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As the billionaire space race heats up, it’s easy to get the wrong message. Because they don’t understand how we got to this point, it’s often framed by the media as an elite group of rich guys literally trying to rip each other off while throwing themselves in the air.
They are. But what’s missing from these reports, editorials, and opinions is some understanding of what’s really happening, why it’s happening, and where it could lead us all, not just them.
For 40 years, a group of space revolutionaries has been fighting to get America and the world right on this point. For us this is a victory. What those on the outside see as a group of poster children for the evils of the rich, we see as people enabling a massive breakthrough to create a better future for everyone on the planet. What some characterize as the in-your-face waste of money better spent on their own versions of public service, we see as a significant investment in the only area of human endeavor that has the potential to solve a myriad of human problems. ranging from the intangible sources of inspiration to the very real effects of human industry on the earth.
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Yes, I get that hugely inflated egos are involved here. I also understand that in their businesses some of these men (and yes, unfortunately they are all men for now) do not apply the right levels of compassion, honesty and generosity to those who have helped them earn the money they spend on space projects. I also admitted that these may not be the personal role models you would like to see leading such important work. I get it. I know them or have met them all. And they exhibit the common flaws of almost everyone who has created enormous wealth. They are socially awkward, impatient and, thanks to the circles of sycophants and managers around them, sometimes out of touch with the realities of everyday life.
Yet we live in a society that glorifies money and fame, one where utterly useless influencers milk the masses for money, and cash cows like the Kardashians become idols. We forgive the scandals of stars and adore multimillionaire athletes for no other reason than their fabulousness and physical prowess. I think it’s kind of ridiculous in a society like this, where the quest for power and money is the defining paradigm, that when some of the most successful among us put some of their hard-earned wealth into projects to break us out into a new level of his, they become the target of icons of evil.
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Let’s be very clear. Whatever mechanism these people use to launch themselves or their machines into space, whoever they are in their personal lives, these people are trying to do something good for humanity and the planet. They invest in a better future. They are developing systems and technologies to take us out of the cage of gravity and allow us to open up this tiny backwater of a planet to the rest of the universe.
While, for obvious reasons, the word itself is a little hard to use for those in aerospace, they’re making the ultimate “impact” investment. They invest billions in opening a railway to space, we will all be able to travel billions that they could have used to buy sports teams, palaces and pet politicians. Instead, they put the future where they keep their mouths shut.
If they succeed, we will be able to turn a civilization’s attack on Earth’s resources into the emergence of a new space economy that can tackle Earth’s problems. global warming. By investing the profits made by us selling media, cars and the abundance of everything else they deliver to our doors, we have a chance to undo the rape of our mother world. Instead of harvesting the metals and minerals we use in our materialistic society from its sacred ground, we can harvest them from the dead rocks of space. And when we go outside ourselves, as we’ve seen in nearly every human-to-human interaction in space, they can help us model new ways of being, new ways of being together, and new ways of appreciating each other. By simply looking down and experiencing the Outline Effect, the one up there creates its new ways of thinking about our delicate and beautiful planet down here.
When I speak to reporters and groups, I also like to make a misunderstood but important point about Elon, Jeff and Richard, who are putting their money into opening the Frontier.
At least when it comes to them, these billionaires do not have room to make money. They made their money to make room.
Look at their life history. These are not the robber barons of the 19th century. Jeff Bezos gave an early high school speech in which he talked about establishing space. Elon Musk tried to send a symbolic living example of life on Earth to Mars with his fortune from eBay buying PayPal. And Richard Branson’s ongoing social and environmental work is well known. They are Apollo’s children. Raised with images of people ready to destroy the Earth yet exploring the cosmos, choosing to use their vast fortunes to set us free to try new ways of coexisting in new societies, and the dreams of the next generation, instead of conquering others and filling the air with the smoke of industry.
As for those who could buy tickets to take a ride into space, it has been and has always been true that the spending of the wealthy as early adopters of technology often subsidizes the development of things that make our lives better. For example, there’s that huge flat screen on your wall, which now costs less than the first small TVs that only the rich could ever afford. Or consider your ability to fly anywhere, once only available to the wealthy ‘Jet Set’. Or, more directly, that Tesla in a suburban driveway. Or a thousand other things that we now take for granted.
In this case, the technology is that of space travel, the improvement makes it cheap and affordable, and the result will be access to the rest of the universe for the rest of us.
Yes, we have a society that has been distorted by its design to drive wealth to a small percentage of our population. Yes, those at such power peaks should do a much better job of sharing their premium, preferably with the workers who made them rich. Yeah, watching a battle of egos play out to see whose rocketship is bigger, can go farther, and stay longer is sometimes just as ridiculous as most of the other things a bunch of male nerds often do. And yes, the society that produces such focused financial power needs to be reformed.
I get it. In their earthly works they should be nicer and kinder, pay their people more and be generally better people.
But I’m asking you to get this. The last space race was between nations seeking to blow each other up and take the planet with them. Even now, another much more ominous space race is brewing between the democracies and dictatorships of the world like China and Russia to control the moon and the rest of the solar system. I ask you to ensure that we, the taxpayers, collectively invest trillions in races to develop weapons of death and destruction that can fly farther and blow up more things. And look in the mirror and understand that in the name of our own egos, we’re dumping billions into bigger, worse, gas-guzzling metal boxes on wheels, and bigger billboard-style boxes than we could ever need to live in – just because we have the money. We are people. They are.
These visionary billionaires could dissolve their fortunes and give each of us a few dollars that would quickly disappear into the sea of spending we all make every day, with no noticeable effect. Why not put that money into the heavy lifting that can help build a future that might just give us the means to save us all? That’s an inspiration to all of us, and offers an opportunity to reinvent ourselves if we all eventually get the chance to fly tomorrow where they fly today?
There are many icons and egos whose power and fortunes come from worse places and are used to do much worse things. And there are other races going on right now, be it weapons, energy and space races between government and government that bring out the worst in us and give nothing back to humanity for the waste they create.
I say let’s make them run this one. Gravity be damned, don’t spare the egos. After all, whoever wins, we will all win in the end.
Rick Tumlinson is the founder of Space fund, a venture capital firm that invests in aerospace startups. He also founded the Space Frontier Foundation, Earthlight Foundation and New Worlds Institute and is a founding board member of the Foundation X Prize.
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