Pale Blue Dot: Carl Sagen

The Economical Opportunities of Free Enterprise Space Mining

SpaceX Reusable Rocket

An emerging field of interest for many companies looking toward the stars is the idea of mining asteroids to harvest valuable resources

The Problem...

These companies aim to provide raw materials that would be cheaper than Earth exports. Most everything needed to survive in space can be acquired from asteroids

Since there is very little regulation when it comes to resource acquisition in space, the industry is still in it's infancy

“Many of the scarce metals and minerals on Earth are in near-infinite quantities in space. As access to these materials increases, not only will the cost of everything from microelectronics to energy storage be reduced, but new applications for these abundant elements will result in important and novel applications,” -Discovery Online News on private asteroid mining

"The unprecedented reusable rocket test launched by SpaceX last week paves the way for a potentially revolutionary leap forward in the cost of spaceflight" Elon Musk

SpaceShip One

It seems like commercial space flight is a far off fantasy when we look at the current aging space programs. With a private space program, however, commercial space flight may be closer to becoming a reality than we imagine. -Enlil Science and Research Institute

Participation by individuals is characteristic of how space exploration in the United States began. The underlying current of individual investment and dedicated genius, which began almost two centuries ago, is what energizes the continuing evolution of space exploration.

Some Early Contributors to U.S. Space Program

Daniel Guggenheim

Andrew Carnegie

My Question:

Should the future of space operation be allowed to migrate into the private sector?

Antare Rocket Explosion

Oct. 28 2014

“For the industry, the joyride is over,” says attorney Michael Listner of the Space Law and Policy Solutions space law firm. “This is going to mean a lot more regulation. And there is the question of whether the industry should even continue.”

Oct. 31 2014

SpaceShipTwo Failure

With the uncertainty of Earth's future from threats both domestic and extraterrestrial, Sagan concludes the best chance for humanity's survival lies in the colonization of other worlds

Works Cited

How Safe Are We Really?

Asteroid P/Shoemaker-Levy 9

Collided with Jupiter July 1994

The Impact Crater

• Major, Jason. "Astronauts to Reveal Sobering Data on Asteroid Impacts." Www.universetoday.com. 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 5 Jan. 2015. <http://www.universetoday.com/111278/astronauts-to-reveal-sobering-data-on-asteroid-impacts/>.

" If we survive, our time will be famous for two reasons: that at this dangerous moment of technological adolescence we managed to avoid self-destruction; and because this is the time in our history in which we began our journey to the stars." -Carl Sagan

Since 2001, 26 atomic-bomb-scale explosions have occurred in remote locations around the world, far from populated areas, made evident by a nuclear weapons test warning network.“This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts. It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare — but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought.The only thing preventing a catastrophe from a ‘city-killer’ sized asteroid is blind luck."

• "Emerging Space." The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight (n.d.): n. pag. NASA. NASA. Web. 12 Jan. 15. <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Emerging_Space_Report.pdf>.

• GUÐMUNDSSON, K., Dr. "Should We Privatize Space?" Enlil Science. N.p., 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. <http://dbdresearchinstitute.com/should-we-privatize-space/>.

• Shaw, Jazz. "Are We Witnessing the End of Private Space Travel? - Hot Air." HotAir.com. N.p., 02 Nov. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2015. <http://hotair.com/archives/2014/11/02/are-we-witnessing-the-end-of-private-space-travel/>.

Shoemaker's Impact with Jupiter (left) as seen through inferred telescope

• Kramer, Miriam. "SpaceX Reusable Rocket Test an 'Evolutionary' Breakthrough, Elon Musk Says." Space. N.p., 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.space.com%2F25636-spacex-reusable-rocket-test-elon-musk.html>.

Whats Our Future in Space?

Carl Sagan

“That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

• O'Neal, Ian "Mining Asteroids: Not Mankind's Silver Bullet" Discovery News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://news.discovery.com/space/mining-asteroids-not-mankinds-silver-bullet-yet-120424.htm>.

Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe. Launched September 5, 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Voyager 1 took this photo at a record 6 Billion Kilometers from Earth. That's 41 times the distance from Earth to the Sun!

The Picture that Inspired a Novel

My Question to the Audience:

If you were the unopposed space legislator, what rules/regulations/laws would you create?

Pale Blue Dot: Carl Sagan

Adam Redfern