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How far are we from real life space industrialization?

This is a question that the whole industry is trying to figure out.

There are a couple of studies that take a stab at this:

http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/spaceflight/commercial-spaceflight/space-tourism-insurance-crash-space-station/

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1088&context=nlr

To achieve more scale industrialization. You need to have resource independence. That's the ability to you know get any resources you need relatively locally. Or if you can't source those, you need to have a supply chain to be able to bring any resources you need to carry out industrial operations at scale, either from the earth, moon or asteroids. Well, those supply chains don't exist, and probably won't exist in any real form for another optimistically five to ten years.

The first missions are going to be primarily about setting up our outposts, just to be able to conduct basic research.

How far are we from real life space industrialization?

So let's see here, we're gonna move over to the Reddit from yesterday.

and I'll probably bring my biz partner Keegan to join in for this next one too, but how far are we from real life space industrialization, this is from a live sanely.

And I think you know, the first thing is, What is your definition of industrialization? So, according to a, I just looked on the dictionary here, the dictionary definition is the large scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises and other productive economic activity into an area, society, country, etc. all some of these activities are in fact happening in low Earth orbit. Large scale, no. So maybe by that Definition not happening yet. But there are lots of emergent and nascent activities happening. It kicking you want to jump in here on on, on the sort of the timing of how far are we from sort of real life space industrialization? I think what they're talking about is just thinks maybe things done in a large scale sort of way.

Keegan Kirkpartrick joining:

this is a question that anybody in the industry industry worth his salt has been trying to figure out a way to answer for a while now, because it's so because the answer to the prize for answering that question is making a lot of money. But right now, I don't think anyone anybody could begin to estimate that because we're currently living in a period of this industry where technological advancements particularly for launch are happening at such a fast rate, that it's very difficult for anybody to really try to read the tea leaves and figure out you know, when the tea Point is going to come. If I was a, when you think about it, to achieve large scale industrialization, you need to have, if not resource independence, that's the ability to, you know, get any resources you need and relatively locally, you need to have supply chains to be able to bring any resources, you'd need to carry out industrial operations at scale, either from the earth the moon or asteroids while those supply chains don't exist. And even with starship with, even with elans you know, ambitious production rates probably won't exist in any real form or another, optimistically five years. I mean, really optimistically, probably both. Even with that, those first missions are going to be primarily about setting up outposts, just to be able to conduct basic research and see if it's even worth going after. Now. There will be a tipping point, industrialization was one of those, you know topics and he really read about about it. It is kind of fascinating how fast humans will actually do it once they figure out that they can. One of my favorite examples of this is, if you look at the history of Japan, during me, you know, first contact with Admiral Perry, when Westerners first showed up in Japan, there was not there was no industrialization of any kind. Why would there be they weren't, you know, connected to this broader, you know, European American, American, colonial, you know, infrastructure. But within half a century, they beat one of the largest navies on the planet. And we're well on their way to be being one of the most dynamic industrial countries the world. See. That story is not really unique in the history of humanity. So I think that it's going to take us at least a decade, to build out the supply chains to be able to make any possible industrial life at that point, it'll start to happen much more Faster we'll we'll go for it'll be like going from, you know, like, zero we're at right now to like, you know 5% very very, very low level, you know, production of low volume high cost wounds like 95 in the space of like a few years after that.

Youtube Live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=2075

Approximate transcription from Youtube live recording:

And I think you know, the first thing is, What is your definition of industrialization? So, according to a, I just looked on the dictionary here, the dictionary definition is the large scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises and other productive economic activity into an area, society, country, etc. all some of these activities are in fact happening in low Earth orbit. Large scale, no. So maybe by that Definition not happening yet. But there are lots of emergent and nascent activities happening. It kicking you want to jump in here on on, on the sort of the timing of how far are we from sort of real life space industrialization? I think what they're talking about is just thinks maybe things done in a large scale sort of way. Well, this is a question that anybody in the industry industry worth his salt has been trying to figure out a way to answer for a while now, because it's so because the answer to the prize for answering that question is making a lot of money. But right now, I don't think anyone anybody could begin to estimate that because we're currently living in a period of this industry where technological advancements particularly for launch are happening at such a fast rate, that it's very difficult for anybody to really try to read the tea leaves and figure out you know, when the tea Point is going to come. If I was a, when you think about it, to achieve large scale industrialization

And additional input from my colleague and partner, Keegan Kirkpatric.

ou need to have, if not resource independence, that's the ability to, you know, get any resources you need and relatively locally, you need to have supply chains to be able to bring any resources, you'd need to carry out industrial operations at scale, either from the earth the moon or asteroids while those supply chains don't exist. And even with starship with, even with elans you know, ambitious production rates probably won't exist in any real form or another, optimistically five years. I mean, really optimistically, probably both. Even with that, those first missions are going to be primarily about setting up outposts, just to be able to conduct basic research and see if it's even worth going after. Now. There will be a tipping point, industrialization was one of those, you know topics and he really read about about it. It is kind of fascinating how fast humans will actually do it once they figure out that they can. One of my favorite examples of this is, if you look at the history of Japan, during me, you know, first contact with Admiral Perry, when Westerners first showed up in Japan, there was not there was no industrialization of any kind. Why would there be they weren't, you know, connected to this broader, you know, European American, American, colonial, you know, infrastructure. But within half a century, they beat one of the largest navies on the planet. And we're well on their way to be being one of the most dynamic industrial countries the world. See. That story is not really unique in the history of humanity. So I think that it's going to take us at least a decade, to build out the supply chains to be able to make any possible industrial life at that point, it'll start to happen much more Faster we'll we'll go for it'll be like going from, you know, like, zero we're at right now to like, you know 5% very very, very low level, you know, production of low volume high cost wounds like 95 in the space of like a few years after that.

How is the average working stiff ever to make a buck from space exploration/exploitation?

u/Afireonthesnow hit the nail on the head

All companies trade stocks so you can try to do some trading. As space travel gets more accessible we should see more space travel that can increase the value of the stock as the first trips are expected to be of scientific and technical nature.

we're gonna move on to the next one from talking back again. posted yesterday how's the average working stiff ever to make a buck from space exploration or exploitation? Well, there are public stocks there are there's a you know, Virgin Galactic it's is traded under I think I don't remember the trick tickets ticker signal the holding company, but you can buy and sell stocks there. There are ETFs there's one called UFO. I think there might even be a couple others, but it's Essentially, they're aggregating other publicly traded aerospace companies, excuse me, we can buy their stock. So an ETF is almost like a little tiny mutual fund. So you can, you know, buy a share, and that share owns a bunch of different companies. And you can hold on to that, buy and sell it, trade it. There's also ways to, you can start your own space related company. If you think say, Hey, I'm just an average stiff, what am I working on? Well, you can do things digitally. You know, there's all sorts of creative ways to do things that don't necessarily rely purely on hardware. If that interests you, you can take a job for a space company and just, you know, make a career transition that way. There are no now more angel investment opportunities where you can invest for a lot less money and there's even ways that I think fully non accredited investors are Being able to get involved. This is a company I'm not invested in it but is I do know the some principles with it. They're trying to bring Wi Fi networks to space and they're running a crowd equity platform or they're using a crowd equity platform to raise money. I think you can invest in as little as 100 bucks into their company called soul star space and they have a campaign going on right now. They sent up a Wi Fi hub on a Blue Origin vehicle and sent a tweet back. But again, I'm not advocating or pushing any specific investments in one should always speak to their tax and legal advisors regarding any investment choices regarding that sort of risk had to give that disclosure I'm just speaking for myself and from some my experience and sharing some stories.

Do you believe astroid mining will be a profitable industry within our lifetime?

Well, I don't know how old you are. Um, but I would say, I think we'll see the genesis of it while I am alive, I would certainly hope that it actually starts to happen in a sort of repeatable and effective way. I think they'll probably be taking the resources to us in space first, not necessarily bringing them back to Earth. Um, but, you know, profitable. I guess that's TBD. There's lots of industries that kind of started relatively unprofitably, you know, so I would say maybe, hopefully, I'm giving some satisfaction to the answer there. And Keegan got a strong opinion on this one, do you think asteroid minds can happen within our lifetime?

Keegan commenting:

Almost certainly. Yeah. I'd say that you pretty much hit the nail on the head though that the profit generating aspect of it. We'll be carried out between companies and space. The most valuable thing you could get off of an asteroid. Yeah, right now when starships flying that really matter is water ice and really liquid oxygen. Musk was actually talking about this on that panel he was on on just the other day. And he was mentioning how most of what starship is carrying in terms of pupil or the refueling systems or any spacecraft is liquid oxygen about 78% to 22% for their propellant. So that's a lot of mass that is being brought up there. And this is I think, starship is probably going to enable the asteroid mining for water ice more than anything else because of that need. A big thing about that spacecraft is its system for using in space for Julie, you know, hypothetically that it doesn't work. So I can easily see, in space servicing companies trying to take advantage of that to harvest liquid oxygen at first, for topping off the tanks and a handful of satellites that need those systems

What's gonna be interesting to watch is most in satellites that have an onboard propulsion system tend to use on liquid oxygen dependent propellant propulsion systems, they either are electrically fueled, or have some kind of hypergolic mixture of some kind. And that means they tend to have a lot of really weird exotic birth balance on them. Whereas, you know, SpaceX and anything that's usually got a human on it or is going way out of the system. chemicals on a chemical booster uses liquid oxygen as its oxidizer. So what I think might be kind of weird watching this is, is an asteroid mining will end up being this kind of very, very niche use case for at least a few first few years of his life, to refuel a handful of spacecraft, and human ridden systems. What might be interesting to watch about all this thing I've been wondering about is if SpaceX can achieve the scale of launches that starship, you know, promises. We might see a weird situation where the industry switches over to a standard, you know, people mixture, you know, going from RP, one lox hydrogen mixes and different hyperbolic concoctions all all methane all the time scenario. And if that's the case, then it's not a lot of methane out of the solar system that we can really pull from there's we'd have to you might see a scenario where afterwards, it would be used, you know, primarily for resupplying oxygen stores on orbital depots, and then the tanker variant of starship might end up carrying almost exclusively methane to top off the tanks of those stations in orbit. So it's a, I got a little bit off tangent. But it's interesting to think about, about how economies that are still entirely theoretical, might not end up looking anything like how we think they're gonna look like, if you're talking about space mining for getting raw materials off of them. I think that'll happen. But I also think that it's going to be extremely used for the supply chains going on in space and in silicon and other rare earth elements to automated manufacturing stations that are making, you know, products that might also never actually set foot on Earth, at the space industrial boom, might need very localized to space itself for at least the first decade and change its life. So anyway, that got a little off topic there,

Robert, but I hope that answered the question

Robert replies: Yeah, it certainly did. Thanks, Keegan

I’m 45. Will I be able to go to space in my lifetime?

his is from Mega, chimp, mega chimp on 45 I'll be able to go to space in my lifetime. I certainly hope so. I mean, if you're relatively fit, you could probably go right now it's just so you got to find someone who's going to take you whether they're going to take you for gratis. Or you're going to pay. So you know, there's ways to go and there's a great group. It's a charitable organization, a nonprofit called space for humanity. Really awesome organization started by my friend Dylan Taylor, and space where humanity is starting a citizen space probe, a citizen astronauts space program, where anyone on the planet will be able to apply for potentially a free opportunity to go to space and I think that applications start in 2021 you have to look but it's space for humanity I think it's space for humanity orgy that the double check that but yeah I think you'll be able to go it just depends on how badly you want to go and how and for how long and those sorts of considerations

I have a decade-plus of professional experience in NewSpace includes roles at Arch Mission Foundation, where he notably worked to initiate the first Solar Library

Authorship as a form of Entrepreneurship has caused this pronoun disagreement.

That's because /u/socalguitar copied and pasted his own CV copy, possibly out of LinkedIn, I can't be bothered to look.

I bet Mr. Jacobson is, in fact, an 'Expert', as he has exposure to the industry. That's why you would start at the ground floor of a fledgling industry, so that you can define what Expertise is.

I find this inspiring. I'm going to choose an industry to become an Expert in, author a series of books about it, lobby VC for a Foundation or Society, and make myself the prime authority on something.

I'll be watching you closely, Mr. Jacobson, as you no doubt hope to be watched.

Mr. Jacobson, do you have any hard Technical training, such as a core Engineering degree or education? Why are you mentioning social issues in relation to the Space Industry? This sure seems like SEO Keyword loading. Do you worry that that might be perceived as insincere or dishonest?

In short, I'd like to sit down with you and pick your brain. Would you be willing to have a private, candid discussion with me about your Entrepreneur expertise?

Let's go to this one. I got a lot of points. It's sort of a little bit I guess it's personal. I have no problem answering this. This is from pm me your body girl. Well, I'm not a girl. And I don't really talk that way. But you know, that's your handle. Cool. Um, so they put in this big box about the different pronouns that were used. Well, you know, ama have you know, everything is I am a so when they set it up, yeah, they used hi in here, it's a little awkward, they should change that. And basically saying, authorship is a form of entrepreneurship. Well, I just sort of look at all of life as a big creative endeavor. And I create and I have created create all sorts of things from you know, I've been a musician and create things. You know, I wrote a book. I'm working on companies working for companies consulting, I just look at all life is just a part of The big creative endeavor and some things, some things go better than others. I've had failures I fail sometimes every day and it's about learning where I went back. What I did later in life is actually went back to did some schooling, specifically around space because I wanted to plug up holes as I wanted to increase my sort of space IQ. And, and I felt fortunate that I was able to start understanding what was the nascent industry, and to, to really recognize that space is really, really a big interdisciplinary sector. And although I can say I'm a maybe a more of a generalist, I am by no means going to be able to go head to head with a guy like Keegan, who is on the line here. His in terms of, you know, keep kicking could actually go in and bolt together and build a rocket. I'm not the guy to do that. I build model rockets and That way, but you know, that's that's not been my focus. And so I have all sorts of respect for people like Keegan, who, who, you know, he worked at in Mojave for Meston doing hardcore, you know, building. So there's lots of different ways to build things. And I think the part of thing I'm trying to engender with what I've been advocating more recently is that as this industry is growing and developing, we need all types of people. And this is a huge, big, you know, diversity in all different meanings. So if someone thinks I'm like keyword loading this type of thing, I'd be like, no way. I'm not. I actually do firmly believe that space does have the answers to some of our global challenges, whether it's around climate change and pollution. I do I kind of share I think it's an envision slower Jeff Bezos. It's an alien vision, seeing billions of people in the solar system. This is something that Professor Jerry O'Neill was thinking about with his book, The high frontier, he was a Princeton professor who influenced many people in this area. And he basically thought about and designed these in space free space. Cities in space that would have artificial gravity. So you could have hundreds then thousands 10s millions, if not more people living in space. And that's, that's sort of the vision that I have so that we can preserve the earth, keep it green, and still have a few billion people here on the planet. I'm getting on a little tangent here, but essentially, you know, preserving our Earth keeping it green, using space and smart, sustainable ways to help us here on earth and push out, expand further. Something I came across was there's a paper by a group of researchers one is Martin Elvis, or Elvis Martin, excuse me, excuse me or more of a sentence in apologize. I'm having a brain fart. But then Research basically said, Look, we need to set aside a good portion of the solar system as wilderness. That means we don't touch it. But there will still be plenty for us for many hundreds of years to do. You know, resource development there.

Which space startups (excluding spacex) excite you the most?

NanoRax is one. Astrobotic in another cool company. Made in Space is another great one, they had several flights to space.

Also Keegan's RedWorks is very exciting.

u/ZehPowah couldn't agree more

here's a there's a few somebody mentioned one that I would have said regardless called nano racks on this was from the question was from plus one two hopefully I got that pronunciation correct and zip Wah, wrote nanoracks and again,Relativity relativity is a cool company.

I work with Arch Mission Foundation, which is helping backup Earth civilization, we've had several flights to space, including the one on the first Falcon Heavy flight.

And we flew our first lunar library on with SpaceX on the bright sheet, which is the Israelis the SpaceIL mission that crashed landed on the moon - had a hard landing, but we think our library is intact.

And we're going to be flying in 2021, with Astrobotic, which is also a lunar company. They're doing some cool stuff. Other companies I really like that are doing interest.

intriguing work is axiom space, which is developing private space habitats. Bigelow used to really excite me but I think the air has been a little bit deflated there so to speak, pun intended, they were building inflatable habitats.

I'm I'm really excited by what's going on in potential the potential for manufacturing and Life Sciences development on orbit. Particularly there's a company out of Israel called Space Pharma, that's doing good work. Space Tango out of Kentucky.

It's also doing interesting work in this you know, comm called the potential biology life science development area in space. I think relativity is called what they're doing building a rocket with, from like, kind of from nose to tail on the top the bottom using additive manufacturing.

See, it seems like you know, different, different people have their own sort of flavor of preferences of what they what they like and what resonates with them and I would encourage people to maybe check out some of those, those companies to learn more

Edit: Keegan shared some of his favorites starting approximately 52:59, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=3120

How many commercial space ports are there? Why make a distinction from public sector spaceports, what are the differences?

actually don't know. but you have, Mojave Spaceport in Mojave, over in Southern California, you've got spaceport America, just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

I know places like the state of Georgia and many in many states are trying to build a spaceport. many times they're sometimes they're taking existing airport and trying to add a license that they get from the FAA, so they can do commercial operations there.

Do yo think if we wanted we could start building a lunar base tomorrow ?

there was a group that came together and Silicon Valley look if that were possible, and I think they estimate the range between five and $9 billion. But I've heard that it's probably on the closer to $9 billion.

Have you ever played or heard of Kerbal Space Program?

Yes of course! I played it once. It has some great physic simulations.

There is a grave concern for Orbital Debris and Kessler Syndrome. How can we push the haves (the nations actively launching) to contribute to the cleanup? I have spoken to a few industry professionals, but they do not have the means to do this without gov support.

Yeah, so there's a few companies that are starting to look at orbital debris, some are doing tracking. But I haven't seen a good economic for profit model yet

How dose one in Ireland go about getting into a space related field, do I have to be good at math? Thanks for the AMA

Answered via Youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5914 International Space university had a recent program in Cork, Ireland. I would look at I think it was I don't maybe it's the University of cork, but I would look up the school. See, ask that, you know, just ask them about what problems they have related to space. No, David, I think in a good strong astronomy program. Take a look on Google under maybe Irish astronaut Irish new space. I would, I would do search on that and you'll find a few people on who are doing kind of space related stuff in Ireland. So one person who I know is Dr. Nora Patton. You could look her up. She wants to be, I think Ireland's first astronaut. So check her out.

Are there opportunities for space electricians? How do I go about pursuing doing electrical work in space?

Answered via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5970 and Approx. transcription: Well, there's not necessarily specifically just pure electrical work right now on space, the people on space station doing a wide variety of activities, but they do need electricians in the space program. And I talked a lot about this earlier on the AMA.

What’s your favorite dinosaur?

pterodactyl

How can we as people with little influence on space and space operations, at all contribute or capitalise on the booming space industry you project?

answered via youtube live https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6388

I've got kids at ages 7 and 9. What kinds of skills do you think will be most in-demand within the space industry ~10 years from now?

I would say I think they're going to need all sorts of creative problem solving skills, you know, maybe, you know, they might have many different jobs over their careers. So I think making sure they have activities that they can do that they really enjoy that touch on a lot of disciplines. It doesn't have to be things that are specifically space interest. If they love dealing with plants and botany and gardening. I think that's cool and they love math and music, think you should be able to develop all of those skills.

How will the space industry affect video production work flows and technology in the future, especially ones that take place mostly in space?

answered via youtube live, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6433

Is asteroid mining economically feasible?

answered via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6380

There is an alarming trend of space companies revealing themselves to be incapable of actually building working hardware. Failures include critical rocket designs from Aerojet and Blue Origin, which in turn have delayed Vulcan, New Glenn and SLS. Boeing failed their crew capsule test and dropped the XS-1 project completely.

​

What are the forces that have caused this trend, how will it be corrected, and who is in a position to capitalize on it?

Replied via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5694

Top 5 rockets and why? Let's go!

Answered via youtube live,https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5801

approx transcription,

My top five rockets and why well, Saturn five because I think as a kid that just looked awesome than the space shuttle. Then probably Falcon Heavy because I had payload that flew on it, which is pretty freakin awesome. Well, the group I worked with for our commission foundation I think Falcon nine is amazing. The kind of covers that and well, I would have loved to see nexcore Lynx fly but that was not completed

Why should I trust or want a private corporation (or corporations) to do space exploration/industry as opposed to governments?

Answered via youtube live, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5843

Approx. transcription

you don't have to trust them. They're already kind of doing things there's there's a there's a commercial companies can be when the first Deep Space Exploration comes called explore. It's led by my friend led by Lisa and Jeff rich day, private companies can can work in parallel work for and with governments to take off some of the things that they can't fully do. So low Earth orbit is a great example. You know, we still have government activity there but now we've got private companies are going to start basically doing the truck driving carrying logistics supplies and people to low Earth orbit, and slowly over time that will continue to happen as we press further out into the solar system we can do both I think there's we private and public work fine together can work fine together

Serious question for the ignorant (me) are we really doing anything in commercial in space besides setting up satellites and some limited 0g research?

Answered via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6300

Given the inherent structural inequalities and contradictions of capitalism, do you think that opening up a new market where only the already extremely wealthy can compete will exacerbate wealth inequality even more so than at present, and present the new challenge of a break away civilization that can afford to leave the rest of us behind on a burning planet while it's remaining resources are harvested to provide for survival of the most wealthy and exploitative humans alive today, in the most inhabitable conditions imaginable?

If not, how do you see a space faring civilisation in the current sociopathic economic paradigm not becoming an interstellar feudal society in which people like Elon Musk have more direct control over the lives of individuals in space than their Earthbound governments or individual human rights should provide for?

Beyond the thrill of adventure and exploration of the unknown, why should anyone in their right mind take the risk of going to space if there are no meaningful democratic structures in place to guarantee they won't simply become wage slaves in zero gravity?

Finally, the track records of major corporations explicitly interested in the acquisition of natural resources are not great when it comes to transparency, long term sustainability, crimes against nature and humanity, and most recently Elon Musk openly admitted to being the beneficiary directly or indirectly of a coup in Bolivia, saying quote "we will coup whoever we want, deal with it." What logical basis is there for assuming corporations will not commit egregious crimes against the natural world and each other in space if they are seemingly incapable of ceasing to do so on Earth?

answered via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6457

Could you elaborate about you attending ISU? That is what had you done before attending, what had you done there and for how long, and more about your experience and stuff as well as what you did after that and how it impacted your life? Also could you briefly tell me about ISU itself?

I answered on youtube (copying link to a few seconds ahead of your question): https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5167

I’m a Construction project manager, aspirant. What is the best way to prepare myself for a hands on role in the space industry?

I answered on youtube (copying link to a few seconds ahead of your question): https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5421

or the approximate transcription,

I don't know where you're, where you're physically located. See if there's any, you know, maybe maker spaces or hackerspaces. in your area, that might be an interesting way to start a space project, maybe there is a good way to maybe start is maybe at a local makerspace we could find a few other people might want to work on a space project. And you could do something like to a small satellite project. There are these kind of projects that are called where there was this type of Satellite form factor called the CubeSat. And they were initially made for akademia. They were like small little boxes, little satellites, and they weren't expected to fly. And now there's a whole industry where people are using these, this, this form factor these cube satellites, because they were done in increments of essentially, I think 10 centimeters. And these cute satellites are now flying in space, and you can build one and get one sense of space. So if I'm just thinking out of the box here, just a little bit, you know, you know, find some other people want to do something, maybe some who's got some electrical skills or some other people, maybe you could, you know, work together on a CubeSat project. There's even smaller satellites. My friend Sean Whitehead, he's, he he runs a group called scout tech limited out in the UK, and creation air. And he's developing something called the thumb set, which is a matchbox sized satellite

How do you think biotechnology (in particular, synthetic and systems biology) will factor into space exploration? Will there be a commercial market?

answering via youtube video: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5522 or approximate transcription I think it's gonna be very crucial, especially if we're going to have to take or grow our food in space or potentially reengineer. Humans to better with standards withstands the rigors of long term space travel microgravity radiation. That's why I personally am more of a fan of artificial gravity. I think when it comes to commercial market, I think we'll see some of the uses of some of these things being developed in space back on Earth, probably first before humans in space but could happen in parallel.

Do you think the incresed privatisation of space could be a big issue? Wealth inequality is already a massive probem. How do we stop it from getting worse when someone who is already obscenely wealthy (like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for example) brings back an asteroid worth trillions?

I think it is clear that the opportunities from expanding into the solar system are practically limitless. Do you not think it is a problem to basically be handing it to people who are already privileged? Wouldn't it be much better for humanity if space exploration remained in the public domain so that all of society can benefit? Basically I'm imagining a (far?) future where the practically limitless resources that could potentially be extracted from celestial bodies could create a post-scarcity society, elevating all of humanity and perhaps even eliminating poverty vs. one where "the elite" just becomes more powerful and wealthy while the rest of us are left in the dust.

Answered via youtube Live, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5523

So what’s the role of policy and law in this new age of space exploration and extraction?

Answered via youtube live, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5634

or Approx Transcription from youtube, Well, there's space lobbyists. There's lots of space lawyers. There's lots of blogs and commentary on this. It's there's no shortage of debate. Space geeks and space professionals love to get into space policy debate and argument. So I would suggest if you want to know more about it, and spaces roll, go research it out because space is a highly regulated and contested environment.

Hi Robert, thanks for the AMA!

How does can a recent college graduate with an economics degree and no engineering/coding background get into the space industry?

I answered on youtube (copying link to a few seconds ahead of your question): https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5340

What would you say is the number 1 obstacle/unsolved problem that is standing in the way of commercialized space travel? Excluding capital and building times and the usual issues. I'm interested in if there is any situation that we have yet to solve.

Answered via youtube live, https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5678

Hi Robert, thanks for doing this AMA! I have a somewhat specific question, but I'd love your insight.

Ambitious space companies like Planetary Resources have had a very hard time getting off the ground. Many analysts cite problems with IP law, specifically, as a reason why it's hard to get off the ground as a private space company. For example, Elon Musk has cited competition from China as the reason why SpaceX only has one patent, NASA contractually limits IP protection for its private partners, and law firms have pointed to a loophole in U.S. patent law that allows for foreign-registered space companies to infringe patents without consequences.

Do you think a fundamental change in space IP law is necessary for the space industry to succeed, or are there ways upstart companies can innovate in space without standard IP protections?

answered via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=5992

Approx transcription:

So power talks about IP Do we need IP law changes So I actually do write a little bit about IP. And there, there are a lot of companies that will use trade secrets instead of you know, patents because they don't want anybody to see what they're working on. So, but even if you have trade secrets, you know, I think the bigger concern rather than just IP, it's cyber security and all the soft, soft espionage that happens in terms of stealing IP so and, and I know that sometimes company I mean, government agencies or if you're working for government, you can have contractual limits on IP. So there probably could be some innovation that could happen there. I'm not an IP expert, but but I think maybe there could be some changes around there

What does it feel like to create an entire narrative as a person that you have any right or special knowledge of a place that is infinite when it comes to "storage" and how quickly did you think of a way to exploit stupid people to make it seem like you had any real "expertise" in that field?

You're either a fraud, a con man, or a huge piece of shit for trying to monetize something that 99.99 percent of humanity has no access to.

Oink oink you capitalist pig.

answered your question via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6050

My 11-year-old has become very excited about the concept of interplanetary domination (likely due to his introduction to the sci-fi genre). He's very interested in the idea of putting a giant laser on the moon, surely as a defensive measure. That led to a fantastic discussion about the logistics of such a laser, which leads me to my question for you:

What are the options for power on a moon station? Would we simply set up a nuclear generator since radiation shielding is already something we're going to need to be concerned about? Or is the cost of that so astronomical (heh) that there's practically no break-even point on sending up as many solar panels as we'd need to power a growing station there?

Answered via youtube live:

https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6121

I am a 26 year old non american scuba diving instructor. Any chances for me to get into training astronauts for underwater zero gravity simulations or getting into space in my lifetime? Something I can do to achieve that?

Answered via youtube live:

https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=6169

When you were young, did you read the 1975 book "The Third Industrial Revolution" by G. Harry Stine? He laid out just how fantastically amazing the next fifty years would be for industry in space.

Then came the Challenger disaster. But then came the end of the cold war so money could finally be put into research! But then came 2001-06-11. By now we should have had factories in orbit instead of in China.

Replied via youtube live: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=7349

What does Space Angels typically look for in a space focused startup?

Answered via youtube: https://youtu.be/WP4eQso_xUo?t=7293