Space Frontier Foundation

Space Frontier Foundation logo

The Space Frontier Foundation is a space advocacy organization promoting increased involvement of the private sector, in collaboration with government, in the exploration and development of space.

History

The Foundation was founded in 1988 by space activists led by Rick Tumlinson, Bob Werb and Jim Muncy who felt that: "it was technically possible to realize their shared vision of large-scale...settlement of the inner solar system... [but] they knew this was not happening (and couldn't happen) under the status-quo centrally planned and exclusive U.S. government space program."

The Foundation's current chairman is Bob Werb.

Policies and Activities

In recent years, the Space Frontier Foundation has been supportive of various private sector efforts such as the Ansari X Prize, the SpaceShipOne project, and entrepreneur Robert Bigelow's plans to build a space hotel. The Foundation has been critical of the U.S. government's efforts in space, particularly those of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. For example, the Foundation has criticized NASA's Space Shuttle and Ares I, claiming that the shuttle's work could be better done by private sector companies. However, the Foundation has supported some recent NASA efforts, such as NASA's Centennial Challenges prize program for stimulating private-sector innovation and the new NASA direction of canceling Constellation in favor of technology development and supporting commercial companies.

The Foundation’s current strategic focus is to enable the growth of the NewSpace community. The Foundation's Board of Directors has endorsed the following objectives:

• The Space Frontier Foundation's mission is to open the space frontier to permanent human settlement;
• An open frontier can only be achieved by unleashing the power of free enterprise;
• Government’s role in unleashing the power of free enterprise is critical and best accomplished by adopting the proven frontier paradigm of catalyzing the private sector;
• All parts of all governments must embrace and fully utilize the potential of the emerging NewSpace Industry, and;
• Regarding NASA, the near-term focus of the Foundation is on maximizing the market share of goods and services that the NewSpace industry is permitted to capture.

Projects

Past and current foundation projects include The Watch, an asteroid and comet detection and research project, Permission to Dream, connecting students around the world through the wonder of space and astronomy, sponsorship of conferences, and the Space Settlement Project in marketing space to the general public. Additional Foundation projects include Teachers in Space, a program to offer American teachers rides on future Sub-orbital spaceflight launches.

Furthermore, the Foundation hosts its annual conference, NewSpace 2010 every year in July, which serves as a conference for NewSpace leaders to meet and determine the future of the movement.

See also

• Privatization
• Space settlement
• Space advocacy

External links

• Official website