The first humans to step on the moon are celebrated this week. A new wave of humans are stepping out onto the space frontier, even though they don't work for the government. What is it that makes it important? Who are the people who benefit? There is a difference.
A space tourist is a person who has worked to accumulate enough funds to get a ride into space, who goes through appropriate training, and then goes to space. They are looking at the experience while there. Many use their time in space to promote idea based projects such as inspiring students or drawing focus to the Earth's environmental challenges The recent week-long Axiom mission to the International Space Station was one of the many scientific experiments done by others.
The Apollo astronauts used taxpayer money to get into space. For anyone going to an unknown place for the first time, their training was very intense. Even if they weren't selected by NASA, going to the moon was still the crowning achievement of their life.
The first men on the moon.
They were in space and on the moon to inspire students. The environmental movement was born out of their images of the "little blue marble" of Earth. The science they did was incredible.
The main reason they went was to show America's democratic free enterprise society was superior to the communist state of the Soviet Union.
Many deride the children who stand on their shoulders in the U.S. private space industry while we honor the heroes of Apollo. The highest profile leaders of the New Space Revolution are often extremely wealthy, as are the private astronauts buying the rides. The critics use these two points as cudgels to hammer away at what should be the most celebrated achievement of the modern era - the opening of space to humans.
The "big leap" they spoke of did not happen immediately. The lunar explorers took the most expensive selfies in the world.
The seeds they planted have begun to break out of Earth's gravity and reach for the stars. They are the same regardless of whether they look the same or not. The goal of Apollo should have been the goal of the new space race.
The Lewis and Clarks were the NASA astronauts. Today's railroaders, shopkeepers, and eventually our settlers, are the companies building spaceships, orbital buildings, and dozens of smaller commercial space companies. The "giant leap" that was referred to in 1969 is finally happening, even though it has been painfully slow for those working on the cause.
The partnership between the government and people makes us great, even though it looks different than we have been taught.
Apollo was a military campaign dressed in civilian clothes. It was funded by the government and ended once it achieved its goal. While grateful for the support of the government in technology development and its new role as a customer, space is being opened by private people using the free enterprise system to build on their achievement.
Our past looks different than this one. In America's pioneer period, one could just climb onto a wagon and get to the frontier, even though it was much more difficult than it is today. Front-end technology development is needed to survive on the space frontier. In free nations, it is not the government's job to pay for that, so citizens have had to step up.
The funders of the companies laying the tracks have money. Tickets are being sold to people who have money in order to support the development of the mass transit system to the solar system. People opening space will make money at some point, which will pay to open the airlock even wider, allowing more people to pass through to a new and exciting frontier of possibilities. This is the same economic progression that allows you to hop into a steel tube with wings and fly to see your grandmother, climb into your car and take selfies and send them around the world.
There is a right race for billionaires and space.
Apollo's planners didn't pay attention to this. Apollo was America's answer to a state command economy's push towards the moon by creating its own state-run program. We are not there now because of that. We aren't on Mars and Earth isn't surrounded by space power plants because of the climate crisis. It's one reason so many children are uninspired, education levels are challenged, and our nation is fragmented. It's also why you can't get a new grown-in-space heart when yours fails or access a million other products, services, life, and planet-saving technologies that most probably would have evolved in a thriving Earth-space- moon economy.
It's important to understand what's going on right now. The work Apollo started is being taken on by the private sector in the US. The people flying in private spaceships don't wear government uniforms. The contribution they and the industry carrying them into space are making is exactly what will assure this time we get all those things and more. We need to give them more support, remove competing government programs, and speed up the pace of this New Space economy so that more people can feel the benefits sooner.
I don't like the word "tourist" because I am the first private citizen to buy a ticket. I find it offensive that people who aspire their whole lives to go into space and have found their own way to pay for it are insulted. It is immaterial in the big picture. What matters is your legacy and what you create for the future.
One day a year, we celebrate Apollo's achievement. Every time a human goes into space, the legacy of Apollo is celebrated. The flight of every new American spaceship, the launch of every new American entrepreneurial space company, and the expansion of our economy into the frontier are all on display.
More of us will be able to afford to go ourselves and those who went before will become more so. We are going to put stakes in the ground. We are moving from exploration todustrialization. We will be moving from space to a place where we can help save her. New ones will be built after our next steps and giant leaps.
The opening of the space frontier is one of the most exciting events in the history of mankind. As it goes on, I hope the derision fades and this becomes clear.
The founder of Space Fund is Rick Tumlinson. He founded the Space Frontier Foundation, the Earthlight Foundation, and the Space Cowboy Ball.
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