Some of the top minds in the commercial space flight industry gathered in College Station on Wednesday for a brainstorming session at Texas A&M.
The first-ever Texas Commercial Space Workshop at A&M's Rudder Tower and Memorial Student Center brought together commercial space company representatives, investors, aerospace experts, faculty and students from around the nation. Organizers said the workshop was designed to promote dialogue about where space technology is boldly going and what preparation the workforce will need.
About 100 people attended the keynote speeches that were kicked off by state Rep. John E. Davis, R-Houston, whose district includes NASA. The speakers likened the growing commercial space flight industry, by which private companies will fly people into space, to that of commercial airlines in the early 20th century.
"We should be constantly working to entice new commercial space companies to come to Texas and to incetivize those already here to grow their existing businesses. Recognizing that this is the direction the industry is headed, the Legislature has taken some preliminary steps to help ensure that Texas remains a leader in the commercial space industry," Davis told the crowd.
Davis also gave the audience an update on three pieces of legislation from the latest session aimed at enticing the growth of the commercial space flight industry in Texas. He said companies now have additional legal protection from noise complaints related to space flights, local municipalities were encouraged through liability reduction to partner with commercial space flight companies at municipal airports, and that the Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville can now be closed off for space launches.
Planetary scientist Alan Stern, CEO of Golden Spike and a former member of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, spoke about how the private sector is growing to fill the void left by declining government support for space programs and humanity's efforts to explore the final frontier.
"What we see is the very earliest stages of the development of the whole span of commercial space systems from suborbital to orbital, transportation systems to destination systems, by a whole variety of different companies," Stern said. "If it's anything like early aviation in the 1920s, there's going to be a lot of failures. There's going to be people who get hurt, just like in aviation. There's going to be people who get killed, just like in aviation. There are going to be companies that fail and companies that succeed.
"But this is the American nation and we know how to overcome failure. I predict that the development of commercial space will have its rough spots, but that by the time we get to the 2020s you will see a change in the way people think about space. I think people will primarily think of it as commercial space."
He also elaborated on his company, Golden Spike, which plans to provide commercial trips to the surface of the moon. The service will be primarily targeted at countries without robust space programs, but will be open to corporations and individuals willing to pay. Stern hopes the company will be offering two to three flights per year by 2020. Each flight will fit two persons and will cost $1.5 billion, he said.
"This system will give us the same capability as early Apollo missions," Stern said. "Two people to the moon on each expedition for two days at a time, each one conducting two space walks just like Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz [Aldrin]. They will be able to conduct field geology, sampling, bringing samples home to conduct experiments. I'm a planetary scientist, this is mouth-watering stuff."
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