For almost 20 years the USSR and the United States went head-to-head, rocket-to-rocket, satellite-to-satellite, to try and conquer space. The Space Race saw the two Cold War allies competing to protect their national security, but also for their nation’s pride.

The Space Race’s legacy helped to give us the communications and weather-based satellite systems that we have today. Both countries drove each other to push their technological capabilities to new heights, quite literally.

But now there is a new kind of space race happening: it’s the race between private companies and the government.

NASA wants to put a man on Mars by 2030, but by 2026 Elon Musk’s SpaceX will – if all goes well – already be there.

But in many respects, while SpaceX – and other private companies – are competitors on this front, they work closely together with on many more.

It’s no secret that space is incredibly expensive, dangerous and unpredictable, and to achieve our aim of being a multi-planet species there needs to be collaboration between companies, and equally, if not more importantly, collaboration between nations.

“I think the future of space has to be international co-operation,” says Hannah Kerner, the executive director of the Space Frontier Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation that tries to bridge the gap between government and private space groups.

She is clear to stress that almost all current space missions involve international co-operation at present, but says more is welcome. “I think it is becoming an increasingly international effort. It’s hard when every country has its own restrictions and it is unfortunate that politics gets involved. But I think there has to be more co-operation because as we grow as a space faring humanity, it has to be an international effort.”

The sentiment is also one that’s echoed by Buzz Aldrin, the second human to step foot on the Moon.

He recently told BBC’s Radio 4 that countries need to work together to get to Mars. “The sequence of build-up – that does include cooperation with other nations,” he said. “Now the most difficult one to work that out with is China, but it is really essential that we have a working relationship.”

As shown by the Space Race, and the more recent international co-operation, nations can play a huge role in space’s development. But at the moment it is the turn of the private companies.

Making space cheaper

It’s been more than 40 years since Aldrin, Armstrong and Michael Collins first set foot on the Moon, and the last time visited was in 1972. Since we were last there, our knowledge of the universe has expanded enormously; in that time we’ve put 13 different manmade objects on Mars (the first was the USSR’s Mars 2 that failed during descent and crashed into the surface). A trip back to our nearest neighbour is long overdue.

What’s also changed is our technical ability. For starters, the world wide web exists, satellites and mobile communications are commonplace and robots are starting to be taught in natural languages. The list could go on and on but in the name of relevance and brevity, it’s now easier than ever for private companies to launch items into space.

In this respect SpaceX, in 2012 became the first private company to make a delivery to the International Space Station. There are also launch contracts for large satellites held by International Launch Services and Arianespace.

When they partner together they can do really amazing things and lower the cost of exploration

It’s this sort of private influence that has lead to researchers declaring that public-private partnerships are what will make space travel cheaper for us. A NASA-funded report found that the collaborative partnerships can reduce the cost of creating a base on the Moon up to 10 times cheaper.

In 5-7 years we could be back on the Moon, says the report: “Economic Assessment and Systems Analysis of an Evolvable Lunar Architecture that Leverages Commercial Space Capabilities and Public-Private-Partnerships,” and 10-12 years after that four private-sector astronauts could be living on its surface in an industrial base.

By working with private companies the study found that this sort of space mission could be achieved at a lower cost to the public. “The public benefits of building an affordable commercial industrial base on the Moon include economic growth, national security, advances in select areas of technology and innovation, public inspiration, and a message to the world about American leadership and the long-term future of democracy and free markets,” its author’s said.

Their suggestion is, in essence, the same as NASA outsourcing deliveries to the International Space Station to private companies. At the time of the first Dragon delivery to the ISS, NASA staffer Charles Bolden said the agency was “handing of” its transport to the private sector so that it can “focus on what we do best – exploring even deeper into our solar system”. In other words; NASA has developed the technology to consistently deliver to the space station and it has filter down to the commercial sector it doesn’t need to do it anymore.

“When they partner together they can do really amazing things and lower the cost of exploration and increase the access of it,” said SFF’s Kerner.

Driving innovation

Following this model of private companies and governments working together, it is possible to increase the rate that humanity can explore space.

Kerner says that there is a NASA way of doing things, which is “very careful, very slow, very bureaucratic”.

Back in 2011 the Planetary Society put out an appeal for its members to contact the government and urge it to agree to work with the European Space Agency, by getting all the bureaucratic paperwork completed. And Rod Pyle, the author of Innovation the NASA Way, told the Washington Post that “NASA is more bureaucratic than it used to be and there is a thicker rulebook”.

On the other hand start-ups and private space companies aren’t floundered by as much regulation and internal politics. This is what can allow them to change the pace of space; they can fast-track the timelines that they complete their work in.

To this extent Kerner says the public and private sectors working together is the best way to bring down the cost: “I think that is where through public private partnerships we will see the greatest cost reduction and the greatest innovation. Neither of them can do it alone.”

She says there aren’t going to be a lot of private companies wanting to study solar flares or send spacecraft to Pluto, and that’s where NASA can do its work alone. Once the agency has developed a technology, it can then pass it to the private sector.

And that’s what she would like to see happen in the next decade: private companies developing the technologies that have been pioneered by NASA.

“In 10 years I would like to see us pushing totally different technologies that we haven’t even thought yet would be prominent in the commercial sector,” she says.

“Right now it is all about nanosatellites and launch, in 10 years I don’t want to be talking about that – I want that to be a solved problem. In 10 years I would like to see us pushing totally different technologies that we haven’t even thought yet would be prominent in the commercial sector.”