The space economy has experienced rapid growth in the past decade, valued at $469 billion in 2021. Space technologies, such as enhanced disaster management and spinoff innovations have brought about many societal benefits. However, with growth in the economy of space comes concerns about wealth inequality, limited benefits for certain regions and occupations, and potential negative impacts of space tourism on the environment. Measures must be taken to ensure that economic systems are inclusive and sustainable.

In 2021 the non-profit Space Foundation, the space economy was estimated at $469 billion, expanding 70% in the past decade - as much economic value as generated by the entire country of Ireland. 

There are reasons for this rapid growth – cheaper launches, smaller satellites, driven by changes in US policy and the advancement of technological progress.  This economic potential has caused a flurry of excitement – new funding, new research, new investments, new start-up companies.  

Governments invest the most in space capabilities and space research, for a wide number of reasons, ranging from national security to scientific research to national prestige.  Surprisingly disaster management is one of the largest economic benefits of space due to enhanced meteorological predictions.  Even what we refer to as “commercial space”, or NewSpace, is still heavily supported by public funding.  And there is a growing number of both established and emergent space faring countries, with diverse capabilities increasing public funding or public support for greater national space capabilities.  A central justification for all this public investment in the space industry is the potential for economic and technological growth.  

The public value assumption here is that technological innovations in the space sector will lead to a better life for everyone – and there’s several avenues by which that happens.  There can be economic growth, which supposedly trickles down into the rest of society.  There can also be technological innovations from NASA research that are valorized within the private sector, such as LASIK eye surgery, these are known as spinoff technologies.  

One issue with space technologies driving economic growth is essentially an issue with all high technology companies and capitalism itself when left unchecked.  The issue is that growth tends to be spiky, where some members of society do in fact gain more money, but others are left behind.  This is especially an issue with technology companies, as individuals who have a stronger technical background or higher educational levels have an advantage – leading to both geographical polarization – where high paying jobs tend to accumulate in certain regions and job polarization – where wealth accumulates among certain occupations and not others, thus hollowing out the middle class.  Wealth inequality within a society is detrimental to many indicators of well-being: social cohesion, political polarization, health, crime, drug use, and ironically lower economic growth.

Most societies actually already have some economic feedback loops to deal with the economic inequality, such as graduated taxes on the rich and welfare systems for the poor.  Nonetheless, during periods of sharp technological change, it’s worth a second glance at whether our economic systems are leaving anyone behind.

The second area where that’s worth considering is the public value of spinoff technologies.  One fantastic NASA spinoff is the smartphone camera.  Eric Fossum developed the pixel sensor in 1992 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for photographs on space missions.  While NASA was slow to incorporate the new technology, a private company thought that customers would enjoy sharing their shopping sprees with their friends, and the most convenient place to put this camera would be on the back of a cell phone.  This process is known as technology transfer, and it is an area of central concern for NASA and many other space agencies in industrialized countries.  The creation of new space agencies in new spacefaring nations, however, is an area where assumptions about the benefits of technological innovation may not hold. Technology transfer from new space agencies in these countries may be limited by factors such as limited infrastructure and technical expertise, thus limiting the societal benefits from research. 

In addition to these issues, there is also the concern that economic growth and new technologies may not actually lead to better lives for humanity at all. As the Beatles famously said, “money can't buy me love.” In a similar vein, economic growth does not always buy us happiness. For example, the space tourism industry is a new, exciting, and fast-growing industry.  Personally, I’d love to go to space, if offered the chance!  However, if space tourism becomes affordable for masses of people, it may also have extremely negative impacts for our shared environment.