Axiom Space: The Private Sector and Space Missions
source: Axiom Space
In the past I’ve written a few times about the inevitable expansion of the human race to space. While Elon Musk’s SpaceX has focused primarily on rockets and satellites, Axiom Space is moving toward building the first private space station in history, which it plans on using as a foundation to send explorers to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
As for the reason for talking about this more and more, it’s obvious that over time the planet won’t be able to sustainably hold the growing number of people. For example, if the population were to grow at a modest 0.5 percent annually over the next thousand years, it would result in a global population of over 1 trillion. At a still modest 1 percent annual growth rate, it would produce a population in the multi-trillions after a thousand years.
That means either colonizing other planets, a totalitarian and brutal attempt to suppress population growth, or the return of Jesus Christ before population growth reaches those levels on the earth.
Axiom Space
In the near term, what Axiom Space is focusing on is laying the infrastructure for future space missions by building a business out of it.
The first step it’s taking to that end is to build a module that will attach to the International Space Station (ISS). This year (2021) it’s sending up four astronauts to the ISS via a SpaceX Crew Dragon module to prepare for the module, which is expected to dock on the ISS in 2024.
The initial module will operate as the first space “hotel.” After that’s in place, Axiom will start to build a space station around that first module. With the ISS set to be decommissioned sometime in the next decade, at that time the space station built by Axiom will detach from the ISS and operate on its own.
The modules will provide various functions to the inhabitants, including research, manufacturing, and housing, among other things.
After raising $20 million through three rounds of financing, Axiom added another $130 million to the total by means of Series B funding. The overall cost to build the space station is estimated to be about $2 billion. That’s almost certainly to climb much higher in the next couple of years, as construction projects of all types are prone to do; even space construction projects.
To train astronauts for the private sector and construct the space station, Axiom is building a headquarters campus on a 14-acre piece of land near Ellington Airport.
Other ways it’s raising capital is by charging private crew members to fly into space. The first three crew members have paid $55 million each to take the flight. Other ways it’s raising capital which should be sustainable, is by charging for research, securing brand partnerships, and offering “full-service human spaceflight missions.”
Conclusion
Readers shouldn’t draw the conclusion that there is any imminent threat to the human race from the growing population; it is a long way off before it would be considered something to be concerned with.
In my opinion, the earth can hold many billions more people without straining food resources, with various forms of agriculture becoming more productive every year. And as the Bible teaches, population growth is a positive feedback mechanism by God Himself.
That said, over time it is an issue that must be dealt with, and there is no doubt the answer – if the Lord doesn’t return for a long period of time, is to reach to the stars. After all, who knows if the purpose of the Lord is to have trillions, or even quadrillions of people in eternity with Him.
Privatizing space exploration and ultimately, the colonization of many planets, is the most productive way to go, and long into the future this time will be looked upon as the beginning of the migration of the human race to space.
Who knows, maybe one of your children or grandchildren will be one of the first to take up residence on Mars and become a real Martian.
It’s quite fascinating to consider the possibilities for the kingdom of God in the centuries ahead. Instead of traveling around the world to evangelize it as some do now, they may eventually travel around the solar system and beyond long into the future, in order to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and teach all who listen to obey the laws and commands He gave us all.
Some day a man of God could arrive on a distant planet and declare: “Take me to your leader!”
Click on book titles to be taken to description on Amazon
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
