Space Exploration Case Study

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In the 1950s, during the cold war the US and USSR competed for supremacy in space exploration. It was considered a necessity for national security and to show the technological superiority of their country (Wikipedia, 2016). Since then space exploration has been predominantly dominated by public agencies like NASA, ROSCOSMOS, and ISRO. Recently, the 21st century has seen a radical change in the scenario. Private space agencies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have started to compete and collaborate with public space agencies. This essay attempts to understand the motivations that drive public and private space agencies to invest in space exploration which seems to have no immediate beneficial outcome. It also tries to find the key differences in the motivations of private and public agencies using a case study of NASA and SpaceX. First the direct and indirect economic motivations of the two agencies are considered. …show more content…

But they are not curtailed by the state which allows them to achieve faster progress. SpaceX was found by Elon Musk with the sole intention of achieving colonization of Mars. This is considered an important goal of many space organizations to ensure the survival of mankind from a disaster like the one that wiped out dinosaurs. He has proclaimed that they can reach Mars by mid 2020s. But their limited budget means they have to focus on cutting costs and reusing parts. This has led to them mainly coming up with cost effective solutions to routine tasks for NASA. Their only goal is to ensure the sustainability of their organization while they work towards the bigger picture of colonizing Mars. This shows that NASA is more economically motivated than SpaceX because they are dependent on the state who have certain goals in mind. On the other hand, SpaceX have individual goals for the organization and they are not accountable. But their limited budget means they are

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