There has been a lot of talk lately about funding of space programs, particular in regard to NASA and commercial companies.

NASA is funded by the people though the government. Commercial space companies are often also funded through NASA as well as private payload missions.

One of the key reasons there is so much debate about where space funding needs to be spent is that we are not always aware of the era we are in.

Era of Space pioneering

During the race to the Moon we were in the "Era of Space pioneering" - can we do this, how is it possible?

Era of Space science

For the last few decades we have been in the "Era of Space science" - what can we learn, how could we expand into space? Slowly but surely setting things up and try them out - see what we can learn.

Funding for those things was clear and obvious. Now we need to consider the era we are about to move into so we can adapt to where the funding needs to go.

However, humanity is now moving into the "Era of Space Infrastructure" and as such funding focus will need to change to ensure its success.

Read more in Part 2 . . .