Dreams, schemes and opportunity as space opens for tourism and commerce.
Twentieth century space exploration may have belonged to state-funded
giants such as NASA, but there is a parallel history which has set the
template for the future.
Even before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, private companies were
exploiting space via communication satellites - a sector that is seeing
exponential growth in the internet age. In human spaceflight, too,
commercialisation is making itself felt. Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon
Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have long trumpeted plans to make
space travel a possibility for ordinary people and those ideas are
inching ever closer to reality. At the same time, other companies plan
to mine the Moon for helium-3, or asteroids for precious metals.
Science writer Andrew May takes an entertaining, in-depth look at the
triumphs and heroic failures of our quixotic quest to commercialise the
final frontier.