A lucid, bright and essential work of reporting, analysis and genuine
care. Peter Ward has given us a new way to think about private endeavors
in space. Superb.--Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labors
This in-depth work of reportage dares to ask what's at stake in
privatizing outer space
Earth is in trouble--so dramatically that we're now scrambling to
explore space for valuable resources and a home for permanent
colonization. With the era of NASA's dominance now behind us, the
private sector is winning this new space race. But if humans and their
private wealth have made such a mess of Earth, who can say we won't do
the same in space?
In The Consequential Frontier, business and technology journalist
Peter Ward is raising this vital question before it's too late.
Interviewing tech CEOs, inventors, scientists, lobbyists, politicians,
and future civilian astronauts, Ward sheds light on a whole industry
beyond headline-grabbing rocket billionaires like Bezos and Musk, and
introduces the new generation of activists trying to keep it from
rushing recklessly into the cosmos.
With optimism for what humans might accomplish in space if we could
leave our tendency toward deregulation, inequality, and environmental
destruction behind, Ward shows just how much cooperation it will take to
protect our universal resource and how beneficial it could be for all of
us.
