Alex posted on twitter a few weeks back about the Space industry and how the market is going to be accessible to the general public soon. This got me on a little rabbit hole on what companies are entering the space industry, and where the space industry is going as a whole. In addition to that, UFOs are a big topic of interest that I’d like to dip into. Throughout this blog, I am going to go over what is currently happening in the space industry, the current technology trends in space, what the future of the space industry looks like, and UFOs.
A Quick Space Recap/ Where We Are Today
When we think about Humans traveling and exploring in space, we can look back to how it started, the Space Race. The Space Race occurred in the Cold War era, the long standstill battle of world dominance and supremacy between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Like we are all probably aware of, the Space Race ended with Neil Armstrong allegedly walking on the moon in 1969. Fast forward to today, where the space industry is not as much about politics and power, but rather opportunities for significant technological innovations and applications. Two easy examples that we all use: GPS navigation and weather forecasting. The idea of space as a place of wild adventures is being transformed into economies of scale that are rapidly growing in both investment and employment. The industry is worth roughly around 500 billion dollars and is expected to increase to over 1.5 trillion by 2030.
Who are the Players?
When most people think about who dominates space, they would point to NASA. As the longest standing U.S. space organization, NASA has been at the forefront of space exploration for half a century. Many countries have followed suit by investing in their own space organizations. There are over 90 countries that are currently operating in space. Eight of those countries consistently launch spacecraft that have the ability to orbit. However, we haven’t seen the explosion in the space industry until recently in the 21st century. The reason for this is the emergence of private companies. The most prominent and the biggest, is SpaceX. SpaceX was the first private company to launch a rocket into space in 2008 with Falcon 1. SpaceX is all the way to Falcon 9 now, which is claimed to have 50% greater engine power than Falcon 8. To give you all an idea of how big SpaceX is, in 2020 it was worth more than Tesla’s market capitalization A few other companies that are massive in the industry are Boeing, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. What I find intriguing is the emergence of smaller niche players, who specialize in a specific product or function within Space. This leads us into our next topic…….
Tech Trends and Opportunities in Space
If you have watched the movie, “Don’t Look Up”, you will be familiar with Space Mining. If you haven’t, I’ll give a brief description. The plot encompasses government figures attempting to mine an asteroid with billions of dollars worth of valuable metals on it. I won’t spoil the ending but this movie highlights a current trend in the industry, Space mining. Space Mining is the ability to use satellites, cameras, and tools to extract elements such as gold, silver, and even organic materials from asteroids in space. Some economists estimate that Space Mining will be a billion dollar industry itself. Another big tech trend within the industry is within small satellites and communications. Much of small satellites efforts involve gathering and processing data. When we had the class discussion about Foursquare and their competitive advantage, we gathered it was the ability to process and store data on the Z axis that was worth millions. I think we as a species are new to the data available in space and that Z axis is still unknown for not only data on space and space exploration, but also data that can be used for businesses that operate on Earth. The ability for niche companies like I mentioned earlier to develop and launch these smaller satellites opens the door for endless business opportunities within any realm. Within communications, we are already familiar with satellites receiving and transmitting data. Not too long ago, satellite TV was groundbreaking. The continued innovation within communication will be able to decrease earthly infrastructure, improve latency, as well as improve security and encryption. Many developers are researching how blockchain and AI will be involved with this field. Other trends and opportunities include traffic control, spacecraft manufacturing, and space propulsion. With all of this space development, we have polluted the area just as we have polluted earth. There is a field in studying the traffic of space just as we study aircraft traffic. To execute in space, there needs to be manufacturing of spacecraft as well as research on how to propel and navigate space.
A Brief Take on UFOs
If you have been watching the news at all or scrolling through social media, you have probably seen some content on UFOs and their sightings. I don’t want to go too deep into UFOs but since I was studying space and spacecraft, I felt it would be a disservice not to bring up the hot topic. According to the Economist and the Government Executive, there have been around 150 reports by military pilots of “unidentified aerial phenomena” made in the last 15 years. The Pentagon claims that around half of the reports were balloons or other explainable objects, leaving the other half unsolved. We have recently seen on the news the U.S. government shooting down mysterious objects from the sky. Government officials have stated that they are looking into all possibilities, even leaving the idea of extraterrestrial beings open.
Conclusion
I think the space industry is extremely fascinating and believe we will see key new developments take place in the near future. Although plans to colonize planets like Mars are a ways away, companies such as SpaceX are hard at work to make it a reality. Are we on the dawn of the second world Space Race? It will be interesting to see not only what innovations will take place, but also the political and power dynamics that will unfold between government agencies and private companies. And how will the so described “UFO” sightings fit into the mix? Feel free to provide your opinion in the comments.
Great writing pierce. I have always been curious about whether or not our atmosphere will become too cluttered with debris and satellites. I think a great company would be a program that removes space junk and brings it back to earth for recycling/disposal to ensure our orbit remains usable.
Hey Pierce, I appreciate the shoutout from my tweet, and I’m glad I happened to read your post this week! While I had thought somewhat about the commercialization of space in our future, I never realized we could be on the brink of a second Space Race. From your blog post, and other things I’ve seen, it’s interesting how space talk isn’t more prevalent today. There is a huge market here, and there is so much potential as a species when it comes to exploring space. Potentially inhabiting other planets like Mars might be a few decades down the road, but the fact that it’s “in sight” is amazing to me. I believe that as we exponentially increase our technological abilities, ideas like inhabiting new planets will come faster than we may currently believe.
By the way, I appreciate all of the analytics/data you pulled while explaining a lot of these companies and ideas. Great post!
Hi Alex, absolutely, I completely agree that space talk should be way more prevalent than it is considering the future opportunities.
Great post! It’s fascinating to see how the space industry has evolved from being a political battleground to opportunity for technological innovation, with a side of political still. The potential for space mining and the development of small satellites and communication technologies is truly exciting. There are endless business opportunities within these fields and it’ll be neat to see what pops up. You always have to bring up UFOs when talking space. It will be interesting to see how it develops and if any evidence of extraterrestrial life is ever discovered.
Hi Pierce! This was a really interesting blog post! It’s absolutely insane to me that the public will soon have access to space (although it will probably cost so much money). I like how you said how Neil Armstrong “allegedly” walked on the moon haha. I have no doubt in my mind that space mining will become a hugeeee profit-industry in the future, especially as private companies get involved.
On UFO’s, I’m not exactly sure if they’re real or not, but do you remember the huge Area 51 raid that was trending a few years ago? I wish it was real, because I definitely feel like the US government is hiding something. It’ll definitely be interesting how far we will go in space exploration.
Another topic that intrigues me about space is the packets of food that they have. I always see it on Tiktok, and it doesn’t look appetizing at all, but the astronauts love it. I really wonder how they make this food available in space.
Hi Liah! Yes, it is crazy that people really tried to break into Area 51 because of a facebook post. And no, I wasn’t very familiar with space food but just found space ice cream sandwiches on amazon so they might be worth the try.
Hello Pierce! I think you had one of the best topics for this week’s blog posts! It’s interesting to see how far we’ve come from the Space Race era, and how the industry is now shifting towards opportunities for significant technological innovations and applications. I also find the idea of space mining and the use of smaller satellites very fascinating, because I see it all the time in space/ future tech movies but never in real life.
Hello Pierce, great post! I’m excited to see how technology develops enough to the point where we, the general public, will be able to get out there and explore space. Its amazing to see how far we’ve come since 1969 when Neil Armstrong walked the moon. I honestly did not know space mining was a thing until I came across this post, and I’m curious to see which companies will get their hands on this industry first and grow it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elon Musk gets involved lol.
HI Pierce! Super interesting about the smaller, more niche industries getting in on it. I am curious if we can combat space clutter with “space trash collectors.” To get to the meat and potatoes…. UFOs, I fo sho believe in aliens and I am so “EEE” when reading this!
Hey Pierce, I loved this post! The topic that really took me by surprise was space mining and I’ve even done some of my own research to learn a little more about it. I can just imagine the cost of capital needed to start such an activity. I wonder if the elements that these companies are extracting are worth the cost. How often will asteroids have pieces of diamond or silver and if so, there is a whole other process to refine them to be suitable for the market? Going back to SpaceX, the aerospace industry has huge room for growth which you outlined in your post, how will smaller players soon be able to integrate or will this industry be enclosed to billion-dollar corporations?