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The Space Business: From Hotels in Orbit to Mining the Moon – How Private Enterprise is Transforming Space
Yörünge otellerinden Ay madenciliğine, özel sektör uzayı nasıl dönüştürüyor?
Yirminci yüzyılda uzayı NASA gibi devlet tarafından finanse edilen ve kâr amacı gütmeyen dev kuruluşlar keşfediyordu. Yirmi birinci yüzyılın başlarında bu keşif serüvenine özel şirketler de katıldı. Elbette kâr amacı güdüyorlar. Peki ama nereden, nasıl ve ne miktarda kâr etmeyi bekliyorlar?
Yükselen insan uygarlığının gereksinimlerinin karşılanması ile uzaya açılma motivasyonu arasında, dünyanın en zengin girişimcilerini bu kadar iştahlandıracak ne tür bağlantılar var?
Onların bu işe soyunması insanın uzay macerasına, bilimsel ve teknolojik gelişmelere ne gibi katkılar sağlayacak?
Bu kitaptan Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos ve Richard Branson gibi girişimcilerin, Mars’a yolculuk, uzay otelleri, Ay madenciliği ve asteroitlerde değerli metal arama gibi fikir ve hayallerin peşine hangi beklentilerle ve hangi zorluklarla mücadele etme pahasına düştüklerini öğreneceksiniz. Uzay Turizmi ve Ticareti bugünün fikir ve hayallerinin yarının gerçeği olduğunu düşünen bilim okurlarına farklı bir bakış açısı sunuyor.
Yirminci yüzyılda uzayı NASA gibi devlet tarafından finanse edilen ve kâr amacı gütmeyen dev kuruluşlar keşfediyordu. Yirmi birinci yüzyılın başlarında bu keşif serüvenine özel şirketler de katıldı. Elbette kâr amacı güdüyorlar. Peki ama nereden, nasıl ve ne miktarda kâr etmeyi bekliyorlar?
Yükselen insan uygarlığının gereksinimlerinin karşılanması ile uzaya açılma motivasyonu arasında, dünyanın en zengin girişimcilerini bu kadar iştahlandıracak ne tür bağlantılar var?
Onların bu işe soyunması insanın uzay macerasına, bilimsel ve teknolojik gelişmelere ne gibi katkılar sağlayacak?
Bu kitaptan Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos ve Richard Branson gibi girişimcilerin, Mars’a yolculuk, uzay otelleri, Ay madenciliği ve asteroitlerde değerli metal arama gibi fikir ve hayallerin peşine hangi beklentilerle ve hangi zorluklarla mücadele etme pahasına düştüklerini öğreneceksiniz. Uzay Turizmi ve Ticareti bugünün fikir ve hayallerinin yarının gerçeği olduğunu düşünen bilim okurlarına farklı bir bakış açısı sunuyor.
176 pages, Paperback
Published January 18, 2022
About the author
Andrew May
52 books39 followersAndrew May is a former scientist with an MA from Cambridge University and a PhD in Astrophysics from Manchester University. After a thirty year career spanning the academic, government and private sectors, he has now settled in the South-West of England where he works as a freelance writer and consultant on subjects as diverse as defence technology, history, physics, Forteana and New Age beliefs.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 16, 2021
When I was young, space travel was very exciting because science fiction was becoming reality. First there were people in space and then the landings on the Moon. However, there was one big difference between what I read in SF and what was happening on the news. Fictional space travel was largely a matter of private enterprise, whether it was down to the work of an individual mad scientist or a large corporation. But the reality left leaving Earth in the hands of two superpower nations. Of course, there were exceptions in the fiction, but even in something like Star Trek, where the central focus was a ship owned by supranational authorities, there were still plenty of privately owned ships in space.
Now, though, reality is catching up with the fiction. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are bringing a whole new entrepreneurial flair to the design and build of rockets, outpacing the slow and steady approach of NASA. In The Space Business, Andrew May takes us on a tour of this new look at the way we interact with space - and discovers whether there are real commercial opportunities, or it's just an expensive hobby for science fiction loving billionaires.
Along the way, May ties neatly in with science fiction writers' visions of commercial space travel, from space hotels to asteroid mining. However, this is not a rose-tinted spectacles venture - from the very first there is an emphasis on the idea that 'space is hard' - it's easy to underestimate the difficulties both of getting out of Earth's gravitational well and surviving in that hostile environment.
The book splits the space business experience into suborbital ventures, getting satellites into orbit, space vacations, extraterrestrial industries and the billionaire space race. May makes it clear that the limiting factor on some of these activities - asteroid mining, for example - is likely to be the need for a huge upfront investment of time and money. 'The question is,' he asks, 'where are we going to find someone far-sighted enough – or naïve enough – to pick up the tab?' Enter those billionaires.
At the time of writing there has been criticism both from the press and British royals (who ought to know better than to mention the matter of unnecessary expense) of the space ventures of tech billionaires - but that's potentially a shortsighted view. May looks at the drivers behind their different approaches, and highlights why Mars (despite its romantic appeal) is probably less realistic as a prospect for long-term human habitation than space habitats. In the end, though, he comes back to the importance of the space business for everything from navigation to monitoring the climate through that less romantic, but most significant aspect of satellite launching.
It's timely that this book has come out just when the 90-year-old William Shatner - the actor who brought Star Trek's Captain Kirk to life - has made a brief venture into space on a commercial spaceflight. There is something of the essence of Hollywood fakery about these flights that scrape the edge of space but don't really do anything. And yet there is also a feeling of opportunity in space now that hasn't existed since the days of the Apollo missions.
This is a solid, straightforward guide to the prospects for commercial space activity from satellite launching to asteroid mining. The book makes it clear that if and when we do boldly go where no one has gone before, it is as likely to be on a commercial mission as one that is run by a government.
Now, though, reality is catching up with the fiction. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are bringing a whole new entrepreneurial flair to the design and build of rockets, outpacing the slow and steady approach of NASA. In The Space Business, Andrew May takes us on a tour of this new look at the way we interact with space - and discovers whether there are real commercial opportunities, or it's just an expensive hobby for science fiction loving billionaires.
Along the way, May ties neatly in with science fiction writers' visions of commercial space travel, from space hotels to asteroid mining. However, this is not a rose-tinted spectacles venture - from the very first there is an emphasis on the idea that 'space is hard' - it's easy to underestimate the difficulties both of getting out of Earth's gravitational well and surviving in that hostile environment.
The book splits the space business experience into suborbital ventures, getting satellites into orbit, space vacations, extraterrestrial industries and the billionaire space race. May makes it clear that the limiting factor on some of these activities - asteroid mining, for example - is likely to be the need for a huge upfront investment of time and money. 'The question is,' he asks, 'where are we going to find someone far-sighted enough – or naïve enough – to pick up the tab?' Enter those billionaires.
At the time of writing there has been criticism both from the press and British royals (who ought to know better than to mention the matter of unnecessary expense) of the space ventures of tech billionaires - but that's potentially a shortsighted view. May looks at the drivers behind their different approaches, and highlights why Mars (despite its romantic appeal) is probably less realistic as a prospect for long-term human habitation than space habitats. In the end, though, he comes back to the importance of the space business for everything from navigation to monitoring the climate through that less romantic, but most significant aspect of satellite launching.
It's timely that this book has come out just when the 90-year-old William Shatner - the actor who brought Star Trek's Captain Kirk to life - has made a brief venture into space on a commercial spaceflight. There is something of the essence of Hollywood fakery about these flights that scrape the edge of space but don't really do anything. And yet there is also a feeling of opportunity in space now that hasn't existed since the days of the Apollo missions.
This is a solid, straightforward guide to the prospects for commercial space activity from satellite launching to asteroid mining. The book makes it clear that if and when we do boldly go where no one has gone before, it is as likely to be on a commercial mission as one that is run by a government.
October 26, 2021
I have enjoyed this book. Anyone who has been reading more science based SF and wants to know how soon we will have space hotels and lunar colonies, will want to grab this look at our progress and possibilities.
The early chapters include some maths about rocket launches but you can skip over this and continue.
Plenty about early rocket launches and where they went, why we are not doing that anymore but doing other exciting work in space. And why public funded bodies are not competitive.
Private enterprise has to plan to make money at every stage of the process and this is how firms such as SpaceX have been prospering, while crowdfunded efforts have not.
We get brief looks at the firms and people behind SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin and Bigelow Airspace. Some of them want to bring us to Mars, others just space tourism.
Also we get a nice brief look at asteroid mining, lunar exploitation and other resources. A fascinating idea included is sending probes smaller than cubesats to explore Alpha Centauri for us, and if started now, we could be looking at the pictures in under 40 years.
Overall this is readable with not too much physics to confuse and solid referencing - enough to give you a good grounding and you can research further on any particular topic.
Further reading starts on P157. Index P161 (not provided in my e-ARC). We get some b/w photos and a couple of tables. Sadly, almost no women mentioned, apart from a few female astronauts. Homage is duly paid to some (male) SF writers from Clarke to Asimov.
I read this ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
The early chapters include some maths about rocket launches but you can skip over this and continue.
Plenty about early rocket launches and where they went, why we are not doing that anymore but doing other exciting work in space. And why public funded bodies are not competitive.
Private enterprise has to plan to make money at every stage of the process and this is how firms such as SpaceX have been prospering, while crowdfunded efforts have not.
We get brief looks at the firms and people behind SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin and Bigelow Airspace. Some of them want to bring us to Mars, others just space tourism.
Also we get a nice brief look at asteroid mining, lunar exploitation and other resources. A fascinating idea included is sending probes smaller than cubesats to explore Alpha Centauri for us, and if started now, we could be looking at the pictures in under 40 years.
Overall this is readable with not too much physics to confuse and solid referencing - enough to give you a good grounding and you can research further on any particular topic.
Further reading starts on P157. Index P161 (not provided in my e-ARC). We get some b/w photos and a couple of tables. Sadly, almost no women mentioned, apart from a few female astronauts. Homage is duly paid to some (male) SF writers from Clarke to Asimov.
I read this ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
March 3, 2022
I went into the book thinking that it was going to be about exploitation of space or anti-capitalistic ventures in space, but I finished the book with at least some perspective shift. So much of what we do on earth today relies on at least some space use (think satellites), and there are some that say that expanding humanity’s access to space is better for our life on earth in the future (not just escaping to Mars). I liked the point the author made that no science fiction author would have dared dream that the two richest men in the world would be space nerds who want to one-up each other’s space programs.
December 14, 2021
an interesting book. broke down why getting involved with space projects is so complicated and expensive. Covered the shift from nation states to billionaires. Talked about ways that space projects can be profitable -- especially opportunities beyond tourism -- and how people are exploring approaches right now. Well worth the time reading.
PS - I thought the section on Jeff B's, of Amazon fame, experience at Princeton and the relationship with his professor was particularly interesting. Had never heard/read that discussed before.
PS - I thought the section on Jeff B's, of Amazon fame, experience at Princeton and the relationship with his professor was particularly interesting. Had never heard/read that discussed before.
November 29, 2025
I have finished reading “The Space Business: From Hotels in Orbit to Mining the Moon- How Private Enterprise is Transforming Space” by Andrew May.
When did the realisation occur that Space could be a source for business as well as a vast realm to explore? Certainly, the 1960s generation were very far removed from such a concept. The wording in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 speaks about Spacefaring being the preserve of states, heralding a time when companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin were not even on the horizon. Indeed, in the absence of such companies with owners with enormous cash reserves, one modest sized company after another promising some form of Space Tourism has usually met financial collapse before it has delivered everything.
There is an acknowledgement that both the Public and Private Sectors have different motivations for pursuing endeavours in Space. The Public sector is subject to public accountability but also enthusiasm for backing big and new initiatives such as the Apollo Programme. This can make progress subject to shortfalls in political attention/capital, getting in the way of genuine progression. Potentially Space-based businesses could offer a way out of this trap. NASA’s reliance on cost-plus contracts have also created a legacy that hasn’t always leant toward efficiency. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing much to challenge this culture.
I think this book spent a bit too long labouring over the history of early Space Tourism initiatives, such as Roscosmos selling seats in their launches to Mir and the International Space Station. However, the author did well to explain how Sub-Orbital Flights are technically easier than Orbital ones, but offer a potentially attractive experience to wealthy customers looking to get at least a glimpse of Space. The Space Planes chapter was especially interesting with the physics challenges explained accessibly and thoroughly.
A risk with writing a book like this, about an actively developing field, is that events can outpace it. In many ways this has happened with this book, which would lead me to encourage the author to consider releasing an updated edition. A lot has happened since 2021. Boeing’s Starliner is a dead duck. Space X’s Starship is being tested but has some evident limitations. Blue Origin arguably is making steadier progress now than Space X after many tremendous successes from the latter. There are honourable mentions of smaller companies in the same field such as Rocket Lab in New Zealand too, making it clear that the enthusiasm for progress is rippling beyond the US.
On the whole, I found this book to be both accessibly written and informative. It is also frank when confronting many of the popular concerns about Space Business. The author carefully explained, that there is much economic sense in Billionaires (or trillionaires) taking the lead on developing new forms of rockets and Space vehicles, since they are at much less vulnerable to financial risk than more modest companies. However, there were parts of the book that I found a bit imbalanced. The chapter about asteroid mining was tiny given the huge scope of the subject. There was a similar issue on the section about industries in Space. To be fair to the author, the latter has only really shown tangible results in recent years with, for example, the recent successes of the company Space Forge in South Wales which has shown the way forward with semiconductor manufacturing.
When did the realisation occur that Space could be a source for business as well as a vast realm to explore? Certainly, the 1960s generation were very far removed from such a concept. The wording in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 speaks about Spacefaring being the preserve of states, heralding a time when companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin were not even on the horizon. Indeed, in the absence of such companies with owners with enormous cash reserves, one modest sized company after another promising some form of Space Tourism has usually met financial collapse before it has delivered everything.
There is an acknowledgement that both the Public and Private Sectors have different motivations for pursuing endeavours in Space. The Public sector is subject to public accountability but also enthusiasm for backing big and new initiatives such as the Apollo Programme. This can make progress subject to shortfalls in political attention/capital, getting in the way of genuine progression. Potentially Space-based businesses could offer a way out of this trap. NASA’s reliance on cost-plus contracts have also created a legacy that hasn’t always leant toward efficiency. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing much to challenge this culture.
I think this book spent a bit too long labouring over the history of early Space Tourism initiatives, such as Roscosmos selling seats in their launches to Mir and the International Space Station. However, the author did well to explain how Sub-Orbital Flights are technically easier than Orbital ones, but offer a potentially attractive experience to wealthy customers looking to get at least a glimpse of Space. The Space Planes chapter was especially interesting with the physics challenges explained accessibly and thoroughly.
A risk with writing a book like this, about an actively developing field, is that events can outpace it. In many ways this has happened with this book, which would lead me to encourage the author to consider releasing an updated edition. A lot has happened since 2021. Boeing’s Starliner is a dead duck. Space X’s Starship is being tested but has some evident limitations. Blue Origin arguably is making steadier progress now than Space X after many tremendous successes from the latter. There are honourable mentions of smaller companies in the same field such as Rocket Lab in New Zealand too, making it clear that the enthusiasm for progress is rippling beyond the US.
On the whole, I found this book to be both accessibly written and informative. It is also frank when confronting many of the popular concerns about Space Business. The author carefully explained, that there is much economic sense in Billionaires (or trillionaires) taking the lead on developing new forms of rockets and Space vehicles, since they are at much less vulnerable to financial risk than more modest companies. However, there were parts of the book that I found a bit imbalanced. The chapter about asteroid mining was tiny given the huge scope of the subject. There was a similar issue on the section about industries in Space. To be fair to the author, the latter has only really shown tangible results in recent years with, for example, the recent successes of the company Space Forge in South Wales which has shown the way forward with semiconductor manufacturing.
February 18, 2022
This book "mostly" covers about the businesses and the grandiose plans of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. He only mentions Yurin Milner, Axiom space and the Bigelow module in passing. Some novel and compelling ideas like space elevators and Space Solar stations are also discussed.
I've finally finished reading all of the books by this author from the Hot Science series and his writing never disappoints. An interesting book to know the current state of affairs in the Space Business.
I've finally finished reading all of the books by this author from the Hot Science series and his writing never disappoints. An interesting book to know the current state of affairs in the Space Business.
March 24, 2022
This is an excellent introduction to the recent changes to how we are exploring space. No longer is it purely the spirit of adventure. There has been a huge shift and commercial interests are now a major player.
This book in a snapshot in time for where we are now. How things change in the future will remain to be seen, but as a reference book that summarises where we are now this little gem cannot be faulted.
This book in a snapshot in time for where we are now. How things change in the future will remain to be seen, but as a reference book that summarises where we are now this little gem cannot be faulted.
January 30, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. It didn’t need to be very long because the space business isn’t huge, and it covered a lot of ground in potential applications. A good mix of technical and non-technical content as well!
April 11, 2025
this is a portrait of what space travel has been and what is currently is and what it could maybe be in the future but really it's about Musk and Bezos because right now they're most of the US space projects
August 31, 2026
Some good, if overly simplified information. Nothing groundbreaking. Written in a style as though it’s for teenagers, which I found to be quite frustrating.
I’d suggest The Future of Humanity by Michio Kaku for a more rounded and intricate look at the topic, if a few years older.
I’d suggest The Future of Humanity by Michio Kaku for a more rounded and intricate look at the topic, if a few years older.
October 29, 2021
Concise book that tells you a whole lot, and assumes a small degree of background knowledge. Moves quickly. Might be out-of-date quickly!
October 31, 2025
An interesting read. Never knew how tiny satellites can be! I do wonder whether we will have space tourism in my lifetime!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews