How To Make A Spaceship

Anyone old enough to remember the first Apollo Moon landing in 1969 will recall not just the euphoria but also the massive build-up of expectation. Within a few decades, everyone was agreed, humans would be holidaying in space. So why are we still stuck on Earth?

One of the many thought-provoking suggestions in Julian Guthrie’s hugely readable book is that the sheer scale of government-funded space programmes may have been part of the problem. ‘We can lick gravity,’ said rocket scientist Werner Von Braun, ‘but sometimes the paperwork can be overwhelming.’ Is there a simpler option?

One man who thought so was scientist and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, who has been fixated on space all his life. He believes passionately that innovation is more likely to come from inspired individuals than from corporate entities.

Inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in Spirit Of St Louis, an aircraft funded by private backers, Diamandis set up what became the $10million Ansari X Prize to kick-start a new wave of space exploration.

The story of how the prize was won is astonishing. It’s dominated by eccentrics, mavericks and visionaries, and there’s an unmistakable Heath Robinson element to tales of fiercely driven individuals trying to patch together flying machines from whatever they had to hand.

That said, the romanticism shouldn’t be overemphasised. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company, which has inherited the mantle of the Ansari Space X Prize winner, is a commercial venture selling space flights at $100,000 a pop.

But it’s considerably less than the $1billion it cost Nasa to launch each Space Shuttle mission, and Diamandis is convinced prices will fall steeply once commercial space travel is established. You wouldn’t want to bet against him.