Space tourism industry profit projections unanimously portended optimistic and
even favorable prospects for the new enterprise. The specific space tourism economic
benefits were described and documented from a quartet of salient sources. Space tourismrelated
revenue included direct revenue, economic growth, employment and the multiplier
effect. The consequences of space tourism industrial development for the U.S. aerospace
industry were described. The benefits of commercial space development were investigated.
Likely to prosper from the commercialization of space: manufacturing, mining, biomedical
research and astronomy. The concept of a safety net was considered; it suggested that an
off-planet capacity might be needed because of dangers to the Earth. These terrestrial
travails might include resource depletion, comets, asteroids and meteors, environmental
degradation, war and biosphere destruction. Seven ways were identified in which space
tourism facilitates space development: motivation of alternate commercial space
development, generation of consumer interest in space, facilitation of development of space
infrastructure, promotion of financing of space development projects, reduction in the cost
of space access, encouragement of technological development and the promotion of
regulatory reform. Environmental consequences of commercial space tourism industrial
development are cause for concern and careful consideration. The Earth may contaminate
space, and/or outer space might contaminate the Earth. Space may become polluted and the
Earth might be similarly sullied and polluted. Space tourists might commit acts of
vandalism in space. Earthside-space tourism operations might produce terrestrial noise
pollution and there was the ever-present possibility of explosions. Finally, the pervasive
presence of lunar dust was described as a hazard.
Keywords: Asteroid, biomedical research, biosphere, comet, contamination,
direct revenue, economic benefit, employment, environmental degradation,
infrastructure, lunar dust, multiplier effect, off-planet capacity, resource depletion,
safety net, space commercialization, space manufacturing, space mining, space
privatization, space tourism.
