This week, the Artemis II mission will carry four astronauts on an approximately 10-day mission around the moon and back.
It would mark the first time a crew has undertaken that journey in over 50 years, with the Apollo 17 mission back in 1972. This moment is one worth celebrating.
At the same time, it is crazy to think that it has been over 50 years since we put humans on the moon. This mission, in some respects, offers a firm reminder that while we are refocusing on returning to the final frontier, we are doing so along an antiquated, bureaucratic, and expensive trajectory that isn’t suited to today’s needs.
As the Manhattan Institute’s James Beig said last year, NASA is entering a “Golden Window” for reform that we must take advantage of. While NASA has done good work, it is also slow and inefficient. Meanwhile, we have a ton of excitement and activity in the commercial space, increasingly showing that spaceflight is reaching a point where it can be cheaper, more accessible, and more frequent than before.
When looking at some of the core issues in exploring the final frontier, the exploration starts with the Space Launch System (SLS). For years, this booster has been a poster child of inefficiency. While the Office of Inspector General Report estimated that the cost of a single rocket was pegged at $2.5 billion, the OIG told Congress that the cost for the first four missions of Artemis would be $4.1 billion per mission, a far cry from the projected $500 million NASA sold Congress on just a decade prior. To add insult to injury, those projections don’t even account for other investments just to spin up the Artemis program.
The barriers to exploration would shock you
While the government’s space program has its own challenges, its regulators aren’t making it any easier for commercial players trying to operate either. We are stuck in a regulatory maze where innovators must navigate onerous and, in some cases, obsolete FAA requirements. A small office within the regulator must approve any civilian spaceflights that launch through or reenter U.S. airspace. In some instances, getting that approval can take months on end. Even though the Trump administration in its first term tried to streamline this process, the result of that effort has done little to help, as companies were stuck navigating new, cumbersome rules. Thankfully, in March, the FAA announced it was streamlining the launch and reentry licensing process by consolidating four old rules into one. While this is a welcome development, more can and should be done, with both the agency and Congress exploring how to launch rockets to space quickly and efficiently.
For example, the Department of Commerce’s Office of Commercial Space unveiled a “Mission Authorization” framework for space activities. And while there is a lot to like about the framework, as TechFreedom’s James Dunstan warned in his comments to the agency, the agency lacks the statutory authority to actually implement it. This is one area where Congress can act to support a process that can hopefully lead to a good outcome of a one-stop shop for space activity licensing needs.
There is an opportunity to reorient the government’s approach to space with NASA. It’s an agency that is trying to do too much. Congress should explore how to reform the agency so it can once again focus on its core mission: research and development, mission planning, and advancing space science. Recognizing that we have an increasingly robust commercial space sector, NASA should lean into that reality and focus on a more dynamic contracting process to help it achieve some of its cost-reduction goals. We are getting closer and closer to reusable rockets, which can unlock massive opportunities.
There is a real case for space-optimism
Unsurprisingly, like many issues in technology, we are in the midst of a space race. As usual, the Europeans have their overly precautionary principle regulations in the proposed EU Space Act. Our Managing Director, Fred Roeder, explained how the Act creates new non-tariff barriers for the space industry. Meanwhile, China is firmly committed to sending humans to the moon by 2030. The United States enjoys having some of the best technology in the world, and significant private investment to bear in space exploration, which means it can win this race, but it needs to do its part to ensure it is cultivating an environment that is supporting the space sector, not suffocating it.
While this issue may be largely federal in its policy focus, the launchpads are in states. Increasingly, state lawmakers are interested in how they can position the state to be an attractive location for space companies looking to launch. Legislators in New Mexico and Oklahoma, recognizing the regulatory maze, sought to introduce legislation creating a regulatory sandbox for outer space companies so regulators and businesses can more effectively cut through red tape and inappropriate regulations.
If the country institutes much-needed reforms, it can further unleash the potential of commercial space companies that can help both on the ground and in space. Given the heightened sensitivity around data centers’ energy needs, there have been conversations about putting data centers in space. The idea isn’t science fiction; it is doable and a matter of economics. Starcloud, a satellite company, recently launched an NVIDIA H100 GPU into space for hardware that is running Gemini, which operates with access to unlimited solar energy. The challenge to overcome is reducing launch costs, which can be achieved through reusable rockets, streamlined regulations, and a reinvented NASA focused on getting missions from the ground to takeoff faster.
The Artemis II mission is an amazing moment in history, happening during our country’s 250th anniversary. I hope this inflection point serves as a motivator for change. I don’t want to wait another 50 years before we send humans to the moon or longer for a human mission to Mars. It’s time to dare to dream and look at the stars as we once again renew our push to explore the final frontier.
James Czerniawski is head of emerging tech for the Consumer Choice Center.