Oh, god, no. We have enough space debris up there as it is. Letting the public—any random Tom, Dick, or Harry—launch their own satellites willy-nilly just for kicks is asking for a runaway Kessler syndrome that will threaten our current and future space missions and all the communication satellites we're dependent on.
For example, the memory foam pillow. It's a spinoff of the memory urethane used in space shuttle seats to help endure the 3-4 G forces at launch. Then there's the unique rippled design seen on canned chuuhai drinks. That too is actually a spinoff of space technology, namely the "paracylindrical concave shell" developed by Miura Koryo, who is also called the father of space construction. His design, utilizing a slightly crumpled cylinder much stronger than a smooth one, is used in solar panels in the form of the "Miura fold" and might just be famous world-wide...?
It's easy to think that no matter how close and personal it might feel, space exploration is only actually possible for countries and universities, but recently there's been certain movements that make it look like space explortion might also be possible for the rest of the general populace.The person writing this is part of that general populace too, yet has been taking part in Dream Satellite Project with help from all sorts of industry, academic and private sources to develop a microminiature satellite. That satellite is scheduled to be launched from the International Space Station in Summer 2019.
Now that anyone can participate in things related to space exploration, I think the threshold to do so is just going to keep getting lower. Perhaps we're coming to an age when we can privately launch our own satellites.Myself, I'd really like to dedicate a satellite to my personal favorite Moko-tan one day. Perhaps I could name it "TELMOCOH-Sat: Torque Equilibrium attitude control Long Mission of Common Orbital Height Satellite", or "TERUMOKO" as I'd call it...
Fantastical AeroSpace Promotion Independent Association
– Giichi
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