The Economics of Space: Commercial Ventures Beyond Earth
The Economics of Space: Commercial Ventures Beyond Earth. Space is no longer a government endeavor, but a frontier that is sharing a big portion with the involvement of the private companies. What began as a cold war between the two super powers has transformed into a multi-billion dollar privatized business of satellite services, launch service providers, space tourism and plans to extract resources and colonize other planets. The reason as to why commercial activity is accelerating, what business models are being created and what implications this will have on the economy reveals immense opportunities and considerable threat as humanity goes off-planet. The Business Shift: The Prerogative to the Privatization. Several years ago space work was primarily governmental. NASA, Soviet and subsequently Russian space agencies among the others in Europe, China and Japan did space exploration, science, and security missions. Their activity was based on the state-constructed hardware and the la...