The “mixed-use business park” would support a variety of commerce, research, government, tourism and exploration efforts in space. The project is led by Blue Origin, the space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other industry groups. ASU space leaders see this as a step to bringing more people into space exploration, not just astronauts and the select few. Blue Origin says the station marks the “next chapter of human space exploration and development.”

“The more nations and people and disciplines and sectors that can be involved, the better the outcomes will be for all of us,” said Jessica Rousset, deputy director of ASU’s Interplanetary Initiative that’s leading the university advisory council. ASU’s role in the effort is to lead the Orbital Reef University Advisory Council, comprised of 14 universities from around the world. The group will create standards for ethical research on the space station, offer consulting, lead academic research and education programs on the station and do public outreach.  

ASU to lead university advisory group The plan is “absolutely” to have ASU affiliates working on the space station doing research and more, Rousset said. And students also will have involvement with Orbital Reef, both at ASU and globally, she said.

Orbital Reef will be a shared structure that various groups can lease and use for research, industrial, travel, government or other purposes. It also could become part of the next iteration of the International Space Station. “This is about lowering the cost for accessing space and having more people participate.”

“That perspective of the overview effect, if you will, of seeing our planet and how connected we all are, is a perspective shift that I think can have profound implications for humanity in general,” she said. Rousset expects the space station to be “transformational for life on Earth” in terms of the inspiration it will foster.

Rousset said the group of universities has meetings scheduled in the coming months to start planning goals and work for the next few years supporting the venture. The station would facilitate cutting-edge research like Earth observation studies, exploring what happens to the body in space and using sensors to listen in on deep space, and it could serve as a waystation to refuel and prepare for moon and deep space visits, according to Rousset. The other universities involved are: Colorado School of Mines, International Space University, Oxford University, Purdue University, Southwest Research Institute, Stanford University, University of Central Florida, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas Medical Branch and Vanderbilt University.

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