With the space economy booming, there is one sector that always seems to be just on the horizon. Space heavy manufacturing has always been something that gets interest by those such as Jeff Bezos. But moving heavy industries to space does have serious consequences and concerns.

The industrialization of space that might be seen as a positive but neither is the trash and pollution. However, what has to be understood is that by moving heavy industries to space, are we moving where the pollution happens? There will be some great innovations in manufacturing if moved to space such as increased energy efficiency, and better materials recycling. But humanity has never done well with managing trash, which is always an afterthought and only a bigger issue when it interferes with what the majority of people care about. Therefore, the big issues of who regulates trash and waste so orbit doesn’t become consumed and unusable, plus punishments for breaking the rules needs to be taken seriously by all parties.

Another concern is with heavy industrial use of space, how will it affect ground based astronomy. With large factories and the output being sent back to Earth, how will that affect based operations? Will everything be in geostationary orbit to have no go zones for ground based astronomy? With Starlink already causing issues with light pollution, it is safe to assume that theoretical heavy industry would cause an issue.

When industrializing space, which industries should be sent to space? Is there a standard for the most polluting industries or the most energy efficient to do? This has to be answered and shred upon before moving forward. Having heavy industrial work in space makes sense if humanity is harvesting asteroids and other space resources. To harvest the resources on Earth and transport then to space for processing seems like more effort and wasteful than improving the manufacturing process.

A big consideration is what the regulation and enforcement system will look like. Of course, things change? But this needs to be done in an equitable and fair fashion! Making sure that industrialization of space is not done to make things worse, but make sure that there is a way to actually enforce the issues.

What do you think? Comment below and or let us know on our social media pages. We post articles like this weekly so name sure to visit again soon!