In our miserabilist age it is all too easy to dismiss the latest billionaire fashion for space exploration as vanity piled upon eccentricity.
Even space romantics such as the science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson wonder whether space tourism amounts to little more than bungee jumping for the mega-rich.
But there is a good chance that the flood of investment pouring into space projects will eventually create a new and vibrant extraterrestrial economy that will stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration between nation states and the public and private sectors, and stretch the boundaries of human imagination. We may truly be at the dawn of a new space age.
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