The writer is the author of ‘The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars’
Standing on the edge of the vast Fimiston gold mine in Western Australia, some 30 years ago, I marvelled at the sheer size and depth of the scar in the landscape. The experience came to mind when Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos commented in July, hours after he flew into space, that “we need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry, and move it into space”. Removing extractive industries and its associated poisonous waste from Earth is a laudable aim. But just how feasible is it?
The first obstacle to overcome is one posed by technology. Barely six decades separated the first powered flight and man stepping on to the moon. Since then, the cost to orbit of a kilogramme of cargo has plummeted as rocketry has matured. In the late 1950s, this cost was $1m; SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy can now boost 1kg into orbit for $1,400, and the company’s next-generation Starship aims for just $10 per kg. Access to space is no longer the preserve of countries with space programmes.