The real problem with the space economy is that there are really very few business plans:<p>- Space Tourism<p>- Imagery Acquisition<p>- Communications<p>- Science<p>- Astroid Mining (pending)<p>... And it turns out that none so far have been good businesses, and the small sat form factor is really limited. I really really love space stuff, but I don't see any of these creating explosive growth in the short term. Eventually the costs will come down, but it will probably take a long time.<p>*EDIT (as pointed out by pjungwir):<p>- Zero G manufacturing
What's so interesting to me is that the more we want to do and further we want to go in space the more unity and collaboration we seem to need at the planetary level
This is notable because The Economist penned this a few years ago: <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18897425" rel="nofollow">http://www.economist.com/node/18897425</a><p>Of course economists are on par with Ouija board users at predicting the future.