The Space Race the World Needs Is Finally Starting

The problem is that exploration and science is sometimes too difficult and expensive to justify the pursuit of glory. For most of the space age, Mars has been that kind of destination, foiling around half of all missions hoping to land or orbit on it and its moons.

In the early 2000s, Musk famously began branching out from pioneering electric cars and started looking into NASA’s plans for sending people to Mars. When he found that there were none, he began laying the groundwork for SpaceX. Musk’s — and SpaceX’s — stated long-term goal is to make “humanity multiplanetary.”

To get there, SpaceX and its engineers have tried to lower the cost of getting into space by developing reusable rocket systems. They’ve succeeded better than anyone could have imagined.

In 2011, a kilogram of cargo launched on the NASA Space Shuttle cost around $30,000; today, one kilogram of payload launched on SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket costs around $1,200. Lower costs have not only expanded the market for launch services beyond governments and the biggest corporations, they’ve also enabled Musk to add a note of practicality to his grand dreams of Mars.

In April of 2016, SpaceX announced plans to send a spacecraft without a crew to the Martian surface as soon as 2018. The plan sounded plausible; both the rocket and the landing craft were in advanced stages of development (and both have since launched). The mission would be financed by SpaceX and Musk, with operational and technical support from NASA, but no money.

The plan turned out to be politically and financially untenable, and Musk canceled it just over a year after the initial announcement. In its place, he announced a new Mars mission architecture, highlighted by the development of a reusable spacecraft dubbed Starship, which SpaceX describes as the “most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.” Starship is expected to perform its first orbital test flight soon, but there’s been no announced timeline for travel beyond Earth.

That doesn't mean there isn't hope for a commercial mission to Mars. Over the two decades since SpaceX was founded, the global space sector has grown into a $447 billion industry (it was worth $162 billion in 2005), with at least 20 companies capable of satellite and orbital launches. As the number of companies grow, so too do entrepreneurship and expertise. And some of that expertise strikes out on its own.

Tom Mueller is one of those entrepreneurs. In 2002, he was SpaceX employee No. 1, and over an 18-year career he played the crucial role in developing engines and propulsion systems for the company’s rockets and spacecraft. After retiring, he indulged his passion for race cars until founding Impulse Space last year. The firm is focused on building sustainable propulsion systems to move objects already in space, from satellites to space junk.

It’s the kind of brash ambition that made SpaceX a success, so it shouldn’t come as a total surprise that Mueller is seeking to beat his former boss to Mars. Impulse Space’s partner in the venture is Relativity Space Inc., a 7-year-old company that plans to use 3D printing to make reusable launch vehicles.

Like Impulse, Relativity has SpaceX DNA; its vice president of engineering and manufacturing, Zach Dunn, worked under Mueller for years. Last year, he approached Mueller about putting together a mission that would draw attention to its new rocket, which is intended to compete directly against SpaceX.

Will it work? The architecture of the Mars mission utilizes the innovative capabilities of both companies, while also relying on NASA for safe entry into the Martian atmosphere. (NASA landed a rover there last year.) If the effort succeeds, NASA and other companies are likely to embrace the opportunity to pay for transport on future missions.

That's a space race worth cheering about. Government-run space programs continue to advance science and engineering around the world. But the future of space exploration will be defined by fast-moving private companies in competition with each other. The race to put the first commercial rocket on Mars doesn’t have the same allure as sending the first human to the moon. But the achievement would be just as important to the development of a multiplanetary species. Let the best rocket win.

Bloomberg News provided this article. For more articles like this please visit bloomberg.com.

Read more articles by Adam Minter