GOLDEN, Colo. -- From a newarray of space-enabled technologies to the emerging commercial market forpassenger space travel, the commercialization of next-generation spaceenterprises appears to be well under way. But challenges exist, industryofficials said, including making sure that entrepreneurial firms gain properfinancial footing and overcoming the legal, regulatory and insurance obstacles that could undermine the profit potential of the emerging commercial spaceindustry.
Steadyprogress was made this year on several fronts in the entrepreneurial spacesector. In 2008, that growth is expected to include even more advancedtechnology development, according to industry officials. Nevertheless, membersof the entrepreneurial space industry say more work is needed to assure thatinnovative space products and services are able to secure a profit-making nichein today?s economy.
"I thinkwe?re seeing a rising tide of activities that are enabled by space," said BurkeFort, executive director of the Eighth Continent Project, based here at theColorado School of Mines. The project is an effort to help create newspace-oriented startup companies.
"There?s anemerging commercial space economy that?s providing content – thanks to space,"Fort told Space News in a Nov. 19 interview. "I think what we?re going to seeis a kind of dull but growing roar, labeling it a new era – Space 2.0 – ofcommercial development.
"We needsome wins," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and chief executive officer of the XPrize Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif.
Those winsnext year, he said, might constitute a successful flight of the SpaceExploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 1 booster; possible rollout ofVirgin Galactic spaceliner hardware; demonstration flights of the Rocket RacingLeague?s X-Racer; first flight to orbital altitude of Armadillo Aerospace gear;and a couple-dozen fully registered teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize– a robotic race to the Moon for a $30 million purse.
A goal isto try and educate the financial communities – and the risk-taking community –to fuel an economic engine that yields true breakthroughs, Diamandis told SpaceNews Nov. 11 during Space Vision 2007, an event held at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology in Cambridge, and sponsored by the Students for theExploration and Development of Space.
"The firsttime when these companies go public and return 20 times or 50 times the amountof money that was invested, that?s a key moment in time," Diamandis added."You had Spacehab and Orbital Sciences go public as pseudo-commercial spacecompanies. But they?ve been a flat stock price for 20 years. We really needsomeone to have a Netscape event," he said, pointing to the Initial PublicOffering response in the mid-1990?s of investment dollars into that Webbrowser.
EstherDyson, who heads EDventure Holdings in New York, said in a Nov. 16 e-mailresponse to questions that greater funding for entrepreneurial space activitiesis likely to occur in 2008. "And at the same time, we?ll see progress inactually building and testing spacecraft and components," she said.
Dysonagreed that a "killer application" or "Netscape moment" would be just as validwithin the entrepreneurial space community.
"There?soften something that catches the popular imagination," Dyson said. This canoccur because of either public use or people seeing movie stars utilize it, asthe characters did in "You?ve Got Mail – the romantic comedy film released in1998 that chronicled the spreading use of e-mail,' she said.
In asimilar vein, Dyson said that perhaps "viral videos" stemming from next year?sflight to the International Space Station of Richard Garriott, a game developerand son of a former NASA astronaut, could boost public space travel interest. Aviral video is video content that escalates in popularity through Internete-mail messaging or media sharing Web sites.
The topicsthe organization intends to address include legislative, regulatory and insuranceissues – particularly third-party liability and insurance for the pilots andpassengers of commercial spaceships, Tai told Space News in an Oct. 28interview.
"We need tomake sure, as we become smarter, we know what some of the issues are and howthat legislation may or may not need to be changed" Tai said.
The Julyaccident in Mojave that occurred during engine component testing forSpaceShipTwo was a setback that still needs to be fully analyzed, Tai said. "Itwill go to market when it?s ready &ndash and not before," Tai said.
Tai saidVirgin Galactic has collected $31 million in deposits from future suborbitalspace travelers. "One of the shocks," Tai noted, "is that a lot of people justwant to go , and they don?t care what it?s like. They?ll go in a brown paperbag because they just want to go into space."
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