Growing space economy: a story of inequity or innovation?
Space exploration and investment has always been a mystical and romantic fantasy that has been toyed around with in the media. Ideas around humans in space like the Star Wars franchise that ruled the late 20th century displayed a societal desire to explore and utilize the resources that come from the cosmic unknown.
But recently, space has no longer been a romantic fantasy and Earth’s atmosphere is no longer the edge of the human frontier. With the emergence and development of companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin (founded by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respectively), the utilization of the cosmos for human betterment has become well within reach.
Human developments that utilize space have high potential to address many “Earth-bound” issues that are rooted in natural sciences, perhaps the most significant being climate change.
Satellite technology being used to research and thus combat climate change is not necessarily a new topic of conversation in the environmental field. Programs such as the ESA Climate Change Initiative and Copernicus Climate Change Services have already been used in recent years to provide climate data and contribute to mitigation efforts. The Global Stock Takes include a satellite derived greenhouse gas emission report, which is said to be more comprehensive than ever.
Technologies that consumers regard as basic actually came from space exploration - such as the GPS system and most important to consumer climate-friendly acclamation: semiconductor solar cells.
Even the idea of space-based solar power stations have been thrown around to harness the abundance of solar energy in orbital areas around the Earth, a crucial resource in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Satellite is already being employed in another area, and this is perhaps the most important: the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector consistently suffers from shortages because of the sensitivity of the product. Irregular weather patterns (which are increasing in occurrence due to climate change) and poor crop yield due to other reasons can absolutely devastate the supply-chain for produce. Those who take the biggest fall tend to be those working on the localized, smaller farms, who’s entire livelihood depends on that specific crop. The agricultural sector clearly needs some sort of solution to provide certainty and stability for the supply-chain.
Satellite technology can do a lot for these producers specifically through crop yields- yield estimation, yield optimization, sustainability practices, predicting and mitigating effects from natural disasters, and monitoring. All of these ensure that the crop yield will not be compromised because of poor conditions, and the technological assistance provides support and a degree of certainty through data collection in the face of labor shortages. With an increased production of satellite technology to prevent poor crops being used in space, these satellites will be much cheaper due to higher supply, and they will be more widely used for different sources of agricultural products. The more widespread these technologies are, the cheaper they are likely to become.
Increasing investments in space can presumably increase the prevalence and frequency of usage of satellite technologies in agriculture.
However, all of the aforementioned benefits must be taken in with a grain of salt. To accurately assess the benefits, we must question, how is this heightened space exploration going to realistically play out?
We can look to Earth-based economies to find the answer to our question.
One of the important values to consider in economic analysis is equity and equality (including distributive justice). The space economy will likely make it much harder to actually achieve the state of equity within the global economy, because of the perpetuated disparities within the space economy. Projections about improved satellite systems for internet and cellular functions, and agriculture, will likely only go to those who can actually afford these services. The prices would need to drop substantially in order for people in communities, especially those in poor rural ones, to be able to afford these improved internet services. Some communities do not have access to technology let alone the internet, therefore these benefits are not to be felt by these communities.
Meanwhile, the SpaceX astronautics company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, is valued at about $180 billion and increasing, making it the world’s second most valuable startup. It comes at no surprise that such a valuable startup that has 2 million customers for their satellite internet services is owned by someone who had the resources and capital to begin with in the first place.
The growth felt by the space sector benefits companies such as SpaceX above all. It can be concluded that the value of the technology and missions is the appeal in the first place. The capital that is derived from these markets will flow straight upward, and surely the billionaires who invest in space will profit.
Accessibility does not seem to be the value that is defining the growing space economy, rather it is profit that defines it. Really any sort of economic growth brings up the question of equity - who will be feeling the growth? It is likely that not all of humanity will actually feel that growth as opposed to looking at it from afar.
What really defines how growth in any given sector is going to play out is the values of those that dominate and that impact the structure with their decisions. Although governmental programs, such as NASA, have been acting in conjunction with the private sector to ensure a flow of funding, research, and public versus private interests, there will always be the concern that the interest for profit will be too overpowering.
During the discovery and growth of a new economic frontier, such as when Europeans discovered the resources in the Americas, there will always be present power grabs. In this case that takes the form of money from technology and missions. That strong presence of potential power in the form of money inevitably attracts larger corporations and billionaire moguls such as Mr. Musk, which immediately draws light on the matter of equity.
Perhaps, the space economy may be a story of inequity as opposed to innovation.
Written by Saniya Bhagwat
