---
description: Launch economics, in-space manufacturing, asteroid mining, habitation architecture, and governance frameworks shaping the cislunar economy through 2056
type: moc
---

# space exploration and development

Space represents the largest-scale expression of TeleoHumanity's thesis: the multiplanetary attractor state requires coordination infrastructure that doesn't yet exist, and the governance frameworks for space settlement are being written now with almost no deliberate design. The space economy crossed $613B in 2024 and is converging on $1-2T by 2040, driven by a phase transition in launch costs. This map tracks the full stack: launch economics, orbital manufacturing, asteroid mining, habitation architecture, and the governance gaps that make space a direct test case for designed coordination.

## Launch & Access to Space

Launch cost is the keystone variable. Every downstream space industry has a price threshold below which it becomes viable. The trajectory from $54,500/kg (Shuttle) to a projected $10-20/kg (Starship full reuse) is not gradual decline but phase transition.

- [[launch cost reduction is the keystone variable that unlocks every downstream space industry at specific price thresholds]] — the master key: each 10x cost drop crosses a threshold that makes a new industry viable
- [[Starship achieving routine operations at sub-100 dollars per kg is the single largest enabling condition for the entire space industrial economy]] — the specific vehicle: 100-tonne capacity at target pricing makes depots, SBSP, manufacturing, and ISRU all feasible
- [[the space launch cost trajectory is a phase transition not a gradual decline analogous to sail-to-steam in maritime transport]] — framing the reduction as discontinuous structural change, not incremental improvement

## In-Space Manufacturing

Microgravity eliminates convection, sedimentation, and container effects. The three-tier killer app thesis identifies the products most likely to catalyze orbital infrastructure at scale.

- [[the space manufacturing killer app sequence is pharmaceuticals now ZBLAN fiber in 3-5 years and bioprinted organs in 15-25 years each catalyzing the next tier of orbital infrastructure]] — the portfolio thesis: each product tier justifies infrastructure the next tier needs

## Governance & Coordination

The most urgent and most neglected dimension. Technology advances exponentially while institutional design advances linearly.

- [[space governance gaps are widening not narrowing because technology advances exponentially while institutional design advances linearly]] — commercial activity outpaces regulatory frameworks, creating governance demand faster than supply

## Cross-Domain Connections

- [[attractor states provide gravitational reference points for capital allocation during structural industry change]] — space economy attractor state analysis uses this shared framework
- [[complex systems drive themselves to the critical state without external tuning because energy input and dissipation naturally select for the critical slope]] — launch cadence as self-organized criticality; space infrastructure as complex adaptive system
- [[designing coordination rules is categorically different from designing coordination outcomes as nine intellectual traditions independently confirm]] — governance gap requires rule design, not outcome design
