The Future Of The Space Economy | CNBC Marathon

CNBC Marathon explores the current space economy and how new endeavors for space travel, exploration and mining are being developed. NASA has been using the current spacesuits on the International Space Station for decades and they are showing their age. The agency has had issues not only with finding the proper sizes to fit its increasingly diverse astronaut corps, but also with degradation of some suit components. Now NASA is turning to two commercial companies: Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, to build and maintain its new generation of spacesuits. The International Space Station will likely be retired within the decade. NASA hopes to save money by having commercial companies build the next space outpost. Some companies including Sierra Space and Axiom Space are already working on a commercial space station. But the question is, will these stations be ready in time? Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that space mining was inevitable. Analysts, tech visionaries and even renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that space mining was going to be big business. Space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries backed by the likes of Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, cropped up to take advantage of the predicted payoff. After all, the holy grail of asteroids, known as 16 Psyche, had an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:51 NASA’s Next-Generation Spacesuits — A Behind-The-Scenes Look (Published February 2023) 16:45 What The Next Space Station May Look Like (Published August 2021) 30:05 What Happened To Space Mining? (Published October 2022)