Inner Peace in Outer Space

Where Is This Renewed Interest In Outer Space Coming From?

Our fascination is no longer limited to interesting scientific endeavors relying on the radio transmissions of go-kart sized satellites. Every corporate bigwig is bringing his toy rocket to the Board Room sandbox. Elon Musk’s Space X has established the commercial viability of its Falcon 9 Rocket, the first orbital class rocket capable or reflight. Jeff Bezos has undertaken some lofty goals with his Blue Origin. He believes “that in order to preserve Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy. Like the Industrial Revolution gave way to trade, economic abundance, new communities and high-speed transportation — our road to space opens to the door to the infinite and yet unimaginable future generations might enjoy”. Overnight moon rocks, anyone? Do not forget the O.G. of modern space spin — Sir Richard Branson. He still wants you to book your honeymoon with Virgin Galactic.

To further bolster the financial potentials in Space, Bank of America’s Ronald J. Epstein believes the commercial space market will hit $1.4 trillion by 2030. Epstein cites increased defense spending, growth in satellites, space tourism and resource extraction as ways the industry can grow.

The Space discourse has also entered pop culture, with many designers relying on technical gear imitating modern space suits and licensing agreements branding their clothing with NASA logos and the like. Recently, Estee Lauder just signed an accord with NASA whereby they send ten bottles of Estee Lauder’s ‘Advanced Night Repair’ serum out of this world for a four-and-and-half hour photoshoot shot by NASA astronauts for a cool $128K. The International Space Station runway never looked so good.

Where pop culture goes, Hollywood always follows. Tom Cruise is planning to shoot a movie, at least partially, in space. This past summer, he convinced Universal Pictures to board the project, with Doug Liman, who he worked with on Edge of Tomorrow, set to occupy the director’s chair. Now, we have confirmation that both Cruise and Liman will be taking their trip to space next fall.

So, why this sudden zest for adventure? Perhaps, history can shed some light. The Renaissance was a a rather limited period of time and confined to a small geographic area in central Europe. That time celebrated an extended period of peace as well as great wealth distributed across society. Left to its own devices, the human spirit is curious and resilient. This curiosity can only blossom if we are not dropping bombs or worrying about an empty refrigerator. Its just possible things are just not that bad after all…

Written By:

Luigi Rosabianca of Shield Advisory Group