Thinking Bigger About Space: How Space Infrastructure Could Improve Life on Earth
Adam Kall, Co-Founder & CSO
3 minute read
In his recent interview with Authority Magazine, Adam Kall shared his perspective on the future of the space industry and its potential to improve life on Earth. Building on that conversation, Adam expands on several of the ideas that shape his outlook, from the scale of humanity's ambitions in space to the unique opportunities that could transform how we live and work on Earth.
Outlook 1: Imagining Infrastructure on an Interplanetary Scale
The Berlin Airlift is one of my favorite historical moments because it demonstrated what humanity can accomplish when faced with the challenge of moving an enormous amount of goods within a fixed period of time. The organizers did the math, figured out the staggering number of aircraft required, and then made it happen.
In a similar way, some of humanity's biggest ambitions in space will require moving vast quantities of material from one place to another.
Consider the atmospheres of Mars and Venus. Mars has approximately 25 trillion metric tons of atmosphere, only about 1% of what we would want if we terraformed the planet. Venus, by comparison, has approximately 480 quadrillion metric tons of atmosphere, and its atmosphere is 93 times as thick as we would want it to be.
That presents an interesting thought experiment: What if we could move approximately 2.5 quadrillion tons of atmosphere from Venus to Mars?
Imagine interplanetary freighters 100 times the size of our largest seagoing cargo ships, each capable of carrying 150 million metric tons of dry ice. Moving that much material would require approximately 16.5 million trips. To complete the project over 200 years, we would need 82,500 trips annually.
Assuming advanced fusion engines capable of continuous acceleration at 1G, with an average round trip of seven days, we would need approximately 1,600 of these freighters working on the project.
I love imagining a humanity capable of taking on challenges at this scale. And then I start wondering: What if we could build ships ten times larger? We could complete the project with one-tenth as many ships or in one-tenth the time.
Space gives us the freedom to dream about ever-larger infrastructure and consider what humanity might accomplish when we stop limiting ourselves to what is practical on Earth.
Outlook 2: Building What Is Only Possible in Space
History is full of examples of natural resources that were not valuable until we discovered how to access their potential. People from a few hundred years ago might never have predicted that the constant winds off Scotland would become a major source of electricity, or that the oil beneath the Middle Eastern deserts would help power global transportation.
That historical perspective informs my excitement about the next few decades of space exploration. For the first time in human history, we have the opportunity to live and work in microgravity, an environment with properties we cannot replicate on Earth.
This is why I am less enthusiastic about orbital data centers as a concept. They largely follow the familiar strategy of taking something valuable on Earth and asking how to put it in space, without fully taking advantage of what makes space unique.
I am much more supportive of companies working to establish orbital pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing facilities, where microgravity could enable products and production processes that are difficult or impossible to achieve on Earth.
The greatest opportunities in space will come from understanding its unique advantages and building industries around them, rather than simply recreating the industries we already have.
Outlook 3: How Space Could Make Life on Earth Better
Economists describe natural advantage as a production benefit that comes from the physical or geographical environment. Earth has plenty of natural advantages for growing food, supporting tourism, and generally being a pleasant place to live. But those advantages are not always as apparent when it comes to other parts of our economy, such as manufacturing, raw material extraction, and storage.
These activities face challenges ranging from environmental regulations and dwindling resource deposits to land-use limitations.
Space has its own natural advantages. Once we overcome the challenges of accessing and working in that environment, we could begin to take full advantage of them. Imagine a future in which Earth is home to idyllic pastoral landscapes, while consumer goods are manufactured in orbit, processed from asteroid-derived materials, and stored in space until needed.
To me, the potential of space exploration is not about abandoning Earth. It is about using the unique resources and conditions beyond our planet to reduce the burdens we place on it, while expanding what is available to humanity.
Read the full interview: Explore Adam Kall's conversation with Authority Magazine for more of his perspectives on the future of space travel and the space industry.
Recommended column to read next: A Walk off the Edge of the Planet
