Are We Disappointed With Space Exploration?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/are-we-disappointed-with-space-exploration/237136/

A very interesting article and to be honest it is pretty hard to fault the logic.

My only observation would be that what is perceived as valuable often changes with the passage of time. There are potentially lots of opportunities for profit in outer space, unfortunately opportunities are not always apparent until you have spent some time in a place.

In my own country, the Dutch explorers arrived before the British and decided that Australia wasn't all that interesting to them from a commercial perspective. Curiously they made a similar decision about Manhattan Island! Then the British decided that Australia might make a nice prison camp.

Eventually someone worked out that money could be made on a massive scale growing wool for export; but it wasn't really until the 20th century that we began unlocking the vast mineral wealth lying beneath the surface.

At the end of the day I believe it will all come down to obtaining resources at the best price possible. I am betting that eventually we will need to look off-world to satisfy demand. If we can build a space tourism market in the mean time, then this will help to establish the necessary infrastructure to begin mining H3 on the moon or perhaps some other exotic minerals on passing asteroids.

The question to ask is: what resource that is scarce on Earth is otherwise readily available elsewhere in the solar system?

Also, I would add that the role of government is to provide an environment where private enterprise can flourish.

If we had insisted that the Australian government be solely responsible to mine the mineral wealth of Australia; we would have ended up producing sub-standard product at an uncompetitive price. Now that sounds a lot like communism to me, or the National Broadband Network or a host of other government programs in my own country. Perhaps there are even shades of NASA there too.

Instead I believe the role of government is to regulate in order to bring the best outcome for as many stakeholders as possible; then, I hasten to add, to happily collect royalties and taxes along the way. This is how you end up with world class mining companies like BHP-Billiton or RIO Tinto.

Don't leave outer space to NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, CNSA or JAXA. It is too important to be left with the politicians.

Let's encourage entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, John Carmack and Robert Bigelow. I only wish we could add some Australian names to the list -- Rupert Murdoch seems too focussed on his terrestrial concerns. Perhaps we should be looking at some of our mining magnates?

Running at Hawks Nest

We enjoyed an excellent time with other leaders from our church at Hawks Nest over this last weekend. Jonty, who one of our international guests currently doing a gap year with the church happened to take this amazing picture of the sunrise as we were running past.

I absolutely love running, but it is being outside enjoying creation that often thrills me more. Just before this photo was taken we had witnessed a pod of dolphins swimming in synchronized perfection among the morning breakers.