Space-based Economy Research Articles

Estimating passenger emissions from airfares supports equitable climate action

Air travel generates a substantial and growing share of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reduction efforts partly rely on estimates of emissions per passenger, which may be used for carbon budgets, offsets, or taxes. Aircraft emissions are typically allocated to individual passengers through space-based allocation dependent on seating arrangements by travel class. However, the operation of aircraft depends on profitability, which benefits from high fares from late bookings, often by business and high-income travellers. Fare-based allocation recognises the economic drivers of airline emissions by allocating the aircraft emissions proportionally to the paid airfares. In this article, we compare space-based passenger emissions, which differ only by class, with fare-based passenger emissions, which depend on the fare paid by the individual traveller. We extract space-based allocation factors from widely used emission calculators and derive fare-based allocation factors from airfares for domestic travel in the US. We find that the space-based allocation factors reflect the difference in average expenditure by travel class but not the difference in expenditure between travellers. With fare-based accounting, the most expensive economy trips have similar emissions to space-based premium trips, while less expensive premium trips have similar emissions to space-based economy trips. We find that a tax on fare-based instead of space-based emissions leads to a more evenly distributed impact on low-fare and high-fare travellers whilst achieving the same reduction in airline revenues. We conclude that fare-based emissions accounting better reflects the drivers of airline emissions and supports more equitable climate action.

The proposed Silicate-Sulfuric Acid Process: Mineral processing for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

Volatile elements and compounds found in extra-terrestrial environments are often the target of In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) studies. Although water and hydroxide are most commonly the focus of these studies as they can be used for propellant and human consumption; we instead focus on the possible exploitation of sulfur and how it could be utilized to produce building materials on the Moon, Mars and Asteroids. We describe the physical and chemical pathways for extracting sulfur from native sulfide minerals, manufacturing sulfuric acid in situ, and using the produced acid to dissolve native silicate minerals. The final products of this process, which we call the Silicate-Sulfuric Acid Process (SSAP), include iron metal, silica, oxygen and metal oxides, all of which are crucial in the scope of a sustainable, space-based economy. Although our proposed methodology requires an initial investment of water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, we show that all of these volatiles are recovered and reused in order to repeat the process. We calculate the product yield from this process if it were enacted on the lunar highlands, lunar mare, Mars, as well as an array of asteroid types.

Asteroid Redirect Mission concept: A bold approach for utilizing space resources

The utilization of natural resources from asteroids is an idea that is older than the Space Age. The technologies are now available to transform this endeavor from an idea into reality. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) is a mission concept which includes the goal of robotically returning a small Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) or a multi-ton boulder from a large NEA to cislunar space in the mid-2020s using an advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) vehicle and currently available technologies. The paradigm shift enabled by the ARM concept would allow in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to be used at the human mission departure location (i.e., cislunar space) versus exclusively at the deep-space mission destination. This approach drastically reduces the barriers associated with utilizing ISRU for human deep-space missions. The successful testing of ISRU techniques and associated equipment could enable large-scale commercial ISRU operations to become a reality and enable a future space-based economy utilizing processed asteroidal materials. This paper provides an overview of the ARM concept and discusses the mission objectives, key technologies, and capabilities associated with the mission, as well as how the ARM and associated operations would benefit humanity׳s quest for the exploration and settlement of space.

Lunar resources

There is growing interest in the possibility that the resource base of the Solar System might in future be used to supplement the economic resources of our own planet. As the Earth’s closest celestial neighbour, the Moon is sure to feature prominently in these developments. In this paper I review what is currently known about economically exploitable resources on the Moon, while also stressing the need for continued lunar exploration. I find that, although it is difficult to identify any single lunar resource that will be sufficiently valuable to drive a lunar resource extraction industry on its own (notwithstanding claims sometimes made for the 3He isotope, which are found to be exaggerated), the Moon nevertheless does possess abundant raw materials that are of potential economic interest. These are relevant to a hierarchy of future applications, beginning with the use of lunar materials to facilitate human activities on the Moon itself, and progressing to the use of lunar resources to underpin a future industrial capability within the Earth-Moon system. In this way, gradually increasing access to lunar resources may help ‘bootstrap’ a space-based economy from which the world economy, and possibly also the world’s environment, will ultimately benefit.

Business innovation symposium ‘At what price? IP-related thoughts on new business models for space information’

Spatial data and imagery generators are set to become tomorrow's key players in the information society. This is why satellite owners and operators are examining new revenue-producing models for developing space-related products and services. The use and availability of broadband internet width and satellite data-based services will continue to increase in the future. With the capacity to deliver real time precision downstream data, space agencies and the satellite industry can respond to the demand for high resolution digital space information which, with the appropriate technology, can be integrated into a variety of web-based applications. 1 1 Some space data information products and services such as digital cartography, crop monitoring systems, through to oil exploration support and more are already available, see OECD Futures Project, The Commercialisation of Space and Space Infrastructure, 2003, available at 〈http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3343,en_2649_34815_1837844_1_1_1_1,00.html〉. At a time when the traditional roles of space agencies are becoming more hybrid, largely as a result of the greater drive towards commercial markets, new value-added markets for space-related information products are continuing to attract attention. This paper discusses whether traditional data policies on space data access and IP licensing schemes stand to remain the feasible prototype for distributing and marketing space data, and how this growth market might benefit from looking at an ‘up and running’ global IP management system already operating to manage end user digital demand. Preface The terminology describing the various types of spatial data and space-based information is not uniformly used within the various principles, laws and policies that govern space data. For convenience only this paper refers to primary or raw data gathered by the space-based industry as spatial or raw data, and the data as processed and sold on or distributed by ground-based companies as space information products and services. In practise, spatial data range from generic to specific data sets, digital topography, through to pictures and imagery services at various resolutions, with 3-D perspectives underway. 2 2 Principle I, UN Principles on Remote Sensing, UN Doc A/Res/41/65 (1986), distinguishes between primary data, processed data and analysed information. Others rely on generic terms, e.g. the European Union makes reference to ‘spatial data’ in its INSPIRE Directive, 2007/2/EC of 14 March establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community, OJ L 108/1 of 25 April 2007. The paper addresses general IP considerations relating to spatial data, with some reference to remote sensing itself. 3 3 Exact IP details will depend at all times on the final product and service in question.