Why we're excited about the next 5 years in space operations
“In many ways, the space industry is at a similar stage today as the internet was in the mid-1990s. This is a unique moment in history to invest in an exciting and growing sector.”
In 2022, 10 new commercial space companies will join the race to orbit, doubling the number of firms capable of satellite and orbital spacecraft launch. The next five years are going to be nothing less than thrilling as we enter an “era of access and opportunity” as Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor stated in his annual “State of Space” presentation. From space stations to satellites to any space program you can imagine, the solar system is about to become one of the most active and innovative sectors of our economy. If you're a dream chaser who is obsessed with not only the night sky but the entire universe at all times of day, this is your time.
With a $447 billion space economy, the industry has never been bigger. And what’s the industry’s biggest challenge as it expands so rapidly? Training people with a diverse pool of talent from different backgrounds. As the future of space expands, the industry will need creative people who can bring innovative solutions to a rapidly changing economic landscape in the face of climate change.
This is also the industry’s greatest opportunity as Earth observation efforts hope to help scientists and decision-makers address climate change in radical and collaborative ways. As boundaries between the commercial private sector and the public sector are blurring and transforming, so too are traditional expectations about what kind of expertise is needed in the space economy.
In order to create regenerative economies on earth, the space industry will need all hands on deck. So whether we're sending people to an international space station, landing them on Mars, building a space shuttle, collecting climate change data, or heading to the lunar south pole, human exploration is expanding in ways we only used to read about in sci-fi novels.
WHAT YOU’LL READ ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SPACE OPERATIONS IN THIS ARTICLE:
Innovation in space-based earth observation to gather critical data on climate change, food security, resource management, financial markets, and more
Impact on communications (5G, IoT, Internet, commercial GPS and TDRS, etc.)
The realities of deep space exploration and travel
1 trillion dollars of economic potential in the aerospace industry
Collaboration and partnership between public agencies and commercial companies
INNOVATION IN SPACE-BASED EARTH OBSERVATION
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
The space industry doesn’t only look out into space. So much of what the space industry impacts is our understanding of Earth itself. With the earth’s exponentially increasing temperatures and climate change rapidly altering daily life as we know it, there’s never been a more critical time to have access to time-sensitive data.
Not only do we need the raw data on how the earth’s climate is evolving, but we also need data that is analysis ready.
Recently, NASA announced results for two space-based studies that observed climate change across the globe. In the first study, they were able to estimate the total amount of above-ground forest biomass and its carbon storage capacity. This information will be used by researchers who study how forests can help slow or otherwise mitigate climate change. They will then be able to better understand the ecological condition of the forests and the impact of different land management practices.
The second study used satellite data to develop a method to monitor underground water loss–a critical component in the agriculture industry. The data provided by satellites provided the research team with context about the Tulare Basin groundwater that helps irrigate California's Central Valley and its dwindling supply.
DIPLOMACY AND DEFENSE
Despite the many ways it feels we become more and more divided as a country and as a global community, there is a profound coming together in the realm of science diplomacy. Space has long been a collaborative and international frontier with international partners that is crucial to national security with new technologies arriving with all the new challenges we face daily.
Writer Andrea Wulf wrote about one of the first global scientific collaborations in her book Chasing Venus which tells the story of how hundreds of astronomers from Europe and North America between 1761 and 1769 were dispatched around the world to document transits of Venus.
In our modern era, the International Space Station Program (ISS) is a partnership between 10 European countries (represented by the ESA), the United States (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada, (CSA), and Russia (Roscosmos). These countries are working collaboratively together in ways that no one would have ever predicted given the political challenges we often have to confront–including the United States and Russia. The ISS is the world’s largest international cooperative program in science and technology to date.
Space brings us Earthlings together again and again to transcend political, geographical, and intellectual boundaries. More than ever, scientists and decision-makers around the world require time-sensitive data to help them predict and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Collaboration across the globe will make critical data more freely available–open to all who can make use of it. In order to realize these science diplomacy opportunities, we’ll need real and sustained leadership to help the United States maintain its influence as a leader in Earth science and space missions.
There are many opportunities for international civil-space partnerships, and we’ll need to increase our cooperative capacities as we collaborate on complex technical missions that are accessible, transparent, and of good quality.
SPACE AND AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
Agri-food systems have drastically evolved over the past decades in so many aspects, and earth observation technologies are making it easier to understand and monitor each step to bring more transparency to this highly complex system.
From the farm to the farm plot, to production, transport, processing, manufacturing, retailing, and consumptions, earth observation technologies can help us prepare for potentially catastrophic harvest seasons–and even possibly prevent them as well.
Data collected and analyzed with future space missions and Earth observation technology plays a critical role in helping the agri-food industry improve yield estimates, and improves the financial planning of both small and large farmers.
In addition, satellite images help to track the transport of crops once they are harvested, helping to locate any bottleneck issues that can have a devastating impact on the global supply chain.
EARTH OBSERVATION FOR WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The growth of satellite-based information is dramatically impacting the way we are able to manage water as a precious resource as climate continues to change and populations need evermore access to clean water. Alice Andral created a presentation outlining why and how spatial data for water resource management is crucial for large and small communities across the globe.
• Improve knowledge of hydrological status
• Monitoring of reservoirs volume variations
• Assessing water quality of bodies of water
• Monitoring and survey of irrigated systems
In the “golden age of spatial data,” not only is accuracy improved, but Andral points out that data continuity is guaranteed as well as freely and easily accessible.
Satellite remote sensing has the potential to fill in the gaps to improve water resource management, and new missions have a promising outlook for sustainable development, especially in data-poor regions across the globe.
As water cycles become more extreme, vulnerable populations are at greater and greater risk. As we address these growing water challenges, we can not only create effective protection from catastrophic water events, but we can improve water and food security for communities most affected by climate change.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION DATA
Earth based observation has the potential to save lives and improve the well-being of the planet and all of those who inhabit its lands and seas. Space-based observations will help meteorologists better monitor remote areas of the world where surface-based data can be sparse–such as Antarctica, South America, the Pacific and parts of Asia.
Where surface-based data is insufficient, space-based observations of earth can not only help scientists and decision makers create effective policies to save lives, but policies that will drastically improve economies.
SATELLITE NAVIGATION
Satellite navigation has come a long way since it was originally developed for military purposes. Personal and commercial navigation technology has become omnipresent in our daily lives, and especially in the global transport sector where the digitalization of ports and railways to the guidance of innovative autonomous vehicles.
Remember when we had to reference printed maps or an atlas on a road trip? Remember printing out directions from Mapquest? When was the last time you had to navigate from point A to point B without your smartphone? Not only can satellite navigation be used to help us find our way around day to day, but it can also be used for distress calls, land surveying, animal tracking, geo-tagging, and beyond.
THE REALITIES OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL
Thanks to major advances in aerospace engineering, medicine, and physics, deep space exploration is no longer simply the stuff of sci-fi movies and novels. Deep space exploration not only has the potential to satisfy our innate curiosity as humans, but it could also lead to significant scientific advances in medicine if we were able to discover that life existed independent of Earth.
The sky is not the limit. And yet, the nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, is out of reach using current technologies. This only motivates engineers, scientists, and decision-makers to continue developing new methods and theories for interstellar travel.
Obviously, we did not evolve as a species to travel and live in space, and finding ways to produce the energy required to travel through space are the fundamental hurdles we’ll have to overcome. Is it possible for humans to really become a multiplanetary species?
As we innovate to find ways to travel deep into space, those same innovations have the ability to improve life on Earth. The deep-space expansion encompasses our ability to understand and explore our home planet, Earth.
How might we one day travel to other stars? Chris Young outlined 17 possibilities in his article for Interesting Engineering, including:
• more and more private companies investing in space travel initiatives
• solar sails inspired by Carl Sagan and launched by the Planetary Society
• wormholes that could very possibly provide shortcuts to other parts of the universe
• NASA’s Em Drive that would make space travel possible without the need for fuel
1 TRILLION DOLLARS OF ECONOMIC POTENTIAL BY 2040
Growth in private aerospace and space exploration will create new markets and job opportunities. It will require an entire labor ecosystem that includes accounting, marketing, design, IT, and manufacturing.
Marshall Smith, the Senior Vice President of Space Systems at Nanoracks, predicts that “the next generation will seek out new jobs related specifically to the space economy. And these workers won’t have worked in space or science beforehand either.
“This rapid growth is going to bring in a new, young, diverse generation into the space world instead of just engineers. You’re going to see a lot of diversity, including marketing, design, and manufacturing–enough to create a whole economy. It’s going to require everybody to see a massive change in the way we do business in space and on the ground.”
The growth we’re seeing now is only the beginning. The space industry will provide opportunities for
• Food engineers
• Mining specialists
• Media specialists
• Additive manufacturing
• Holoportation specialists–sending doctors into space with an ISS crew
• Space tourism managers
• Space architects and construction experts
• And, of course, astronauts. All kinds of astronauts, not just scientists.
More and more people will have the opportunity to become astronauts as people from all walks of life will be needed to make space travel not only viable, but a worth-while experience. Beyond scientists, we’ll need specialists from multiple sectors in the economy. We’ll need writers and journalists, business managers and developers, policy makers and social leaders, and roles we haven’t even dreamt of. In the future of space, everyone could be an astronaut.
“You need people from all sorts of disciplines. You need mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, mining experts, computer scientists, geologists, economists. Think about all the jobs we have here on Earth. A lot of those are also going to be used when we go to space,” says Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources.
Commercial and Public Agency Partnerships Collaborate
More and more, government agencies are collaborating with and benefitting from the agility of private and commercial enterprises. They are able to license materials and assets from private space companies instead of building and owning them.
Just as the biotechnology, computer processing, and telecommunications sectors were disrupted by market-driven forces in the past century, the space industry is no longer dominated by the public sector. Private commercial enterprises are able to initiate many of the projects that were once led by the government–for instance, sending cargo and astronauts to the ISS.
The two sectors can now collaborate on new applications for cutting-edge satellite technology for in-orbit satellite servicing and repair. It’s an exciting time for world leaders to help create a critical infrastructure to protect lives on Earth and its economy while limiting space debris and creating rules and regulations for nations in orbit.
WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT THE NEXT 5 YEARS IN THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
As we get a front-row seat to space industry innovations with our customers, we are incredibly excited to be a part of this space community. We're excited about all of it: robotic exploration, rocket launches, new research projects, and all the emerging technologies that will help us not only understand the lunar surface or our favorite red planet, but that will bring mission research back to earth to help us heal this planet and save ourselves.
What are you most excited about in the space industry as we reach for the stars?
