How private companies are aiming for the stars | DW Documentary

Billionaires are setting their sights on outer space. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are all sending rockets, people and technology to the stars. Other entrepreneurs around the world also want to join this new contest. Who’ll win the race?

China is also jostling for dominance in space. And when NASA ended rocket launches for financial reasons in 2011, this cleared the way for private companies to compete over a huge future business sector that includes space tourism, satellite operations and raw material extraction. Companies such as Space X, Blue Origin, Axiom Space and many more have already staked their claim to this highly lucrative space market.

More than 50 years after the moon landings, entrepreneurial spirit and scientific progress have rekindled humankind’s dream of conquering space. An extraterrestrial design hotel is already in the planning phase; space raw material mining trials are underway. But state-sponsored space exploration is still indispensable.

The science documentary "New Space Race" gained exclusive access to the German Aerospace Center’s Moon-analog mission "ARCHES" on Mount Etna in Sicily. Using the landscape here as a substitute for the Moon, research teams run trials for crewed missions to space using robots. It’s already clear that if humans are going to land on other planets one day, the success of scientific endeavors such as this one is crucial. Also clear: The new space race has begun.


#documentary #dwdocumentary #space #robot
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