Private sector active in space exploration

An American private company based in Houston, Texas, Intuitive Machines (IM) has on Thursday launched a lunar rover called Odysseus, on Elon Musk’s Space X launcher Falcon 9, with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) payloads carrying instruments to survey the lunar environment. The participation of private sector players in America’s revived Moon mission, called Artemis, adds a new dimension to the space exploration project.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, NASA was the sole government-directed participant in the space programme. With the revived interest in the moon after a 50-year break, NASA is willing to partner with private sector players on a basis of equality. The process began when Space X’s Falcon 9 was used as the shuttle launcher to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). With the IM launching the lunar rover, one more step has been taken in the private sector participation in the space programme.

The IM is to launch two more rovers, IM2 and IM3 later this year even as NASA has deferred its manned mission to the moon to 2026 instead of 2025. The United States will remain ahead of other countries in the new race to the moon, with China’s planned manned mission to the moon expected to happen by 2030.

The participation of the private sector space exploration is not new. The private sector supplied rockets and technology to NASA, which the government agency purchased, owned and operated. With the private companies allowed to play a more active role in the space flights, it shows that the US government wants to redefine space exploration.

Earlier, the United States government was at the helm of space exploration and travel because of what appeared to be strategic and military implications of outer space. More than half a century later, the American government and policymakers seem to have realised that the government cannot carry the burden alone. The civilian and private sector aspect of the space programme takes us back to the explorers from Christopher Columbus onward.

They were backed by governments and monarchs, but the actual job was left to adventurers. It is possible that space travel will soon become the occupation of old-style explorers and adventurers. This time round however, the technical expertise and the budgets are much too enormous. An East India Company would not suffice.

There would be a need for a consortium of private companies as rich and adventurous as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Branson has backed off, and Bezos is not in the forefront. So the arrival of new private companies willing to undertake space journeys is a positive turn.

Bezos and Branson were looking at the potential of taking civilian passengers into space. It is indeed the ultimate step. Space travel should one day become as common as air travel is today. But the hurdles and challenges are many. The budgets are indeed the big obstacle. The technology to get people out into space, and on to the moon and some other planet is quite complicated. And space travel also means the toughness of astronauts which requires training of military rigour. Space is indeed the new frontier in more ways than one. It is one of the vantage points which can help in tackling the climate change crisis.

The United Arab Emirates wants to use space to monitor and help in improving agriculture and managing the earth’s resources. And many countries have now turned their attention to space exploration. It is no more the preserve of big countries with big military setups and big economies. Space is now a free space for every country to use it for many purposes which could be of use to humanity at large.