What was the mission?
SpaceX has been dipping its toes in shuttle launches and rocket development for well over a decade now, but until last weekend it had never successfully transported human beings from earth to space. That was the point of the Dragon Capsule – to take astronauts up to the ISS without any technical engineering from NASA.
The capsule itself held two highly experienced astronauts, Doug Harley and Bob Behnken, who are now scheduled to spend over 100 days on board the ISS to test on-board systems and provide ongoing feedback to SpaceX headquarters. They renamed the Dragon Capsule to ‘Endeavour’ while in orbit, and docked the ISS via an automated process whilst just above China.
The capsule itself looks like a modern reinvention of NASAs control systems and technology, with no analogue dials or hefty control buttons in sight. Instead, three big touch screen monitors are used to navigate and regulate everything on board, with SpaceX keeping user experience at the very forefront of its design.
After all, Elon’s tech company is looking to make space travel a commercial viability for the everyday citizen (albeit the very wealthy ones). The goal is to widen the possibility of quick space travel and offer a ‘taxi’ service that anybody can purchase, not just scientists and researchers. Hell, even Tom Cruise is hoping to film a movie literally in space with the help of Elon.
The success of this mission is a big step in making that a reality, and is hoped to open the doors of the space industry to both SpaceX and other emerging competitors. This could lead to renewed public interest in space technology and widen the possibilities of research and development with a larger pool of resources.
NASA saves vast amounts of cash by purchasing transportation to and from the ISS rather than developing everything itself, which it’s been doing with SpaceX since 2012, freeing up time and energy for other avenues of space innovation.
These partnerships are currently needed, too. NASA is woefully underfunded and has received less than 1% of the federal budget since 1993. To keep things afloat it’s had to cut back on projects and rely on private companies to step in and help. Without them, things would look very different today.
Why could it be a bad thing?
Before everyone starts buying cinema tickets to go watch Tom Cruise’s next Mission Impossible set on the actual ISS, we should be alert to the pitfalls that may come with privatising the space industry.
Bringing companies with conflicting interests and motivations into space development could get messy very quickly. NASA only has to answer to taxpayer and government interests, whereas private businesses will be looking for tangible products, services, and profits to give back to investors if they want to stay afloat. Space travel could quickly become less about scientific integrity and more about making a hefty buck, which could compromise on safety, transparency, and global co-operation.
Plus, projects that have no immediate commercial value or profit potential may never get built, which could actually limit what gets the green light in the future. Giving more authority to companies such as SpaceX could push genuine explorative progress out of the door in favour of ‘space taxi rides’ and quick transport options that bring back a more immediate return in investment.
A lack of central regulations may also hinder the industry rather than help it. We may see artificial prices created for select services and corners of space development dominated by one or two billionaire individuals. One needs to only look at America’s broken health insurance system to see where privatisation can end up. That’s not a future that many of us would want for space travel, and we should keep that in mind as we celebrate the Dragon Capsule’s successful docking at the ISS.
For now we should be excited to see where SpaceX can take their ideas and technology with NASA. In a perfect world we’d have the two living in harmony forever, with the sole goal of advancing humanity’s potential beyond the stars for the sake of science. If capitalism’s track record is to be believed, though, then we have reason to be cautious, and I for one do not want to see Elon Musk declaring the Solar System his anytime soon.
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