 |
| Image:Axiom Space |
I talked to Simon Jenner from Axiom Space which will ferry four private astronauts to the International Space Station in February 2022.
Axiom Space is building a single space station and sending private citizens to space, and Simon’s role is to search the Earth for the few amazing people who are qualified to go to space.
Simon, we are discussing space tourism. But space travel
for the most people could
sound like a fantasy. How would you convince them that it is
not?
That's very easy because we are launching a mission in February. So our astronauts are in training right now. My job at Axiom Space is to recruit our private astronauts, so I search the world for those that have the the right skill to be an astronaut. And one of the first questions I have for them when I first engage with them is: "What is it that you want to do? What do you want to achieve on your mission? And then how can we use that to help humanity?"
Other ways to convince people that this is happening I suppose is to look at the news we've seen - the SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission has launched and landed recently. And that was really positive. We've seen both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic do something quite different. I mean they're focused on sub-orbital flights which are only a few minutes. But everything seems to be converging all at once. After many, many years of engineering work and a lot of effort from a whole bunch of people we're now seeing companies starting to succeed in this 12-month period which is amazing.
 |
| Simon Jenner |
That's very easy because we are launching a mission in February. So our astronauts are in training right now. My job at Axiom Space is to recruit our private astronauts, so I search the world for those that have the the right skill to be an astronaut. And one of the first questions I have for them when I first engage with them is: "What is it that you want to do? What do you want to achieve on your mission? And then how can we use that to help humanity?"
Other ways to convince people that this is happening I suppose is to look at the news we've seen - the SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission has launched and landed recently. And that was really positive. We've seen both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic do something quite different. I mean they're focused on sub-orbital flights which are only a few minutes. But everything seems to be converging all at once. After many, many years of engineering work and a lot of effort from a whole bunch of people we're now seeing companies starting to succeed in this 12-month period which is amazing.
So how
close or far we are to space tourism, where everybody, not only billionaires, could buy a ticket and go
into space?
There is a cost to it at the moment and I suspect we're going to see the cost go up slightly before we see it start coming down. So as for how far away that is before it starts coming down I wish I could say. But what we need to see is these missions launching a lot more regular frequency and that will drive some efficiencies and that will drive costs down. And as soon as our costs can come down the prices come down and we can get a lot more people traveling now.
That said there are also opportunities for other people to fly and we've seen this with the Inspiration 4 mission where the mission was funded by a billionaire but then had three regular people flying along with him. So the opportunities are out there. I can't share too much information but some of the future astronauts that we have flying with Axiom certainly don't have all of the money, they're certainly not billionaires. But they are extremely motivated people with compelling stories. And they've managed to sell the idea of what they want to achieve in space. Sell that idea to people sufficiently that other people are willing to fund them to make that happen. So these are normal people with extraordinary ideas.
There is a cost to it at the moment and I suspect we're going to see the cost go up slightly before we see it start coming down. So as for how far away that is before it starts coming down I wish I could say. But what we need to see is these missions launching a lot more regular frequency and that will drive some efficiencies and that will drive costs down. And as soon as our costs can come down the prices come down and we can get a lot more people traveling now.
That said there are also opportunities for other people to fly and we've seen this with the Inspiration 4 mission where the mission was funded by a billionaire but then had three regular people flying along with him. So the opportunities are out there. I can't share too much information but some of the future astronauts that we have flying with Axiom certainly don't have all of the money, they're certainly not billionaires. But they are extremely motivated people with compelling stories. And they've managed to sell the idea of what they want to achieve in space. Sell that idea to people sufficiently that other people are willing to fund them to make that happen. So these are normal people with extraordinary ideas.
So if I want to join your mission
what
qualities should I have?
It's a very good question. Еverybody expects that astronauts need to be in perfect health and that might be the case if I'm the USA or Europe and I'm trying to recruit the best of the best to have a full long career as an astronaut. But that's not actually the case. If you're just going to fly out there for a short duration mission, you need to be average fitness or better. And we will be working with your health to basically identify whether there's anything that's stopping you to fly. And if there is, let's try and fix that so you can still get the opportunity to fly rather than disqualify you straight away.
It's a very good question. Еverybody expects that astronauts need to be in perfect health and that might be the case if I'm the USA or Europe and I'm trying to recruit the best of the best to have a full long career as an astronaut. But that's not actually the case. If you're just going to fly out there for a short duration mission, you need to be average fitness or better. And we will be working with your health to basically identify whether there's anything that's stopping you to fly. And if there is, let's try and fix that so you can still get the opportunity to fly rather than disqualify you straight away.
But are you looking for specific experts in specific disciplines?
Not necessarily. We are trying to get as much diversity happening as possible. The space flight has been dominated for a very long time by a few nations and it does tend to be the engineers and the scientists who get to fly because those skills are very needed in career astronauts. When we're looking at private astronaut missions, our astronauts can still deliver great value to humanity by doing research on behalf of other people. So as an example we have astronauts that are taking up some cancer research to try and really improve humanity's understanding of how cancer-fighting drugs can be developed. We have another astronaut who is doing something quite similar around genomics - so personalised medicine and all of that is extremely exciting. But then we also have coming through in future missions some artists who are going to go to space and create some amazing pieces.
Not necessarily. We are trying to get as much diversity happening as possible. The space flight has been dominated for a very long time by a few nations and it does tend to be the engineers and the scientists who get to fly because those skills are very needed in career astronauts. When we're looking at private astronaut missions, our astronauts can still deliver great value to humanity by doing research on behalf of other people. So as an example we have astronauts that are taking up some cancer research to try and really improve humanity's understanding of how cancer-fighting drugs can be developed. We have another astronaut who is doing something quite similar around genomics - so personalised medicine and all of that is extremely exciting. But then we also have coming through in future missions some artists who are going to go to space and create some amazing pieces.
In your Twitter account you have written: "I sent people to space". In this sense
if you are not trained by NASA, are you a
real astronaut or you are just a space tourist?
It's a really good question in the USA the FAA has just put out some new regulations and some definitions around what it means to be an astronaut. However anyone that flies with Axiom, they're going to be considered astronauts. We also train them to the level of NASA, so the astronauts that go through our program, are going to have a minimum of 17 weeks training which is about the same as NASA-based basic training that their astronauts will go through. So we use many of the same facilities as what NASA astronauts do. And the astronauts will come out knowing very much how to live, work, survive and thrive in space flight.
It's a really good question in the USA the FAA has just put out some new regulations and some definitions around what it means to be an astronaut. However anyone that flies with Axiom, they're going to be considered astronauts. We also train them to the level of NASA, so the astronauts that go through our program, are going to have a minimum of 17 weeks training which is about the same as NASA-based basic training that their astronauts will go through. So we use many of the same facilities as what NASA astronauts do. And the astronauts will come out knowing very much how to live, work, survive and thrive in space flight.
You mentioned your mission in
February. What's actually the goal and how
many missions
do you plan
for next year or for the
near future?
Yes, so late February we are
planning to launch our mission. That's going up with 4
astronauts. One of them is an Axiom
commander and very experienced NASA astronaut - a
record holder by the name of Michael
Lopez Algeria. So he has a number of records for
spacewalks. And he will be taking the rest of the
crew who are our customers
along to the International Space Station
and his role is to make sure that they
have the safest and most productive
mission that they can. Everyone's got very, very busy schedules
whether it is conducting research or
whether it is
doing some outreach to school children
in the astronauts home countries, or to universities or whoever it is they
might want to be inspiring. So
every astronaut has their own individual
mission. But
there's also opportunities for them to
be helping each other out with some of the
research as well. And then that's our first mission.
We're looking to launch about 2 missions per year. So we have already booked our first 4 missions. We're using SpaceX as our launch provider for those first 4. But we don't stop there. After the first four, right now I'm recruiting astronauts out to about a sixth and seventh mission. But we still plan to keep it once every six months or so. Or if the demand increases, then we can have more regular, more frequent missions thereafter.
We're looking to launch about 2 missions per year. So we have already booked our first 4 missions. We're using SpaceX as our launch provider for those first 4. But we don't stop there. After the first four, right now I'm recruiting astronauts out to about a sixth and seventh mission. But we still plan to keep it once every six months or so. Or if the demand increases, then we can have more regular, more frequent missions thereafter.
And
Axiom also plans to build the first private space station. Is the future of space stations actually
private?
So the International Space Station is an incredible achievement not just from an engineering perspective but also from a geopolitical perspective - all these nations coming together to create this wonderful piece of machinery which has been up there for over 20 years. But it's getting close to retirement. You can imagine if machines and computers which are 20 years old have been running non-stop, there does come a point in time where they need to put it to bed. So the governments that created the International Space Station are turning their eyes now towards moon and then following the moon to Mars and they've created an economy, an environment in low earth orbit, which is where our space station will be, where other companies can now come in and take over the activities that were previously operated by government. So we were lucky enough in early 2020 that we were able to secure and win a bid from NASA, where we can actually start the construction of our space station attached to the International Space Station, attached to one of the docking ports there.
What that means is we can start to share resources with the ISS and that makes it a lot easier as we go through and develop the additional pieces to our space station. So we launch our first segment in 2024 and that will be a habitation module so fantastically designed. Really beautiful place for our future astronauts to go in to sleep and to work. It'll have laboratory facilities in there as well. And then we'll be launching modules very frequently after that. By 2027 our station should be not necessarily complete because we can continue to grow it, but self-sufficient, so at that point when the International Space Station is ready to retire, we'll be ready to take over. And the astronauts and the governments who are currently using the International Space Station and want to retainer presence in low earth orbit, they will have somewhere to go.
But also nations that have never had that opportunity to go to space, have the opportunity to do so now. So this is one of the really amazing things that what Axiom is about to achieve. We are opening up space to not just private individuals, but so many other countries who might have wanted a space program and an astronaut program, but just have never had the political allies or never had the capabilities to get there.
So the International Space Station is an incredible achievement not just from an engineering perspective but also from a geopolitical perspective - all these nations coming together to create this wonderful piece of machinery which has been up there for over 20 years. But it's getting close to retirement. You can imagine if machines and computers which are 20 years old have been running non-stop, there does come a point in time where they need to put it to bed. So the governments that created the International Space Station are turning their eyes now towards moon and then following the moon to Mars and they've created an economy, an environment in low earth orbit, which is where our space station will be, where other companies can now come in and take over the activities that were previously operated by government. So we were lucky enough in early 2020 that we were able to secure and win a bid from NASA, where we can actually start the construction of our space station attached to the International Space Station, attached to one of the docking ports there.
What that means is we can start to share resources with the ISS and that makes it a lot easier as we go through and develop the additional pieces to our space station. So we launch our first segment in 2024 and that will be a habitation module so fantastically designed. Really beautiful place for our future astronauts to go in to sleep and to work. It'll have laboratory facilities in there as well. And then we'll be launching modules very frequently after that. By 2027 our station should be not necessarily complete because we can continue to grow it, but self-sufficient, so at that point when the International Space Station is ready to retire, we'll be ready to take over. And the astronauts and the governments who are currently using the International Space Station and want to retainer presence in low earth orbit, they will have somewhere to go.
But also nations that have never had that opportunity to go to space, have the opportunity to do so now. So this is one of the really amazing things that what Axiom is about to achieve. We are opening up space to not just private individuals, but so many other countries who might have wanted a space program and an astronaut program, but just have never had the political allies or never had the capabilities to get there.
And what
this commercialization of the space
would mean for the humanity?
It's a really good question and I'm going to answer this in two ways. Firstly, we know a lot of the things that can be done from a research point of view, but also from a manufacturing point of view, which is significantly better when done in the micro-gravity environment. For example 3D printing of organs, personalized organs, can be done much better in micro-gravity because you don't need to have a very complex structure as you do on earth in order to build it up around it. In micro-gravity and weightlessness you can essentially 3D print it in a much higher quality.
Very similarly fiber optic cable. So when you produce fiber optic cable on earth, there is a lot of impurities created in that process. Whereas if you do it in micro-gravity, you can create fiber optic cable which has bandwidths of 100 times that on earth. And you can imagine how powerful that is. If we can get all that cable produced in space sent back to earth and increase the communication speed around the world of 100 times.
It's a really good question and I'm going to answer this in two ways. Firstly, we know a lot of the things that can be done from a research point of view, but also from a manufacturing point of view, which is significantly better when done in the micro-gravity environment. For example 3D printing of organs, personalized organs, can be done much better in micro-gravity because you don't need to have a very complex structure as you do on earth in order to build it up around it. In micro-gravity and weightlessness you can essentially 3D print it in a much higher quality.
Very similarly fiber optic cable. So when you produce fiber optic cable on earth, there is a lot of impurities created in that process. Whereas if you do it in micro-gravity, you can create fiber optic cable which has bandwidths of 100 times that on earth. And you can imagine how powerful that is. If we can get all that cable produced in space sent back to earth and increase the communication speed around the world of 100 times.
Which industries do you
think would mostly benefit from the
opening of space to private companies?
So to answer that question I'm going to come back to the second answer I had for the previous one, and say: "We don't know yet". And I'm gonna liken this to the start of the Internet. When the Internet was first around, nobody really knew exactly what could be done with it. And we see now how much of a global impact the Internet has had on humanity, and how the sharing of knowledge has increased dramatically how people can have Zoom calls and perform their day job from their beds if they want to. No one expected that of the creation of the Internet. We think micro-gravity is going to be very similar. So the amazing things that can be done in microgravity tomorrow, we don't know what they are necessarily today.
So to answer that question I'm going to come back to the second answer I had for the previous one, and say: "We don't know yet". And I'm gonna liken this to the start of the Internet. When the Internet was first around, nobody really knew exactly what could be done with it. And we see now how much of a global impact the Internet has had on humanity, and how the sharing of knowledge has increased dramatically how people can have Zoom calls and perform their day job from their beds if they want to. No one expected that of the creation of the Internet. We think micro-gravity is going to be very similar. So the amazing things that can be done in microgravity tomorrow, we don't know what they are necessarily today.
Many people ask themselves - why do we
need to invest so much money in space
exploration, when we have so many problems here on
Earth, like pandemics and so on. What
would be your answer?
I'll give
you two answers here. The first one: it's been proven that there is a quite a
large multiplier effect - for any money
that's spent on research and human
exploration in space, the technologies
that are developed through there, which
can be used down on earth, have a very
large economic multiplier. There are lots of different numbers that
are thrown around
but quite often it's between 5 and 12
times
the amount - so for every dollar spent in
space, it is 5 to 12
benefit down on earth.
And then um the second answer: the challenge with the argument why should we spend money on space flights when there is so many problems down here on earth, is we can't always focus just on one thing. We need to be developing and researching and we'll never be able to achieve a perfect utopia here on earth before we can then take our attention to human exploration in space. There will never come the perfect time to do that. So instead we need to be splitting our resources - partly investing a lot of resources to fix the problems here on earth, but then some small amount of resources that is being invested into space flight but they have important returns.
And then um the second answer: the challenge with the argument why should we spend money on space flights when there is so many problems down here on earth, is we can't always focus just on one thing. We need to be developing and researching and we'll never be able to achieve a perfect utopia here on earth before we can then take our attention to human exploration in space. There will never come the perfect time to do that. So instead we need to be splitting our resources - partly investing a lot of resources to fix the problems here on earth, but then some small amount of resources that is being invested into space flight but they have important returns.
Except
the growing competition between private
companies
there is also space race
between the USA and China mostly. What's behind this growing interest in space? Is this because of the
search for resources or because of the
overcrowding here on Earth?
No I think it's purely because a lot of people are starting to really see the potential. So the space races have been going on for a very long time now. I think the real push that's happening now is due to seeing the economic benefits that are coming from investment into spaceflight and particularly long-term exploration - exploring the Moon and then onto the Mars, where there's vast amounts of resources available for use which is not going to be taking from earth's resources.
No I think it's purely because a lot of people are starting to really see the potential. So the space races have been going on for a very long time now. I think the real push that's happening now is due to seeing the economic benefits that are coming from investment into spaceflight and particularly long-term exploration - exploring the Moon and then onto the Mars, where there's vast amounts of resources available for use which is not going to be taking from earth's resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment