🚀 SPACE COMMERCIALIZATION 💰

Last week I attended the SpaceCom Expo in Orlando, FL and have been reflecting on some of my main takeaways for the commercialization of space.

Artemis: Building a Moon Habitat

Artemis is the current cornerstone of international space exploration with the ultimate goal of establishing a human presence on the moon. A few highlights included: 

👉 Establishing a Lunar Space Station (the Lunar Gateway) is a clever way to develop moon bases, acting as a staging area between Earth and the Moon.

👉 Development of new landing systems including the Human Landing System (HLS) and landing the first women and person of color on the Moon, are clear objectives.

👉 Importance of proving out many of the technologies and techniques living on the Moon (and getting to Mars), including resource utilization experiments, power generation and storage; radiation and lunar temperature protection;  human habitat module construction; and creating robust Earth-Moon communication networks.

🛰️ Commercial Space Stations

Commercial space stations are taking center stage, with companies like Axiom Space leading the transition by attaching their first commercial module to the ISS in 2026, followed by full independence in 2028. Vast’s Haven-1 is also quietly getting ready to bring its first state-of-the-art components to orbit in 2025!

📡 Digital Revolution in Space Operations

As space operations become more complex, companies need to develop data analytics capability, embrace hashtag#AI and machine learning, and invest in advanced simulation techniques, such as digital twins. Better hashtag#cybersecurity is also going to play an important role in securing valuable space assets and operations.

💰 Expansion of the Commercial Space Economy

By 2030, venture capital investment is projected to hit $100billion, and the commercial market is showing strong signals for growth – especially through the commercial space stations and related industries. Other opportunities include space-based-manufacturing, microgravity research in medicine, and space tourism.

FOCUS

🤝 Business-wise: we need to be smarter around technology innovation, partnerships across industry, and driving down costs (SpaceX, RocketLab, etc all doing excellent work here)

👩‍⚕️ Workforce: we need to develop the workforce of the future – not just in engineering, but cybersecurity, hashtag#marketing, hashtag#legal, hashtag#finance, hashtag#compliance, hashtag#operations, and other support functions. We need to do a better job of presenting the career opportunities to our younger generation, and drive interest in space into primary, secondary, and higher education.

📚 Space Law: There are many issues with the hashtag#regulatory and hashtag#compliance landscape for the space industry. International collaboration is needed between geopolitical partners, leading space companies and authorities. We should not expect all space-faring nations to align or comply with this, but we need DO need strong global leadership.