2015 Annual Wrap-Up: The Space-Based Ecosystem

by Catherine Austin Fitts

If you are like me, the last time you toured the various aspects of outer space was likely during a lecture in a high school science class. As you learn more now about what is happening in outer space today and you explore the economic ramifications, you will find it useful to refresh your familiarity with the basic parts of the “space-based ecosystem.”

These days Wikipedia makes the matter easy to study. Using the Wikipedia categories and links, here are the terms you will need to know to follow the growth of investment in space and its impact on you and your community followed by a chronology history of our activities in space now being officially declassified.

Space & Spaceflight: Definitions & Applications

The big money right now is in satellites – or at least in the data flowing through them. Transmission of data is the function in space that can support commercial enterprise without government support. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, we the people of the world have launched 6,700 satellites, of which 1,306 were operational as of June 2015. Of these, 548 are American, 129 are Russian, and 113 are Chinese. With a new generation of miniaturized satellites available, approximately 300 satellites are scheduled for launching in 2016. Global satellite industry revenues as of 2013 were approximately $200 billion, growing at an annual rate of 3 percent.

• Earth Observation Satellites
• Spy Satellites
• Communications Satellites
• Satellite Navigation

Space Observatory

Any instrument (such as the Hubble telescope) in space used for observation of outer space.

• Space Observatory

Space Exploration

The ongoing discovery of celestial structures in outer space. Although the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, the physical exploration of space is more widely conducted by unmanned, robotic probes and by human spaceflight. Space exploration is risky and expensive – requiring government funding.

• Space Exploration

Asteroids

Minor planets. The term asteroid has historically been applied to astronomical objects orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and were not active comets. Asteroid mining is the exploitation of raw materials from asteroid and near-Earth objects. Minerals and volatiles could be mined first, then be used in space or taken back to Earth, including base and precious metals; as well as water and oxygen taken aloft to sustain astronauts; as well as hydrogen, ammonia, and oxygen for use as rocket propellant. Asteroid mining is in the news as a result of the US Congress passing the Space Act of 2015, which permits private companies to claim materials mined on asteroids as their own private property.

• Asteroid Mining

Sourcing resources in space to construct space-based infrastructure is an important step to improving the economics of space exploration and colonization. In situ resources utilization (ISRU) is a term to refer to the collection, processing, storing and use of materials encountered in the course of space exploration that replaces materials that would otherwise be brought from planet Earth.

• In Situ Resources Utilization

Space Colonization

Permanent human habitation off of planet Earth. The two most common arguments for space colonization investment are survival of human civilization and the biosphere in case of a planetary-scale disaster (natural or man-made), and the vast resources in space for expansion of human society.

• Space Colonization

Space Tourism

Space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Currently, multiple companies are offering sales of future orbital and suborbital flights. To date, a small number of space tourists have paid approximately $20 million to $40 million for the space travel experience. The last space tourists flew in 2009.

• Space Tourism

Space Weapons

Weapons used in space warfare. They include weapons that can attack space systems in orbit (i.e. anti-satellite weapons), attack targets on the earth from space or disable missiles traveling through space. The Outer Space Treaty is a treaty that forms the basis of international law regarding space. The treaty bars governments party to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications. However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all the governments of the world. The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the common heritage of mankind Article II of the treaty states that “outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”.

• Space Weapon

Destinations

OK, so how do we describe the destinations in space?

Suborbital Spaceflight

A spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it does not complete one orbital revolution. An object launched from Earth that reaches 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, and then falls back to Earth, is considered a suborbital spaceflight.

• SubOrbital

Orbital Spaceflight

A spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To sustain an orbit around the Earth, the flight must be on a free trajectory which has an altitude above 100 kilometers (62 mi).

• Orbital

The Moon

The sole natural satellite of planet Earth.

• Moon

Interplanetary Spaceflight

Travel between planets, usually within a single planetary system. In practice, this means spaceflight between the planets of our known Solar System.

• Interplanetary Spaceflight

Interplanetary spaceflight includes spaceflight to other planets and minor planets or asteroids in the Solar System:

• Mars
• Outer Planets
• Asteroids

Interstellar Travel

The term used for hypothetical travel between stars. Because of the vastness of such distances, interstellar travel would require either great speed or huge travel time, lasting from decades to millennia or longer.

• Interstellar Travel

Intergalactic Travel

The term used for hypothetical travel between galaxies. Due to the enormous distances between our own galaxy the Milky Way and even its closest neighbors—hundreds of thousands to millions of light-years—any such venture would be far more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel. Intergalactic distances are roughly five orders of magnitude greater than their interstellar counterparts.

• Intergalactic Travel

Space Agencies

As of 2015, some 70 government space agencies exist. Thirteen of these have launch capability. Six government space agencies – the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA and the Russian RFSA (Roscosmos) – have full launch capabilities; these include the ability to launch and recover multiple satellites, deploy cryogenic rocket engines and operate extraterrestrial probes. Only three – NASA, the RFSA and the CNSA – have human spaceflight capability.

• Europe
• United States
• Russia
• China
• France
• Germany
• Iran
• India
• Japan

Private Investment

Expansion of the number of government space programs and total global funding as well as an emphasis on private commercial enterprise in space is attracting a significant increase in private investment in space. A significant amount of activity continues to remain in the traditional defense and government contracts. However, a growing number of startups are focused on radically improving the economics of space travel and creating commercially economic space activities.

• Communication Satellite Companies
• Private Spaceflight Companies
• Spacecraft Manufacturers
• Aerospace Companies

Human Spaceflight

Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight) is space travel with a crew aboard the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is crewed, it can be operated directly, as opposed to being remotely operated or autonomous. The first human spaceflight was launched by the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961 as a part of the Vostok program, with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard. Humans have been continuously present in space for 15 years and 59 days on the International Space Station.

• Space Capsule
• Space Station
• Spaceplane

Spacecraft

A spacecraft is a vehicle, or machine designed to fly in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transport of human and nonhuman cargo.

On a suborbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space and then returns to the surface, without having gone into an orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers from start or on orbit (space stations) only, whereas those used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically. Robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around a planetary body are artificial satellites. Only a handful of interstellar probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons, are on trajectories that leave the Solar System.

Orbital spacecraft may or may not ne be recoverable. By method of reentry to Earth, spacecraft may be divided in non-winged space capsules and winged spaceplanes.

• Robotic Spacecraft
• Satellite
• Space Probe
• Uncrewed Resupply Spacecraft
• UFO’s

Launch

A rocket launch is the takeoff phase of the flight of a rocket. Launches for orbital spaceflights, or launches into interplanetary space, usually start from a fixed location on the ground, but may also be from a floating platform (such as the Sea Launch vessel) or, potentially, from a super-heavy An-225-class airplane.

• Spaceport
• Launch Pad
• Expendable and Reusable Systems
• Escape Velocity
• Non-Rocket Spacelaunch

Spaceport

A site for launching (or receiving) spacecraft. The word spaceport has traditionally been used for sites that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbit or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for purely sub-orbital flights are sometimes called spaceports, as in recent years new and proposed sites for suborbital human flights have been frequently referred to or named “spaceports.” Space stations and proposed future bases on the moon are sometimes called “spaceports,” in particular where they are intended as bases for further journeys.

One of the things that inspired me to research investment in space was the steady growth of spaceports I observed while driving long distances throughout America. When Midland, Texas builds a spaceport, you know something is happening!

• British Commercial Spaceport
• Spaceport Sweden
• Spaceport Curaçao
• SpaceX Private Launch Site
• Spaceport America
• Midland International Air and Space Port
• Xichang Satellite Launch Center
• Wenchang Satellite Launch Center
• Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Space Law

• The 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Outer Space Treaty“).
• The 1968 Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space (the “Rescue Agreement“).
• The 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (the “Liability Convention“).
• The 1975 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (the “Registration Convention“).
• The 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Moon Treaty“)

Wikipedia Spaceflight Portal