Spaceport Associates

Commercial Space Developments

Gateway Earth Interplanetary Initiative

Ongoing developments with regard to the Gateway Earth initiative can be found on the website of the Gateway Earth Development Group at www.GatewayEarth.space

Derek Webber made contributions to the development of US commercial space policy in a number of ways, including providing testimony to the 2002 President’s Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry, and the 2004 President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Exploration Policy. He was appointed as a formal independent reviewer of the 2009 draft report of the National Research Council of the National Academies: "America’s Future in Space – Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs". Spaceport Associates provided input to the National Academies Review of NASA’s Strategic Direction in 2012, and presented a paper on the policy aspects of space tourism for long-term initiatives such as space settlement at the 2012 International Space Congress in Naples, Italy, and at ISDC 2013 in San Diego, and at subsequent conference venues in the UK and Canada.

Recent policy initiatives involve proposing a new destination for space tourists in geostationary orbit, known as Gateway Earth. The image shows artwork by Phil Smith illustrating the concept. The Gateway Earth complex would consist of governmental and commercial modules (one of the commercial parts is a space hotel). Transportation up and down from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit would be by one or more commercial tugs cycling around and refueling in low Earth orbit. The proposal used commercial revenue streams to help finance the construction and operation of this new outpost situated near the edge of Earth’s gravity well. Having such an orbiting base available in geostationary orbit, with re-usable transport up and down, would make it much easier and cheaper for national space agencies to conduct interplanetary missions, whether crewed or uncrewed. This work is being progressed via the Gateway Earth Development Group (GEDG), inaugurated November 12th 2015 in Oxford, England at the Re-Inventing Space Conference, and using the new website www.GatewayEarth.space. The chart summarizes the concept.

Gateway Earth diagram
The main elements of the Gateway Earth architecture.
Gateway Earth illustration
Artwork by Phil Smith illustrates joint commercial/governmental "Gateway Earth" concept in geostationary orbit and its supply infrastructure of refuelable cargo or passenger tugs.

Other commercial space exploration areas being advocated include 3-D additive manufacturing, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) on planetary surfaces, tugs, orbital refueling, spacecraft servicing and space hotels. Webber was a backer of Planetary Resources, whose aim was to mine asteroids, and of Uwingu, which was focused on opening up future commercial Mars exploration efforts. Webber’s efforts in the Mars exploration business case development were recognized in Buzz Aldrin’s book Mission to Mars (National Geographic, 2013). The main thematic focus of the initiatives is the eventual settlement, enabled by economic development, of parts of the solar system, and using its abundant resources to help life on Earth.