Billionaires space race could help our planet

By Alan Duffy July 16, 2021 â€" 11.30am

It’s easy to be cynical about the future of the planet as our billionaires launch themselves and their
companies into space, but I â€" for one â€" have hope. We know from the early days of space flight, with
former military test fighter pilots as the first astronauts, the experience of seeing the Earth from
space has a near universally profound impact on a person. Space philosopher and author, Frank
White, coined the term the overview effect to describe it.

Earth, dubbed the “Blue Marble” as seen by Apollo 17 in 1972. This image resonated with people worldwide.

A shift in perspective Astronauts and cosmonauts report space flight as a lasting, transformative experience, and we’ve seen many of them become active in environmental causes as a result. People like Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, Michael Collins of Apollo 11 and more recently, Sally Ride, Chris Hadfield and Anne McClain have all spoken of this perspective shift.

It’s no coincidence that the environmental movement globally grew in strength, scale, and
significance when we saw Earth suspended in the void of space. The iconic “Blue Marble”seen by
Apollo 17 in 1972, resonated with people worldwide as a transformative reminder of the reality of
our existence. There is a thin veneer of atmosphere around the ball of dirt where all our lives are led
and lived, and we need to look after it better.

What happens when our wealthy see a fragile Earth?

The world’s wealthiest people will be the first space tourists, but they will also experience firsthand
the overview effect. With their money, power, and influence, we can only imagine how could they
change the planet for the better if they are similarly moved as former military pilots have been.
Passengers of SpaceX and, it is planned, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, will have a true, orbital
experience of space â€" taking potentially month or days-long trips around the Earth, out to the
International Space Station or even lapping the moon. On these trips, they’ll see the Earth
surrounded by a sea of blackness, completely void of life.

Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are in a race to take wealthy tourists into space.Credit:AP

For those taking a sub-orbital parabolic flight like Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic did earlier this month , space tourists will skim just short of the Kármán line â€" the 100 km official international designation of space, although fortunately for Sir Richard his astronaut wings are recognised by NASA that states 80 km as the boundary. All up, these passengers experience a few minutes of microgravity as the craft falls back to Earth, experiencing that fall as weightlessness. Earth will occupy most of the view, with the blackness of space just above â€" not far removed from what Gagarin described on the first ever human flight in space.

As we see hundreds, if not thousands, of people become space tourists, we could see an empowered
group of the world’s wealthy back on Earth motivated to do more to protect it.

Democratising space can only be a good thing Space tourism today is an experiment. It could be a billion-dollar market, but we don’t yet know for sure how many people will pay for (and can afford) this unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Luckily my hope for the potential positives of space tourism doesn’t just rely in the number of
people we get into space and the cognitive shift they might experience. That growth in tourist
launches will also drive the scale and sophistication of rockets, making the overall access to space
more affordable, just as early pioneering travellers allowed the aviation industry to grow and
become more technologically advanced and ultimately driving costs down.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield has talked about his improved understanding of threats facing the planet since seeing Earth from space.

At Swinburne University of Technology’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, we already benefit from the effects of space tourism with our Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge where we send up students’ scientific experiments to the International Space Station. This kind of educational experience would be inconceivable without the commercial rockets that have now become so relatively accessible.

Yet, it remains the case that only the richest countries and companies that get to reach space and
benefit directly. As access becomes more affordable, we can see all countries and people benefit â€"
as well as the planet.

The possibilities are extraordinary. Satellite information can be used to improve agricultural yields to tackle world hunger, or to facilitate fast and efficient disaster relief and emergency services, or to
allow us to monitor the health of the planet and inform climate solutions. Indeed, these benefits are
intimately tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with all 17 goals reliant directly or indirectly on space and satellite technology.

One of the major barriers to satellite technology being used to tackle the world’s greatest challenges
and most important issues is cost, and therefore access. With space tourism driving down costs, that
barrier is being eroded â€" and that gives me real reason to hope for the future of this blue marble in
space.

Professor Alan Duffy is an astronomer at Swinburne and Lead Scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia.

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