Can private space flight really let ordinary people into space? May cause permanent inequality.

On 20021September 18, American space exploration technology company successfully carried out their first purely commercial manned space mission-Inspiration 4, sending four ordinary people into orbit around the earth. The space mission, funded by a private company, sent the four ordinary people to a height of 575 kilometers above the ground, flew at 22 times the speed of sound and circled the earth about every 90 minutes. Four non-professional ordinary people can enjoy the spectacular sights of space and the earth through the "glass dome" of the dragon spacecraft.

After three days of successful flight around the earth, Inspiration 4 landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean, and the commercial manned space mission was a complete success. Many media around the world hold their breath to report. On the one hand, the wonders of the universe, including the earth, that people saw were very shocking because of this space mission, and the main reason was the identity of these four crew members, because none of them had received professional space training, let alone professional astronauts. The space flight completed by the "civil crew" seems to have sent a message to the outside world, that is, private funding. Is that really the case?

Many people hold this view that privately funded space flight makes it easier for "anyone" to enter space. Since the beginning of this year, many commercial companies, including Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Space Exploration Technology, have carried out private space flight activities. In a sense, these plans really give people more opportunities to "enter" space on the surface, and also let people see the dawn and hope of entering space flight. As advertised by these commercial companies, "barrier-free" flights will be implemented for most people. This makes many people who could not realize their space dreams suddenly pull their dreams very close.

It is true that the crew of the civil spacecraft carrying Jeff Bezos, richard branson and the above four ordinary people all come from people with almost no "obstacles", but we can see that these people have several obvious labels, such as physical and mental health, wealth and especially wealth. Needless to say, Jeff Bezos and richard branson, who went into space by commercial spacecraft before, must meet the condition of "wealth" even in the announced Inspiration Unit 4.

Isaac Mann, for example, is a billionaire himself. He not only owns companies worth billions of dollars, but also lives in the top ten or so rich communities in the United States. Non-billionaire "civilians" are often the most qualified astronauts to fly in space. For example, the astronaut who flew the Inspiration 4 spacecraft was Sian Proctor, who was both a geoscientist and an educator. He used to be a member of NASA's astronaut team.

For another example, Wally Funk, who went into space with Bezos at the age of 82, was an alternate astronaut of project mercury in the 1960s. Let's talk about Chris broschi, an unknown flight attendant in the "Inspiration 4" mission. It is said that this "boat ticket" was obtained from a charity lottery held by a hospital, but this crew member also served in the US Air Force and later obtained a bachelor's degree in aviation. It can be seen from the announcement of the applicant's conditions in the Inspiration 4 task that it is open to anyone on the surface, but in fact it is the result of the superposition of many factors, that is to say, it is an evaluation of the applicant's combined advantages in money, luck, competition and identity.

Therefore, we should see that the statement that commercial aerospace makes it easier for private people to enter space is not strict and accurate except in a few cases. In addition to the official standards, commercial space companies will still use some more opaque standards to determine the crew who choose space missions. It is important to create amazing space experiences for those who have "innate advantages". Therefore, the statement that "commercial aerospace is for civilian use" is simply untenable. It will not eliminate the obstacles to entering space, but will create more unbalanced inequalities. This not only includes racism, gender discrimination and ability discrimination in the United States in the past, but also fully embodies the "rules of the game" dominated by billionaires.

Isaac Mann, the crew member mentioned earlier, is not only a billionaire in the United States, but also one of the few people who became richer during the global epidemic, like Bezos and Musk Commercial Space Company. Although one of the goals announced by the "Inspiration 4" mission is to raise money for the Children's Research Hospital of St. Jude in the United States with the "earned" money, Musk alone donated 50 million US dollars, accounting for a quarter of the total fundraising. Donating money to the hospital is certainly a good thing, but without the donation of space missions, it cannot be denied that this goal cannot be achieved. In this mission, in order to win the "boat ticket", we don't know how much another billionaire, Isaac Mann, paid for the space exploration technology company Dragon Spacecraft to enter orbit, but it must be at least hundreds of millions of dollars. Inspiration 4 task will definitely make a lot of money even if the donated funds are excluded. It is estimated that Musk donated $50 million to the hospital at his price. If measured by the average net worth of Americans, it is only equivalent to donating $25. If it is relative to the global per capita wealth, then this value will be much lower.

Therefore, in order to make it easier for more people to enter space, it is absolutely impossible to achieve it through the "civil" flight of private commercial companies. In the final analysis, the biggest obstacle for human beings to fully participate in space experience is resource allocation. Just as philanthropy can't eliminate the global gap between the rich and the poor, there will be irreconcilable contradictions between meeting the basic needs of mankind and making exciting space travel for a long time or forever. At present, "civil aerospace" is still supervised by a very small number of people with more wealth and resources, lacking universality and inclusiveness.

In short, commercial aerospace companies aim at making profits. Space exploration technology company's space flight offer is about $220 million, which will be paid by passengers. Some unusual and unusual activities carried out by those billionaires include space flight, climbing Mount Everest, Antarctic exploration and flying fighter planes. , is nothing more than within their tolerance, the consumption of resources and wealth needs people all over the world to make up.