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Essay / Reasons behind commercialization and private sector involvement in the space industry
Space explorations and the space industry, as a whole, in the United States have long been associated solely with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). However, in recent years, private players and companies have entered the industry after the federal government, through NASA, commercialized the space industry due to several factors. Among these factors were the need for NASA to contract cargo deliveries to its crew on the International Space Station (ISS) directly from the United States (Dawson, 2016) and to free up resources to focus on large construction projects. NASA. After being invited into the space industry, private companies started various commercial ventures such as space tourism which also developed as a potential business for the very elite of the society which was beneficial and profit generating. In this article, I explore the various reasons behind the commercialization and involvement of the private sector in the space industry, the various programs that have been introduced by NASA to facilitate the commercialization of the space industry and the entrepreneurial ventures that resulted. sector.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe main reason that initiated NASA's quest to open up to the private sector was the need to deliver the members of crew and cargo to the ISS directly from the ISS. WE. Therefore, in 2006, the government created several programs to facilitate the achievement of this goal. A program known as the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program (C3PO) and Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was created for the purpose of offering contracts to private companies to provide cargo and deliver crew directly from the United States. United on the ISS (Dawson, 2016). . An estimated $800 million investment in COTS by NASA that led to the production of two new launch vehicles and two new ISS cargo carriers (Martin, 2015). As part of the COTS program, the Commercial Resupply Service (CRS), responsible for replenishing the necessary products to the crew members of the ISS unit were also established. Another program introduced in 2010 was the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), also responsible for facilitating the delivery of cargo and crew to the ISS. According to Kathryn Lueders, program manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), the ISS was to be transformed into a science laboratory that would focus on testing several space components. Therefore, ISS crew members and necessary cargo such as personal effects, food rations and other equipment are expected to be transported to the ISS laboratory to carry out scientific research. Another reason for NASA to commercialize its operations was the interest in benefiting from the ISS. the competitiveness that would come from private sector involvement, a benefit that was difficult to achieve with government funding because the government prioritized several factors like security and employment, among other concerns. However, with private industry, the sky is the limit, as companies will try to outdo each other to win tenders. As a result, brilliant ideas such as developing cost-effective equipment would arise and benefit the entire space industry. An example of beneficial competitiveness is how SpaceX (SpaceX, Hawthorne, California,United States) developed software for Falcon 9 at costs 10 times lower than those spent by NASA to develop the same software (Martin). By inviting the private sector to enter the space industry, NASA would focus on achieving its goals. Other examples of beneficial benefits of opening the space industry include the 1,300 satellites orbiting space providing essential services such as GPS, television signals and other space technologies (Dawson , 2016). In 2008, CRS hired two private companies for the first time. offering resupply to the ISS from December 2008 to 2018 in what was known as CRS-1. The two companies were Orbital ATK (Dulles, VA, USA) and SpaceX under the common name of Space Exploration Technologies (Dawson, 2016). SpaceX designed its spacecraft known as the Dragon which made the first ever cargo landing on the ISS (Dawson, 2016). Dragon, although not reusable, was designed so that it could return to earth from space by means of a parachute and land in large bodies of water such as the ocean. This was seen as beneficial, as cargo such as sample results could be returned from the ISS to Earth once the experiments were completed. Orbital ATK used its Cygnus cargo ship to make eight deliveries to the ISS. On the other hand, SpaceX made twelve deliveries to the ISS (Martin, 2015). In 2016, both spacecraft were hosted on the ISS, which has the capacity to accommodate 6 ships (Dawson, 2016). CRS reviewed the requirements for private contractors to include a compartment that would allow crew members to safely abort the launch mission just in case. things went wrong during the launch. In 2016, Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems (SNS, Louisville, CO, Us), using its Dream Chaser SpaceSystem (DCSS) cargo ship, met these requirements and was awarded the second contract, CRS-2, to resupply the ISS with cargo from 2019 to 2019. 2024 (Dawson, 2016). PCC awarded contracts to Boeing Co. (Chicago, Illinois, USA) and SpaceX to design and develop spacecraft capable of carrying both crew members and cargo to the ISS, these spacecraft would reduce transport costs. Boeing immediately began designing a spacecraft known as the Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) Starliner, with the capability to transport crew and cargo to the ISS simultaneously. Besides these two companies, Boeing and SpaceX, several other companies like Sierra Nevada are potential contactors who can bid for similar contacts with the PCC (Dawson, 2016). NASA has also commissioned several private companies to lead the development of technological systems and equipment. to enable it to accomplish its mission of taking humans to Mars. For example, SNC was commissioned to prepare critical hardware components for the Mars mission scheduled to be accomplished in 2020 (Dawson, 2016). The Boeing Company was also tasked with building a new Space Launch System (SLS) for missions involving exploration beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), as Dawson noted in his article. The Orion spacecraft that NASA intends to send into deep space as part of its pilot exploration mission called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) will test these new systems that NASA has implemented for the first time (Hambleton, 2018). NASA has also benefited from partnerships with private companies like Boeing through its 50/50 joint venture. The two partners, NASA/Boeing, jointly developed the first cryogenic tank with the rare capacity to store..