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Home > 4. Chemistry and Physics > Uses of Space
Podcast: 4. Chemistry and Physics
Episode:

Uses of Space
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:01:30
Publish Date: 2011-07-13 18:54:41
Description: Transcript: The first use of space was for military purposes. Although we tend to forget it, there are still thousands of orbiting nuclear weapons. Commercial uses of space came afterwards. Space has been used for research; the International Space Station is advertised as a way to do research in space. Unfortunately, it is very expensive, and almost none of the experiments with drugs or biotech materials can be done in a cost effective way from orbit. Telecommunications is a different story. Most of the space program consists of the mundane business of launching satellites into space. There are many thousands in Earth orbit now. Tourism is perhaps the next frontier. At a cost of about 10,000 dollars per kilogram, even rich people could afford to go into orbit given a suitable launch vehicle. With new technologies for propulsion, it’s possible that the cost to launch into orbit could come down a few thousand dollars per kilogram. Other issues are raised by the future of space exploration. Up to now, only governments have carried out this activity. But what if there was privatization of the space program, and what about the commercial uses of space? The human legal systems of the world have barely begun to grapple with the issues of who owns space, or who might own an asteroid once minerals and metals begin to be mined from it.
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