Let History Guide Us

When NASA was created it was in fact an adjunct to the Department of Defense (DOD). A good part of NASA’s current work is military related. NASA got a total monopoly and its own budget and most importantly its own infrastructure to develop the skills and knowledge base necessary to conquer the initial problems related to space travel. As an adjunct to DOD, this was a great decision.

As a methodology for the continual advancement and commercialization of space it was an extremely bad idea on many levels.

Lucky for us, history is our guide. The commercialization model has been done before and done extremely well. All we need to do is look to history and the Age of Exploration to find the model necessary to commercialize space.

The Age of Exploration started in the 15th century and continued into the early 17th century. Europeans and their descendants explored and mapped the world. Pioneer oceanic explorations, established links with Africa, Americas and Asia in the quest for alternative trade routes to the Indies. European exploration accomplished the global mapping of the world, resulting in a new world-view reaching and defining the remote boundaries of the world we live in.

The Age of Exploration was an important driver for the start of our Modern era, ushering in a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry. Overseas expansion led to the rise of colonial empires, and involved the transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. The profit motive supplied ever safer and faster methods of travel.

These events shaped the world for centuries to come. The ability to safely travel blue waters around the world led to European overseas expansion and established lines of communication for trade and wealth. The most important drivers of this age were imperialism and the profit motive. Kings and Queens got new lands and most importantly just about everyone involved got rich.

The established method of exploitation involved trading companies. The monarchs granted monopolies to corporations who in turn sold stock to finance their activities. Here is a just a partial list of many of those trading companies.

East India Company (British)

Danish East India Company

French East India Company

Swedish East India Company

Dutch West India Company

French West India Company

Danish West India Company

Hudson's Bay Company (They still operate as a Canadian corporation)

Muscovy Company

Royal African Company

It would be extremely easy to allow NASA to form its own commercial corporation (NASACorp). It could maintain its present structure but allow the new corporation to sell commercial rights, develop business ventures and raise capital. Immediate revenue could be generated from publicity rights alone, which would be enough to finance a return to the Moon and pay for a good deal of the first exploration of Mars.

Giving NASACorp access to commercial markets to raise its own capital would result in a new Space Age of Exploration and create vast economic wealth. This means new technology and unimaginable resources.

Our models show that over a 10-20 year period NASACorp would be able to raise over $400 billion by selling stock. NASACorp could funnel some of this money to the present NASA structure, in addition to its current support by the U.S. government, for base R&D and also leverage its capital with joint ventures and attract another $400 billion from new companies and corporations with new ideas wanting and needing access to NASA technology and NASACorp capital to achieve their goals.

During that 10-20 year period over 10 million very high tech jobs would be created around the world with a growing economic base to support a much greater expansion after 20 years.

If the Age of Exploration is our model, wealth would increase 100-200 fold over the first 50 years.  

The question we pose is when will the Space Age of Exploration start?