What may sound like a fairy tale today could be a reality tomorrow. Capitalist space travel can solve many of the problems on Earth, such as limited raw materials and energy production. A host of companies are already working on it.

Elon Musk recognized the potentials of space travel in 2003: “I like to be involved in things that change the world. The Internet did, and space will probably be more responsible for changing the world than anything else.” But even ten years later, in 2013, there was close to zero private activity or investment in the Space Economy outside of Space X, Musk’s company. The space economy is now seen as “Wall Street’s next trillion-dollar industry” (CNBC), while Bank of America predicts that “the growing space economy will more than triple in size in the next decade to become a $1.4 trillion market.” And Morgan Stanley expects a space-based business to create the world’s first trillionaire.

In 2016, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted: “I think that over the next few hundred years we need to move our heavy industry off-planet. Our Earth will be zoned residential and light industrial. And that just makes a lot of sense! You shouldn’t be doing heavy industry on Earth. Resources are more plentiful in space. We can build gigantic chip factories in space, and then just send the little bits down. We don’t actually need to build them here.”

It sounds like science fiction, but in recent years a gigantic private space industry has developed that is much more efficient than traditional government-funded and organized space travel. The........

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