The new space race is being dictated by business and not government: Today’s space race has been characterized as that between entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — “more by commercial gain and personal vanity,” the Financial Times’ John Thornhill says in this mini-documentary on private sector space exploration. Thornhill attempts to address some of the underlying issues with the space economy: should the role of government be totally stripped away? Can the lofty goals of the bn’aires of making it too Mars actually make economic sense? And will VCs see beyond the short-term and more achievable returns launching satellites? And of course, all of that hinges on how affordable we can make space travel (watch, runtime: 16:57).

Tags: