Why go in space?
Adventure, exploration, learning what's out thereWealth, opportunities, jobs
-- Most everything made on earth can be made in space at less cost. Manufacturing facilities can be made quickly using a few mold forms, asteroid materials, sand casting, and assembly of molded pieces into modules that interconnect.
-- Business means jobs and space has everything the bright entrepreneur wants and the additional advantage of the flexibility in controlling G-forces from many times that of earth down to zero-G and the added increased productivity and any new product possibilities discovered therefrom.
-- The world's oil and gas reserves are running out. We must deal with the energy crisis and the depletion of natural resources. The resources of space are essential to any serious effort to tackle these problems.
-- A two-kilometer-wide asteroid holds more metal than all the ore mined on Earth since the beginning of civilization. Half of asteroids are water rich. Asteroidal materials are useful for propulsion, building materials, life support, agriculture, metallurgy, semiconductors, precious and strategic metals, to manufacture structural materials, for solar photovoltaic arrays which could be used to power space habitats, tourist accomodations, orbiting hotels, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, ultra-pure crystals, space radiation shielding, and on and on.
-- Services include manufacturing, construction, repositioning asteroids, materials processing, mining, spacecraft inspection, repair, welding, hull assembling, shipping, tourism, and more.
Your own spacecraft
One product that needs to be mass produced in space is an interconnectable private transport vehicle and spacecrafts according to customer specifications.
More successful missions
Humans give us a competitive advantage over those that use only robots.
-- Humans are capable of dealing with the unexpected and the unanticipated and therefore those things robots and equipment have not been fully programmed for.
-- As needed, humans can retrieve any damaged equipment and robots for later repair and upgrading.
-- Repairs, modifications, and improvements to robots and equipment can be made. Humans can work on non-functioning or less than optimally functioning equipment.
Life
-- We must get off Earth. We are at risk from devastating impacts from climate change, or nuclear or biological warfare and cosmic phenomena. An asteroid could slam into Earth, rendering it uninhabitable. Or a supernova or gamma-ray burst near our spot in the Milky Way could prove ruinous for life on Earth. People need to spread out - not squat together in one place.
-- It's easier to control the air quality and thermal conditions of a space habitat than an entire planet. People can breathe better air. Terraforming terra may be needed soon but may never really happen.
-- Earth's growing population and crowded conditions makes space more appealing offering more room to inhabit and build upon.
-- Potentially dangerous asteroids heading for earth, moon, etc, can be repositioned. An asteroid only needs a small nudge to miss the earth completely. The cost can be recovered via adding a small surcharge when pricing space products/services.
-- Over time as asteroid materials are shipped to earth, the cost of the materials reduces. Because of the reduction in costs of raw materials used by NASA and other space agencies, the cost of launching people into space reduces thereby making possible the launching of more essential personnel, people with average incomes, and even make possible earth's evacuation should that ever be needed. CYGO also wants to make the first earth lander/launcher using the materials from asteroids as well as needed lightweight components from earth (these would later be made by ourselves).
-- Currently, all known lifeforms are located only on earth. Given the certainty of an event of cataclismic proportions occuring and the uncertanty of just when that event will occur, it's important to locate life, including ourselves, in multiple places in space.
Global Warming
Union of Concerned Scientists
Earthwatch Institute
Enjoyment and personal reasons
Space is fun. Ask anyone who has done spacewalking. Imagine space sports or seeing Saturn up close. A mountain climber was asked why he climbed the mountain. He said, "Because it's there." Sometimes you don't need a lot of reasons to do something. Why do people dance? Sometimes people have their own personal reasons. Sometimes they have no reason that seems clear even to themselves. Sometimes doing something just because you want to do it is good enough.
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The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) Nonprofit organization for space advocacy
