The Business of Space

Up until very recently space travel and exploration were solely the preserve of
governments, most notably the Russian and American. However, with the decline of
government wealth and the dramatic increase in personal wealth, the whole landscape
of space travel is changing.
The first tentative steps into the commercialisation of personal space travel began when
billionaire Dennis Tito paid $20 million to ride on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a
week’s holiday on a space station. Since then, there have been seven space tourists
who have paid large sums of money for a space experience. Yet, collectively, their
financial contribution is minute and certainly would not appear to represent a feasible
business.
Richard Branson, billionaire and entrepreneur, has formed Virgin Galactic, a spaceship
company with some very ambitious plans for space travel. Surprisingly, he is not alone;
there are some 12 or 13 other space organizations worldwide with similar plans. Of
course, there are setbacks, but Virgin Galactic plan to have to pay flights beginning in
late 2017, with tickets at $250,000 each. Expensive? Yes! But there are over 20,000
people who have expressed interest, despite the tragic death of a co-pilot during a test
flight accident.
It seems that people who want to take short zero gravity suborbital flights are fully aware
of the dangers and are willing to take the risk. It is also worth noting that there were
almost 2000 billionaires in the world in 2016, and that number is growing. So
entrepreneurs like Richard Branson may represent the tip of the iceberg of young rich
investors who want to make their childhood dreams of space travel come true.
Obviously, the key to the success of any business venture is to ensure that the price of
the product maximises sales and to reduce the very high costs of the vehicles and
rockets needed to do this. Currently, space vehicles can only be used once, so the race
is on to develop reusable space vehicles. It is this reusability that will break the ‘cost-
barrier’ and bring this activity into the price bracket where middle class and moderately
wealthy people can afford it.
So what would you pay for a zero-gravity sub-orbital space trip? A recent, unscientific
study, amongst US millennials (people who became adults around the year 2000)
suggested that if the price of the flights was reduced by a factor of five – a figure entirely
possible given the progress being made with reusable vehicles – the yield would be
about $20 billion a year of revenues for the space tourism industry.
Twenty billion dollars is an interesting figure, as it is about the same amount generated
each year by the film industry in the US through ticket, DVD and other sales. So now it is
possible to make an analogy between the business model of Hollywood and space
travel. Which do you think is more expensive? A Hollywood blockbuster, or the cost of a
space launch? Back in the 1960s and 1970s, a space launch cost hundreds of times
more than a Hollywood film. But as more money came to be spent on Hollywood
movies, the cost of space travel has been decreasing. One particularly illustrative
example is the comparison between the film Avatar, a movie about life on an ‘exomoon,’
and the Kepler spacecraft. Both of these costs about $400 million dollars. So for about
half a billion dollars, you can either get a film about life on other planets, or you can pay
for a mission, which may actually find Earth-like worlds. As a scientist, which is the
better deal?
So what really is in the future for space travel? Probably offers of suborbital travel by
companies like Virgin Galactic will become fairly common after the initial teething phase
is over. Other companies are developing space hotels, so people who can afford more
than just the space trips can spend their money holidaying in space. All the technologies
allowing this to happen are advancing very rapidly and most of this is happening in the
private sector.
Space is going to get commercialised and this may not be a good thing. Do we really
want to see massive advertising signs in space? The moon littered with commercial
rubbish? If this happens it will be very hard to regulate. While there is in existence a
Treaty of the Moon, to acknowledge that no one can own the Moon or Mars, not one
space-faring country has signed it.
The future of space travel has never been more exciting than it is now. Young children
with pictures of planets and space rockets on their bedroom have a greater chance than
ever of actually going into space than ever before. But at what cost?

Questions 14-18
Choose FIVE letter, A-I.
Write the correct letter in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB Your answers may be given in any order
Below are listed some popular beliefs about commercial space travel.
Which five of these are reported by the writer of the text?
A Space travel today is no different than space travel in the 1960s.
B To date, the amount of space travel undertaken by private individuals could not
sustain a business.
C Richard Branson’s plans for commercial space travel may be described as ‘daring.’
D It is not surprising that Branson’s company is not the only company interested in
commercial space travel.
E Virgin Galactic’s proposed fares will be highly affordable to many.
F Individuals who want to fly into space are gamblers.
G Parallels can be drawn between space travel and the Hollywood movie industry.
H The rise of companies like Virgin Galactic is unconditionally positive.
I Laws governing space travel will be difficult to enforce.

Questions 19-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 19-26 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
19 Space travel today remains under the control of the Russian and American
governments.
20 The first commercial space passenger was Richard Branson.
21 The Virgin Group was established by Richard Branson in 1970.
22 Space vehicles are presently capable of being used more than once.
23 $20 billion is the amount that millennials currently spend on space travel.
24 The film ‘Avatar’ cost about $400 million to make.
25 It is unlikely that recycling will become common practice on the moon.
26 Children today have a better chance of realizing their dreams of space travel than
children in the 1960’s did.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.

Using Mathematics to Secure Our Money

A
Up until very recently people’s wealth, mostly coins and jewels, was kept safe under lock
and key. Rich medieval families would keep a strongbox with a large key, both of which
were carefully hidden in different places. later the box may have been kept in a bank. In
either case, potential thieves would need to find both the box and the key. A similar
principle was used for sending secret diplomatic and military messages. The messages
were written in code with both the sender and the receiver having the key to the code.
Thus, while the message could be discovered its meaning could only be found if the
‘key’ was also known. And so began a long-running battle between code-makers who
tried to make better keys and code-breakers who sought ways of finding them.
B
Nowadays, cryptography is central to how our money is kept secure, even though we
may not be aware of it. Our money is no longer in a tangible form, but in the form of
information kept with our banks. To keep everyone involved happy, the messages
initiated by our plastic cards have to be sent and received safely and the entire
operation must be carried out with a high level of confidentiality and security.
C
On a practical level, it is clear that the work of code-makers has been introduced into our
daily financial lives. Our credit cards have 16-digit numbers on the front and a 3-digit
number on the back. They also contain a ‘chip’ that can do all sorts of mysterious
operations with these numbers. Finally, we also have a Personal Identification Number
which we all need to memorize. All these numbers form a type of cryptographic key.
However, as we shall see, modern cryptosystems are very different in the way the keys
are used.
D
The main feature of the traditional systems was that only one key was needed by both
the sender and the receiver to understand the message. However, the main problem
was that the key itself needed to be communicated to both parties before they could use
it. Obviously a major security risk. A very different approach was developed in the
1970s, based on a different way of using the keys. Now the main idea is that the typical
user, let us call him Amir, has two keys; a ‘public key’ and a ‘private key’. The public key
is used to encrypt messages that other people wish to send to Amir, and the private key
is used by Amir to decrypt these messages. The security of the system is based on
keeping Amir’s private key secret.
E
This system of public-key cryptography, known as RSA- from the names of the
developers (Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman) – was developed in the
late 1970s and is based on a collection of several mathematical algorithms. The first is a
process that allows the user, Amir, to calculate two numerical keys: private and public,
based on two prime numbers. To complete the RSA system, two more algorithms are
then needed: one for encrypting messages and one for decrypting them.
F
The effectiveness of RSA depends on two things. It is efficient, because the encryption
and decryption algorithms used by participants are easy, in a technical sense they can
be made precise. On the other hand, it is believed to be secure, because no one has
found an easy way of decrypting the encrypted message without knowing Amir’s private
key.
G
When the RSA system was first written about in Scientific American, the strength of the
system was shown by challenging the readers to find the prime factors – the two original
numbers – of a certain number with 129 digits. It took 17 years to solve this problem,
using the combined efforts of over 600 people. So clearly it is a very secure system.
Using mathematics in this way, scientists and technologists have enabled us to keep our
money as secure as the rich medieval barons with their strong boxes and hidden keys.

Questions 27-32
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The prevalence of numerical ‘codes’ in modern life
ii How RSA works
iii A brief history of keeping things safe
iv ‘New math’ vs ‘medieval math’
v Proof that RSA is effective
vi The illusion of security
vii Cryptography: the modern key for the lock
viii Why RSA is effective
ix In defence of medieval security systems
x A new approach to system security
Example Answer
Paragraph A iii
27 Paragraph B
28 Paragraph C
29 Paragraph D
30 Paragraph E
31 Paragraph F
32 Paragraph G

Questions 33-36
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TO WORDS from the passage for each answer
Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.
Through the use of cryptography, banks keep money 33 …………………………
The way credit cards work is an example of the influence of 34 ………………………..
Cryptosystems developed in the 1970s relied on 2 keys: the 35 …………………………
and
the 36 ……………………….

Questions 37-40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
37 Online banking makes most people nervous
38 The way keys are used in modern cryptography is quite different from the past
39 The main problem with traditional cryptography systems is that neither party can
decode the message.
40 The RSA system represents the most secure cryptography we are ever likely to
develop.