By Harshal More

Space Economy

The space economy is one of the most promising sectors of development of the world economy in the next decades that offering many business opportunities. The Space Economy starts from research, development and implementation of enabling space infrastructures up to the generation of innovative products and services (telecommunications services, navigation and positioning, environmental monitoring, weather forecasting, etc.) More than thirty countries have national space budgets and more than fifty own satellites in orbit. The satellite industry, in particular internet and telecommunication services are leading growth in the sector. A rapid increase in revenues has been anticipated as a new generation of satellites powerful enough to provide a wide range of services to mobile users comes on stream.

<p>The technologies used in space allow a series of activities that contribute to improving life on Earth. Such as, space mining/moon minings industry. Space is near infinite source of energy. In space there are substances that are scarce or lacking on Earth. The extraction of the energy, water and minerals are the major missions for the near future. This can bring great benefit to humanity. To these activities are added those linked to oceanography, that is, to the control of ocean temperatures which will help to enhance fish cultivation, meteorology, precision agriculture and safety through the observation of the land. </p>

<p>To understand what the space economy is, it is appropriate to first make a distinction between space as understood by all those who think about it, ie spaceships and astronauts, rockets and spacecraft, which constitute the so-called upstream component (space infrastructure) and which includes companies that work materials and tools useful for operations in space, and the so-called downstream component (application based on space infrastructures) whose most interesting part is big data. The space economy, therefore, revolves around two dimensions: upstream and downstream.</p>

<p>The world of space is like the internet: 30 years ago the Internet was an infrastructure run by governments for military purposes, public management, with few commercial activities. When traders took to the field with the possibility for everyone to use the internet, everything changed, including the markets. The same thing is happening in space: it has always been seen and controlled by governments. Space missions were controlled by NASA and ESA, ie governmental emanation bodies. The change came with the entry of commercial entities into the market, coinciding with the change in the satellites. The first satellites, in fact, were very large and heavy: their construction, maintenance and space launching required high costs, so there were few satellites available. Over the years small, micro and nano satellites have been built. they weigh from one kilo to ten or one hundred kilos and, to ensure the same result as much larger satellites, constellations of small satellites are sent into space, linked together by algorithms and communication systems. Production, maintenance and launch costs are significantly reduced. NASA, ESA, ISRO is active in many areas: space robotics (Cassini, Mars Express, Rosetta, Venus Express, Dawn, Juno,Chandrayaan – 2), launchers (Vega and Ariane 5), earth observation, space observation, navigation, telecommunications, human flight, suborbital flight also in partnership with several leading operators (Japan, Israel, Russia, China) and academic, private and research institutions. This allows the entry of different commercial and non-commercial players, including startups, which have led to the growth of the space economy.</p>