The third major category of private sector activity in space is energy. If SPS is implemented, these expenditures will be quite high. For example, the operation and maintenance expense on a fleet of 60 SPS satellites will be on the order of $30 billion per year. Capital construction of new SPS satellites could add another $20 billion to $50 billion or more to this amount. Worldwide implementation of SPS on a large scale plus construction of space-based energy systems for lunar exploration, asteriod retrieval and space habitation could increase this amount to as much as $250 billion per year. In addition to the above four categories of space-based activities, there are a number of other activities that are likely to occur in space. These include physics and astronomy, solar system exploration, basic and applied research, space tourism, space-based navigation systems and so on. These miscellaneous activities are likely to involve expenditures in the range of $5 billion to $50 billion per year by the year 2060. Summing these figures as shown in Figure 2.2, the private sector potential activities in space range from a low of about $65 billion per year in the year 2060 to a high of about $1 trillion per year. FIGURE 2.2 POTENTIAL SPACE ACTIVITY LEVELS, 1980-2060
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