Future Space Revolution & People Behind It: Pioneers’ Philosophies

The future is almost here, and space exploration has long ago ceased to be just a distant dream. With a number of government initiatives and plenty of private companies exploring outer space, it gets challenging, keeping track of all the new trends and inventions. Who are the people moving the space industry forward, and how do they see its future?

The most famous figure is, of course, Elon Musk. While his dream of colonizing Mars may take some time, this space pioneer has already achieved a lot in space cargo delivery. His vehicle Falcon has already completed several successful launches. Even though the cost of a single launch remains pretty high, this American entrepreneur keeps working on his ambitious projects.

As for Mars colonization, SpaceX plans to launch its first cargo vehicle in 2022. The first manned mission may take another two years to complete, but given Musk’s determination, we are still likely to see it happen in 2024.

One more important figure in space exploration is Richard Branson. This pioneer is more focused on space tourism, even though he does not discard the idea of space colonization as well. Unlike Musk, though, he believes Moon colonization is a more reasonable plan. Branson claims that all heavy production should be transferred to our natural satellite, while the Earth should remain a spot for human habitation. This sounds like a great idea, but Branson claims that the first industries could move to the moon in ten years.

Branson’s idea of space tourism will take less time to implement, though. Almost a thousand tickets, $250,000 each, have already been sold to Branson’s space vehicle Virgin Galactic. It is not yet clear when exactly the first flight will take place, but Branson promises that this is a matter of months. Still, there have been no updates on this subject for months already, so we just have to live and see whether Virgin can live up to this promise.

Another important figure in space exploration is a Ukrainian Max Polyakov. His ideas, however, are quite different from those of Musk and Branson. Max Polyakov believes that space is for the Earth, not vice versa. His Noosphere Ventures Foundation invests in plenty of space exploration projects, but most of them have to work with Earth remote monitoring. All data obtained from space should be used to making our planet a safer place to live and maximizing its resource efficiency.

Despite different aspirations and philosophies, all of those ideas serve one purpose — moving humanity forward. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Max Polyakov may have different views on space exploration, but one thing is certain — all three hope to make the Earth a better, safer place to live. So, for now, the future of space exploration looks bright.