term scientific benefits of a space economy

📝 Abstract

Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its major elements (e.g. space tourism, resource extraction activities on the Moon or asteroids, and large-scale in-space construction capabilities) are not developed with science primarily in mind. Examples of scientific activities that would be facilitated by the development of space infrastructure include the construction of large space telescopes, ambitious space missions (including human missions) to the outer Solar System, and the establishment of scientific research stations on the Moon and Mars (and perhaps elsewhere). In the more distant future, an important scientific application of a well-developed space infrastructure may be the construction of interstellar space probes for the exploration of planets around nearby stars.

💡 Analysis

Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its major elements (e.g. space tourism, resource extraction activities on the Moon or asteroids, and large-scale in-space construction capabilities) are not developed with science primarily in mind. Examples of scientific activities that would be facilitated by the development of space infrastructure include the construction of large space telescopes, ambitious space missions (including human missions) to the outer Solar System, and the establishment of scientific research stations on the Moon and Mars (and perhaps elsewhere). In the more distant future, an important scientific application of a well-developed space infrastructure may be the construction of interstellar space probes for the exploration of planets around nearby stars.

📄 Content

[Accepted for publication in Space Policy] The long-term scientific benefits of a space economy Ian A. Crawford Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Email address: i.crawford@bbk.ac.uk

ABSTRACT Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its major elements (e.g. space tourism, resource extraction activities on the Moon or asteroids, and large-scale in-space construction capabilities) are not developed with science primarily in mind. Examples of scientific activities that would be facilitated by the development of space infrastructure include the construction of large space telescopes, ambitious space missions (including human missions) to the outer Solar System, and the establishment of scientific research stations on the Moon and Mars (and perhaps elsewhere). In the more distant future, an important scientific application of a well-developed space infrastructure may be the construction of interstellar space probes for the exploration of planets around nearby stars. Keywords: Space exploration; Space development; Space infrastructure

1. Introduction There is no doubt that science has been a major beneficiary of the space age. Ever since the discovery of Earth’s radiation belts by only the second and third artificial Earth satellites ever launched (i.e. Sputnik 2 in 1957 and Explorer-1 the following year), scientific knowledge has poured down to Earth from spacecraft operating throughout the Solar System. Major scientific disciplines like astrophysics and planetary science have undergone paradigm- changing revolutions as a consequence, in the former case by the ability to conduct astronomical observations above the obscuring effects of Earth’s atmosphere, and in the latter by being able to make in situ measurements of planets and other solar system bodies that previously could only be observed remotely using telescopes. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, it is sobering to contemplate just how limited our knowledge of the Universe would still be had the space age not begun when it did. It is clear that science still has much to gain from continued access to space, but already there are concerns that access on the scale required to maintain the current rate of scientific discovery, let alone to increase it, may not be achievable with current funding models [1,2]. The main concern is that, as space missions become more complex, their cost grows faster than do scientific budgets, or even the Gross National Products of participating countries. As pointed out by Martin Elvis elsewhere in this volume [2], ultimately this must result in space science hitting a ‘funding wall’ which will curtail future growth, and thus limit future scientific discoveries. One way, and perhaps the only way, to avoid this funding limit will be to ‘piggyback’ space science and exploration on the activities of a future space-based economy developed largely for commercial purposes [e.g. 1-4].

2. Space resources To be sustainable, any future space-based economy, whether built around commercial satellite operations, space tourism, mining the Moon and asteroids, or any combination of these, will increasingly rely on utilising the energy and material resources of the solar system [e.g. 4-9]. This is simply a consequence of the energy cost of lifting the required materials out of Earth’s gravity well: if materials are to be used in space it will always be more economically attractive to source them in space. However, the process will be gradual and iterative, because many of these space resources will only be useful once an infrastructure exists to access and extract them.
   There are at least four, mutually reinforcing, ways in which the scientific exploration of space will benefit from the development of a space economy built around the utilisation of extraterrestrial resources.

2.1 Economic benefits of using space resources in space to build, provision, and maintain scientific instruments and outposts
It has long been recognized that future space exploration activities would benefit from utilising extraterrestrial resources wherever possible (an application known as In Situ Resource Utilisation, or ISRU), as this would avoid having to lift them out of Earth’s gravity [4, 7, 10-12]. For example, scientific outposts on the Moon and Mars would benefit from using indigenous water resources (e.g. for drinking, personal hygiene, and as a source of both hydrogen and oxygen). Similarly, future space stations, satellites (including, in the present context, the next generation of large space telescopes), and space probes to the outer solar system would benefit if the hydrogen and oxygen needed for rocket fuel (

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