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Annotated Bibliography

How is moving space into the private sector affecting the future of space travel?

Amahri Snipes

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

October 19, 2017

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Annotated Bibliography

Achenbach, Joel. Which Way to Space? The Washington Post, WP Company LLC. 23 Nov

2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2013/11/23/which-way-to-space/?

utm_term=.b69d31c7a400 Accessed 12 Oct 2017.

This article from a reputable, popular news source gives some background into what the

face of space travel used to be, what it is turning into and discusses a handful of big

players in the private space sector and their respective triumphs and downfalls. It explains

how NASA is struggling to further advancements in space tech due to budget cuts and

just how expensive it is to get things into space. It then goes into how the big companies

like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic partner with NASA to get cargo to the International

Space Station (ISS) and how that dramatically reduces costs for all parties. It then goes

into how these companies are advancing the industry themselves, especially SpaceX with

their self-landing Falcon 9 rocket and their bold plans for the future. The author is an

American staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of seven books. He has a

BA in politics from Princeton University. He also won the Philip J. Klass Award by

National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS) in 2011. This is a pretty objective article because

it is entirely based on facts. The facts are what these companies are and their individual

accomplishments. The purpose of this article is so that people who dont know much

about the logistics of the private space sector to get a general idea of the history of it and

the big names in the industry today and what they have done to earn those titles.

Al-Rodhan, Nayef. THE PRIVATIZATION OF SPACE: WHEN THINGS GO WRONG.

Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Geneva Centre for Security Policy. 14 Aug 2015.
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http://www.gcsp.ch/News-Knowledge/Global-insight/The-Privatization-of-Space-When-

Things-Go-Wrong Accessed 17 Oct 2017.

The article from a reliable source discusses how private space industry companies

partnering with NASA leads to some liability concerns for both entities. It states how it is

a beneficial relationship, lowering costs and alleviating expenses for taxpayers since the

projects arent government funded. It also goes into an interesting point about the liability

of a company versus the government. If a something failed and resulted in one or more

fatalities when NASA was at the helm it would be easy to recover because it is viewed as

a symptom of progress and there are no shareholders to please. However, if a private

company were to have an accident that resulted in one or more fatalities the implications

would be different because theyre a public entity. It was a point that I hadnt thought of

before that I found interesting. The author, Nayef Al-Rodhan is a Saudi philosopher,

neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author. e is an Honorary Fellow of St. Antonys College

at Oxford University, Senior Fellow and Centre Director of the Geopolitics and Global

Futures Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. This is a good source

because it is from a reliable organization and the author has many credits and

accomplishments to his name. The source opened my eyes to a sub-topic I hadnt

originally thought of and will be integral in bettering my paper.

Frost, Robert. The Pros And Cons Of Privatizing Space Exploration. Forbes, B.

C. Forbes. 04 Apr 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/04/04/the-pros-and-

cons-of-privatizing-space-exploration/#6958ffed3319 Accessed 17 Oct 2017.

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This article from a popular news source highlights and gives some insight into the

balance between NASA and the private space sector. The author writes about how the

privatization of space isnt meant to replace government involvement in space, only to

complement the already existing system. He explains that if everything was private, it

would impede the advancement of science. Everything would need to somehow turn a

profit instead of being solely for the enrichment of knowledge. He states that the balance

of private to government is a beneficial one, one that should help science in the long run.

The author, Robert Frost, has worked in NASAs Flight Operations Directorate. For 10

years, I trained astronauts and flight controllers on the guidance, navigation, control &

propulsion of the International Space Station. He now works as a flight controller for

visiting vehicles and technology integration. This is a good source because it is retrieved

from a popular, reliable website and is written by someone who has been in the industry

for a long time and knows the ins and outs of how things work.

Rees, Martin. Mars needs millionaires. Foreign Policy, (137), 90. Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace. July/Aug 2003. Retrieved from https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?

url=https://search-proquest-com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/224032865?

accountid=14605 Accessed 14 Oct 2017

This essay was written for the authors latest book at the time Our Final Hour: The Threat

to Humanity's Survival and then was published in The Washington Journal, a scholarly

journal focusing on politics. The essay expresses the views of space travel of the author.

He thinks that it is a waste for governments to try and get humans into space. He goes

into how he thinks that it is only something that should be something rich science types
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should strive for, notably in a time before Elon Musk exploded onto the scene. He

expresses that bearing the burden of failure in an industry with where failure can be fatal

would cause nations to get cold feet and back out, while a private company would mourn

their losses and keep pushing boundaries and drive innovation forward. He touches on

how in that case, accomplishments will represent humanity as whole instead of a nation

and failure would only make us stronger. Martin Rees is Britain's astronomer royal and a

Royal Society research professor at Cambridge University's King's College. This essay is

a good source because it is of academic origin and gives a different view on private space

travel. It is also a part of an academic journal so its credibility is undeniable.