Privatization is pretty inevitable. Think of past expeditions. - Marco Polo was self funded. - Christopher Columbus was sponsored by the Spanish crown but that was more about funding than regulation. - James Cook was funded by the Royal Society. - Louis and Clark were commissioned by Jefferson, essentially making them civilian contractors. Also, as space becomes more accessible, it'll become harder for the government to hold people back. If anything, that could become a hindrance. It'd be like trying to regulate shipping in international waters. On top of that, what makes congress more qualified to make decisions on how space should be explored than engineers at Space X? What separates a business from a country? Both have ruling bodies, a set of internal rules on how their people should conduct themselvess, and are capable of establishing trade agreements. Heck, company towns cam already blur the line between a company and government at times. Personally, I see little difference between public and private institutions in terms of space exploration.