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Space

Billionaires and Tech Barons Vying To Build a Private Space Station (telegraph.co.uk) 58

Posted by EditorDavid from the final-frontiers dept.
"Private space stations have been raising billions of dollars in an effort to build future hubs — and even one day cities — in orbit," according to a recent report from the U.K. newspaper, the Telegraph: Axiom Space, a US business aiming to build its own station, has raised more than $500m (£400m). Vast, a space business backed by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb, is plotting two stations before the end of the decade. Gravitics, meanwhile, has raised tens of millions of dollars for its modular space "real estate". Nasa itself, along with other space agencies, is planning a further station, Lunar Gateway, which will orbit the Moon. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin has also announced plans to build a space station by 2027, called Orbital Reef, which it has described as an orbital "mixed-use business park". Working with US aerospace business Sierra Space, Orbital Reef will be made up of inflatable pods, which can be launched on a regular rocket before being "blown up" in space. Sierra Space says these modules could house in-space manufacturing or pharmaceutical technology...

Since 2021, Nasa has also offered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to private companies to develop commercial space stations that could succeed the ISS. So far, it has handed $400m to companies including Axiom, Blue Origin (which is working with Sierra Space), and Northrop Grumman... Vast hopes to launch its first space station, Haven-1, as soon as 2025. This simple module will be the first privately-run space station and will be occupied by a crew of four over four two week expeditions... While Vast was not one of the businesses to secure funding from Nasa, it hopes by launching the first proof-of-concept space station as soon as next year it can leapfrog rival efforts and claim the agency as an anchor customer. From there, it can target other space agencies or companies looking to conduct research.
Some interesting perspectives from the article:
  • Chris Quilty, an analyst at Quilty Space: "If China were not building its own space station it is arguable whether Nasa would have felt enjoined to maintain a human presence in low Earth orbit."
  • Tim Farrar, founder of TMF Associates, which advises some of the world's top space companies: "Unless they either secure government funding or focus on space tourism, they will inevitably have to rely on the largess of either billionaires or gullible investors who are space enthusiasts."

Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the news.


Billionaires and Tech Barons Vying To Build a Private Space Station More | Reply

Billionaires and Tech Barons Vying To Build a Private Space Station

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  • What ever happened (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    to Bigelow? The inflatable modules looked very promising for a time.

  • By simple association I believe there billionaires would be gullible as well?

    Space: the place where once you start working Jeff Bezos can shut off the oxygen if you don't work hard enough.

    • and then you can kill your boss and then the jail / prison system will be forced to pay for your oxygen while waiting for trial

      • and then you can kill your boss and then the jail / prison system will be forced to pay for your oxygen while waiting for trial

        If a sailboat can use the wind to escape the bounds of local laws and drift lazily into the lawlessness of international waters, I wonder how far you’ll have to travel in space to find swift justice?

        In space, no one can hear you scream. - Ancient Hollywood Proverb

    • Perish the thought!

      Billionaire denotes having superb acumen, enormous genitalia, and abilities only rivaled by god!

      I was thinking laying the foundations for an escape plan after the earth is trashed. I hate we are getting closer to sci-fi dystopia by the moment.

      • There was this one Outer Limits episode, where billionaires military etc... fled to a private space station after they f*** up the world. The survivors simply built up the world again under better circumstances and a better society, and when the billionaires etc.. wanted to come back they shot them out of the sky to keep peace on earth!

        • Do you have the season and episode number of that one? Sounds interesting.

          • Sorry googled it up, it apparently was twilight zone (aka aired around the same time) here is a reference: https://scifi.stackexchange.co... [stackexchange.com]

            • See also: Voyage from Yesteryear & post-scarci (Score:4, Interesting)

              by Paul Fernhout ( 109597 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @10:33AM (#65063711) Homepage

              Looks like Twilight Zone's "Quarantine" from 1986 you linked to was made a few years after James P. Hogan's "Voyage From Yesteryear" novel came out in 1982. The concepts overlap a bit with a new human society resisting a continuity from Earth's authoritarian/plutocratic/etc politics::
              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
              "As the surviving power blocs of Earth before the conflict are still evident, North America, Europe and Asia each send a generation ship to Alpha Centauri to take control of the colony [previously created by an automated space probe from Earth from human DNA data]. ... The Mayflower II has brought with it thousands of settlers, all the trappings of the authoritarian regime along with bureaucracy, religion, fascism and a military presence to keep the population in line. However, the planners behind the generation ship did not anticipate the direction that Chironian society took: in the absence of conditioning and with limitless robotic labor and fusion power, Chiron has become a post-scarcity economy. Money and material possessions are meaningless to the Chironians and social standing is determined by individual talent, which has resulted in a wealth of art and technology without any hierarchies, central authority or armed conflict. In an attempt to crush this anarchist adhocracy, the Mayflower II government employs every available method of control; however, in the absence of conditioning the Chironians are not even capable of comprehending the methods, let alone bowing to them. The Chironians simply use methods similar to Gandhi's satyagraha and other forms of nonviolent resistance to win over most of the Mayflower II crew members, who had never previously experienced true freedom, and isolate the die-hard authoritarians. ..."

              And in general, that is the issue I have with current approaches to things like space development as well as AI and other technology. As Langdon Winner suggests in his writings like "Autonomous Technology", technological infrastructure tends to reflect the political values of the society that creates it. In the USA in particular today, there is little *actual* concern in terms of action about a growing rich/poor divide or an increasing concentration of wealth and power supporting that. Thus we seem headed towards the first of the two worlds (the late, sigh) Marshall Brain depicted in "Manna" where everyone but a small elite is warehoused (and presumably sterilized) in essentially robotically-operated concentration camps. Other futures are possible, but we need to choose them as a society.

              My sig reflects that idea: "The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity." And that sig in turn reflects ideas from many others (Albert Einstein, Buckminster Fuller, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Mumford, etc).

              So does this collection of options I put together reflect those ideas:
              https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-... [pdfernhout.net]
              "This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox economic perspective. It emphasizes the implications of ideas by Marshall Brain and others that improvements in robotics, automation, design, and voluntary social networks are fundamentally changing the structure of the economic landscape. It outlines towards the end four major alternatives to mainstream economic practice (a basic income, a gift economy, stronger local subsistence economies, and resource-based planning). These alternatives could be used in combination to address what, even as far back as 1964, has been described as a breaking "income-through-jobs link". This link between jobs and income is breaking because of the declining value of most paid human labor relative to capital investments in automation and better design. Or, as is now the case, the value of paid human labor like at some newspapers or universities is also declining relative to the output of voluntary social networks such as for digital content production (like represented by this document). It is suggested that we will need to fundamentally reevaluate our economic theories and practices to adjust to these new realities emerging from exponential trends in technology and society."

              I used to be a big fan of space development, as with my 1988 statement of purpose for PhD graduate school at Princeton, related to developing self-replicating space habitats (inspired in part by James P. Hogan's novels, including both "Voyage from Yesteryear" and "The Two Faces of Tomorrow"):
              https://pdfernhout.net/princet... [pdfernhout.net]
              "As outlined in my statement of purpose, my lifetime goal is to design and construct self-replicating habitats. These habitats can be best envisioned as huge walled gardens inhabited by thousands of people. Each garden would have a library which would contain the information needed to construct a new garden from tools and materials found within the garden's walls. The garden walls and construction methods would be of several different types, allowing such gardens to be built on land, underground, in space, or under the ocean. Such gardens would have the capacity to seal themselves to become environmentally and economically self-sufficient in the event of economic collapse or global warfare and the attendant environmental destruction. ..."

              Some (very small) related later work by me and others in that direction:
              https://kurtz-fernhout.com/osc... [kurtz-fernhout.com]
              https://www.oscomak.net/ [oscomak.net]
              "The OSCOMAK project will foster a community in which many interested individuals will contribute to the creation of a distributed global repository of manufacturing knowledge about past, present and future processes, materials, and products. OSCOMAK stands for "OSCOMAK Semantic Community On Manufactured Artifacts and Know-how".

              To think NASA gave $400 million to private companies to build proprietary stuff instead of funding something like OSCOMAK to help everyone everywhere (including in space). What I could have done with $400 million back then...

              But ultimately, without a society mindshift, what real value is there to 99% of the people if proprietary AI and proprietary space habitats reflect the priorities of a tiny elite -- with one of their priorities being to exclude almost everyone from such places in an "Elysium"-like way?
              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
              "The film takes place on both a ravaged Earth and a luxurious artificial world (Stanford torus design) called Elysium."

              The fact is though, we already have a *lot* of Elysiums on Earth in various gated communities like, say, Indian Creek in Florida, with special access to, say, expensive concierge medicine.
              https://www.fromfrugaltofree.c... [fromfrugaltofree.com]
              https://princetonlongevitycent... [princetonl...center.com]

              If that is the kind of proprietary worlds we collectively want to use propriety AI to build, it's hard to think that is a great idea. Related:
              https://www.vice.com/en/articl... [vice.com]
              "Silicon Valley's wealthy elite are viewing doomsday as a serious threat, building bunkers in preparation for the potential destruction of all mankind. ... "The billionaires understand that they're playing a dangerous game," Rushkoff said. "They are running out of room to externalize the damage of the way that their companies operate. Eventually, there's going to be the social unrest that leads to your undoing." "The most powerful people in the world see themselves as utterly incapable of actually creating a future in which everything's gonna be OK." [said Douglas Rushkoff.] Like the gated communities of the past, their biggest concern was to find ways to protect themselves from the "unruly masses," Rushkoff said. "The question we ended up spending the majority of time on was: 'How do I maintain control of my security force after my money is worthless?'""

              Well, unless you believe in "trickle-down economics". That does have some truth to it, in the sense that proprietary ideas and works made originally for an elite can eventually become more broadly accessible when patents and copyrights expire or when costs are greatly reduced through innovation. So it is possible that space habitats made for the wealthy as refuges might eventually become cheap enough to visit or live in that more people have access to them.
              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

              One alternative though is, along the lines of free and open source software, to cooperatively developing freely-licensed technology libraries about sustainable and equitable human infrastructure (such as proposed with OSCOMAK). If the technology can be self-replicating (like, say, RepRap aspires to for 3D printing), then such habitats might one day become widespread thought the solar system supporting trillions of human lives in style.

              A related legacy from the Carter Administration which also inspired me:
              "Advanced Automation for Space Mission"
              https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citation... [nasa.gov]
              https://archive.org/details/Ad... [archive.org]
              "A NASA/ASEE Summer Study conducted at the University of Santa Clara in 1980 examined the feasibility of using advanced artificial intelligence and automation technologies in future NASA space missions. Four candidate applications missions were considered: (1) An intelligent earth-sensing information system, (2) an autonomous space exploration system, (3) an automated space manufacturing facility, and (4) a self-replicating, growing lunar factory. The study assessed the various artificial intelligence and machine technologies which must be developed if such sophisticated missions are to become feasible by century's end."

      • Perish the thought!

        Billionaire denotes having superb acumen, enormous genitalia, and abilities only rivaled by god!

        This makes me wonder, at what point will humans decide that someone has surpassed God on the monetary net-worth scale? How much is God worth? Not the Church, which obviously has as much to do with God as any other mortal based business, but actual God. I gotta think at some point some trillionaire will decide he's worth more than God, and declare himself the New God. I mean, we have altered our entire values system to prioritize money over everything else, it's only a matter of time before we declare some cut-off value for, "This is a God now," based on number of dollars in the total worth column.

  • Should call the space station 'Titan'.

    *fingers crossed*

  • Omega Bacillus. It didn't end well.
    https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki... [fandom.com]

  • Paul Krugman was right (Score:3)

    by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @02:17AM (#65063113)

    The amounts of capital raised om tje report here is chump change when it comes to the scale needed for permanent space habitats. If they raise $500B and not $500M then you might be talking about something serious. If you aren't on that level why even bother?

    Of course what else is some dweeb new billionaire supposed to do with his time anyway? Scoring new money is tedious; what they want now is adulation and worship.

    Speaking of which, the one thing sure thing in all of this if they do manage to do anyting is that Musk is going to sell a lot of rides on Starship.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Assuming Starship (or similar) brings the cost of lifting mass to orbit down, do space habitats really need to be so expensive to manufacture?

      I suspect that when your size and mass limits aren't quite so severe anymore, there are a number of things you can do to build them more cheaply. (Whether they will still be as reliable when built that way is an open question)

      • SpaceX made the lift to orbit astoundingly cheaper. If Starship meets its projections we could see $200 per kg. (At that price I expect to see a growing funeral industry for families sending off the urns of their passed loved ones into orbit or into the sun.)

        In that sense the cost-to-orbit has been "solved." The budget for designing, lifting, constructing, staffing, supplying, and providing transport of a habitat in a stable orbit is still no joke. The ISS costs upwards of $5B/year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Well, the Chinese station is thought to have cost around 8 billion Euro, with on going costs of 4 billion/year. So many 500bn USD is a bit more than needed, but they certainly need more than 0.5bn.

  • Hey, wish we hadn't cluttered up low earth orbit with stuff that will mess up our new space stations.

  • Elysium (Score:3)

    by TJHook3r ( 4699685 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @06:28AM (#65063393)
    Now I'm older I wonder at the naivety of the protagonist in the film. Not that I'll be one of the billionaires living in paradise aboard a luxury space station but its clearly implausible to sustain 8 billion people with a good standard of living

    • Now I'm older I wonder at the naivety of the protagonist in the film. Not that I'll be one of the billionaires living in paradise aboard a luxury space station but its clearly implausible to sustain 8 billion people with a good standard of living

      Sooner or later, this planet is going to have to diminish its human population. That may be by people heading off world, but recent events have hinted that it's more likely going to be some massive plague, or maybe it will be some climate disaster. This planet simply can't sustain 8+ billion humans with any reasonable standard of living. Or maybe the entire ecosystem collapses and we all die. Maybe that's an answer to the Fermi Paradox.

      • Look, the Chinese are already panicking over declining birth rates. I doubt they will push for moving off planet. Who would pay for pensions then?

        • Look, the Chinese are already panicking over declining birth rates. I doubt they will push for moving off planet. Who would pay for pensions then?

          If humans have proven one thing in the last few centuries, it's that we'll eventually leave this planet and go ecologically destroy another one. Hell, I'm pretty sure we could destroy Ceres if we wanted, just by the subtle art of not giving a fuck.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        We are heading for 10-11bn people by 2100, and that is sustainable if we are careful. Africa can produce a lot more food, for example.

        We have to deal with climate change and arseholes who seem to think that they can only live a good life if someone else suffers, but it's not impossible.

    • It took until you got older to realize how stupid that movie is? I am not impressed.

  • Cart and Horse (Score:3)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @09:30AM (#65063573)

    A minimal presence for research is required to progress, but anything more - even the ISS is too much - is a waste.

    We need to be doing basic research on low g and terrestrial biology, which means centrifuges in orbit. Radiation shielding testing doesn't require freefall, so that can be done right here on Earth.

    But until we can survive long term off Earth, building permanent habitats is just an expensive joke. Even short term tourism will wane once everyone realizes it's nausea, back pain and vision damage. It's better to take a near-space weather balloon ride for the same view at a fraction of the risk, cost, and discomfort.

    • The way we learn how to survive long term is to build these habitats. The nausea, pain, vision damage, etc. are the incentive to fix those issues. Moreover, there will almost certainly be some illnesses that are survivable long term in space that are not survivable on earth and the nausea, pain, vision etc. would be a small price to pay.

      But most importantly, this is private money, not government money. Private money spent on space research is ALWAYS a net positive. It is money that would have gone to

      • Private money spent on space research is ALWAYS a net positive. It is money that would have gone to prostitution, cocaine, Bugatti cars, and other total wastes.

        Those things are only seen as a total waste when it's not *YOU* getting to enjoy the prostitutes, cocaine, Bugatti cars and such. Honestly, at this point, private money going to space is just lumped in with all the rest of the waste in most people's eyes. It's the new calling card for the tech billionaire crowd. Zuck's probably getting picked on at their yearly "keeping up with the other douchewads of society" meetings. Musk whispers to Bezos, "You may be a prick, but that douche doesn't even have a rocket

  • .... new dream toilet for billionaires with FOMO

  • How will this end? (Score:3)

    by chthon ( 580889 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @09:59AM (#65063633) Journal

    Ben Elton, Stark [wikipedia.org]

  • ⦠rich people building a mixed-use oasis in space. Guessing none of them saw WALL-E.

  • Space is for robots (Score:3)

    by BytePusher ( 209961 ) on Sunday January 05, 2025 @11:08AM (#65063795) Homepage
    Honestly, space is a horrible environment for humans and the perfect environment for robots. You can feed a robot with a solar panel without having to send, food, fresh water and oxygen. Let's just do the research with robotic remote helping hands. Sending people made sense up until sometime in the last decade, when communications technology made controlling robots in real time feasible.
  • Isnt this how just about every villain gets there start? Orbiting death ray platform?

  • If Elon Musk and SpaceX can manage to cut cost to orbit by 1000x - and it sure looks as if they are closing in on that - then building and maintaining a space-station is going to be almost trivial compared to what's possible right now.

  • Orbiting the moon is useless. We need an actual lunar base.

  • It seems a little weird to describe people as 'vying' when the current state of the industry is mostly "talk about how cool your thing is and hope some sucker will pay you to build it; since nobody actually has a use case worked out".

    Now, over in satellites, people actually care enough to be making a mess for each other and littering the good orbits with debris; while space stations barely trundle on under some cold war era sense of duty.
  • Well the outer shell at least (does lego work in space?)

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