SpaceX is just one company developing an exciting (and slightly crazy) space project. Read on to find out about BIG gigantic space projects that are being developed right at this very moment. Keep looking to the stars, humans!
1. SpaceX’s Global Internet
Super entrepreneur and IRL James Bond villain Elon Musk has a new project: SpaceX recently filed a request with the FCC for permission to test a satellite-based high-speed Internet network.
According to the Washington Post, SpaceX's eventual plan is to beam Internet to the entire world via a "constellation" of 4,000 tiny nanosatellites. If realized, the initiative would transform SpaceX from a mere space Sherpa for third-world dictators into a global ISP that would compete with the world's telecom firms.
Musk and company aren't the first to pursue the dream of being a global space ISP. But they may have the best opportunity to see it to fruition considering that they operate the toll bridge into space, which is the biggest - and most costly - consideration for such an initiative.
SpaceX needs permission from the FCC (and each nation in which it operates, probably) in order to ensure that the test doesn't interfere with existing systems. (Indeed, a previous satellite Internet effort by LightSquared was lightsquashed when the military complained that the technology interfered with radar used by planes - apparently this isn't a problem for Musk's vision, the Post said.) However, if SpaceX was so inclined, it could launch its 4,000 satellites tomorrow without asking permission from any government.
And that's one of the cool things about SpaceX, and this particular moment in space exploration: It's increasingly privatized and therefore can work at the speed of the free market. (And, yes - like all free market pursuits - it will eventually run into additional ethically dubious quandaries like the third-world dictator example cited above.)
But let's focus on the positive. Technological progress has brought the cost of space travel down to the angel investor-IPO level. And crowd-sourcing has allowed even smaller pursuits to find their space legs.
I'm excited to see what SpaceX's vision of global Internet coverage would bring to the world, but it's far from the only big space pursuit going on in 2015.
2. OneWeb Space-Based Internet
Elon Musk isn't the only person who has thought about - and is currently pursuing - the possibility of space-based Internet. OneWeb has grand plans to launch a constellation of 648 tiny micro-satellites that would provide broadband Internet to the entire planet. So far the project is very much in the planning stage, but with partners Virgin and Qualcomm on board (they're literally on the board), this is one ambitious initiative to watch.
3. Asteroid Mining
Ambitious future-lover Peter Diamandis is one of the co-founders of Planetary Resources, a company that is currently laying the decades-long groundwork to prospect and mine asteroids (!) for the billions (if not trillions) of dollars of potential assets that lie within (including water, which will become a necessity as our species expands spaceward). This is some next-level prospecting.
4. Solar Sail
In brief, a solar sail is a reflective surface that is actually propelled by light from the sun. It's crazy to think about, but light actually can exert (an extremely tiny amount of) force on matter. In most everyday circumstances, this phenomenon is negligible. However, in the vacuum of space, this small (but constant) force can - over time - build up momentum on a spacecraft that would allow it to eventually travel at great speeds for very little cost.
Sounds like some crazy future stuff, right? Well, it's actually been built, deployed, and is currently being tested. The Bill Nye (the Science Guy)-headed Planetary Society has crowd-sourced a launch of its very own solar sail. A current test mission is a precursor to a bigger mission next year.
5. A Live View of Earth
Last year, Planet Labs launched a "flock" of 28 image satellites it calls "doves," which provide high-resolution imagery of the planet to "support your humanitarian, environmental, and business needs." It provides a close-to-real-time view of the Earth that was previously only available to governments. Nuts.
6. Drilling. On the MOON!
Lunar Mission One is a crowd-sourced project that plans to send an unmanned robotic spacecraft to land at the Moon's unexplored south pole in 2024. That's a pretty impressive goal in itself, but the project also aims to drill down between 20 and 100 meters to access lunar rock that dates back 4.5 billion years. This will give us unprecedented insight into how our nearest space neighbour was formed.
7. The Skytree
Forget SpaceX, a space elevator - long the dream of science dreamers the world over - would theoretically cut the cost of space travel down to the amount of electricity needed to physically lift cargo into orbit. There are, of course, numerous engineering challenges to overcome here. We probably won't see a space elevator any time really soon. Nonetheless, Japanese construction firm Obayashi (which does have some big projects on its resume) plans to build "the Tokyo Skytree," which would connect the Earth directly to a station in permanent geostationary Earth orbit.
Sounds cool, right? If you want to see it, all you have to do is remain alive until 2050 when the company aims to complete the project.
8. Launching Satellites by Fighter Jet
Just because space is increasingly privatized doesn't mean governments and militaries are completely out of the action. Later this year, the military's pocket-protector warriors over at DARPA plan to test the ALASA system, in which tiny nano-satellites will be launched directly from a fighter jet. Like many things, this system may be of use to military, but could later be co-opted by private industry.
9. Space Tourism: Still a Thing?
Last October, Virgin Galactic suffered a tragic setback when its SpaceShipTwo vehicle crashed in the desert, killing a test pilot in the process. Undeterred, the company is still working toward bringing paying customers into low-Earth orbit. And it's hardly the only ones.
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