As Space Exploration Continues To Expand, Aluminum Supply Plays A Key Role

After 30 years and over 300 astronauts sent into space, in 2011 NASA officially ended its Space Shuttle program. Because of the important role of aluminum in aerospace engineering, and NASA's historically important role in space exploration, on the surface this appears to be unfortunate news for aluminum supply companies and partners. Actually, the future of aerospace looks quite bright. Here are some of the upcoming initiatives in aerospace that promise to keep the industrial-scale aluminum supplier active in providing materials to the aerospace market.

First of all, NASA's 2011 decision was the ending of a chapter, not the closing of a book. The agency continues to operate unmanned spacecraft, like an orbiter currently in space that will reach Pluto by 2015. And perhaps most exciting, NASA is now designing the Space Launch System, which will be the new generation of launch craft, with the goal of being able to deliver heavy equipment that will one day be used to operate manned missions on the Moon and ideally even Mars.

Much as been made of NASA's competition in China, which is aggressively pursuing its own space program. China's experimental space module, the Tiangong 1, launched in late 2011 and is expected to be the first in a series of modules connecting with each other and eventually culminating in a fully functional orbital space station by 2020. It's unclear if this plan will inspire faster space program development by China's global rivals. In fact, international cooperation - for several decades now, the norm of space operations - might be the actual result. China has expressed interest in cooperating with the International Space Station program (ISS), and European partners in the ISS are apparently also looking to bring China into the fold. Whether it's through countries pursuing their own national self-interest or through greater international cooperation, the prospects for government-sponsored space programs will likely have an impact on aluminum supply markets.

Finally, what about the prospects of space travel for people who are not government-sponsored researchers or astronauts? The expectation that space tourism will begin in earnest in 2012 means aluminum suppliers can play a vital role in commercial aerospace as well. Because space tourism is likely to transition into competition between for-profit companies, once we enter this phase companies will likely seek to lower costs by demanding better deals from their industrial metal supply sources. While this may not sound good for the bottom line of suppliers of aerospace materials, the positive is that this will be an exciting new market with room to grow and attract new customers. As with all aspects of the future of aerospace, the details are unclear but the broad picture looks dynamic and full of potential.