Photo courtesy Andrey Suslov/Shutterstock
Why invest in NewSpace and why now?
In 2021, investors poured US$15.4 billion into the NewSpace market. Another US$7 billion was invested in Q1 of 2022. Citi Group recently predicted the global space economy will top US$1 trillion by 2040. Why such a huge push—just for short-term ROI? Although that’s what most investment groups concentrate on, I assure you the NewSpace players now being funded are aiming much higher. Christopher Alfenito, Principal Consultant at A.I.M.
P
otent new satellite applications, historically accessible solely to governments, are now commercially available products. With the help of Earth observation satellites, we can now monitor the entire planet 24/7-365 days a year, at levels of precision never seen previously. We can measure ocean wave heights in millimetres and detect hazardous gas emissions in ppm. We can track aircraft, ships, deforestation, illegal fishing, mining activities, crop, and irrigation trends as well as a host of other things that impact our lives in some way. Satellite imagery provides more actionable insight about our environment than ever imagined in our 200,000 years on this orb.
EVERYDAY TOOLS
NewSpace has facilitated the development and implementation of many new sensor technologies as well. Hyperspectral imaging and remote element detection are just a couple of examples. Open Source Intel (OSINT) is significantly more available. When severe weather hits close to my home (I live on an island that is visited by hurricanes repeatedly), I run a weather radar app fueled by real-time NOAA Satellite radar data sets and personally 16
www.satellite-evolution.com | July 2022
monitor the path, severity, and duration. It wasn’t so very long ago that I depended on the radio or the local TV station to obtain a fraction of that data. Remember maps? They were the only way to figure out where we were going before GPS/GNSS/PNT was available to everyone with a cell phone. Just think how much that technological innovation impacts humans. It was first developed for military use, then it went commercial and now it has become so widespread that it is difficult to imagine navigation once involved a compass, a sextant, and the stars above. There will be, in the not-too-distant future similar systems that will enable navigation to our nearby celestial neighbours. There are many applications for the use of commercial space and new ones are being developed on an almost daily basis as this industry continues to build momentum. They are designed to enhance life on this planet and at some point, others. Think for a moment about how the telegraph and telephone, or the airplane, altered our lives and how quickly that happened. I sat with my grandfather as we watched Apollo 11 land on the moon. Decades earlier, as a stable boy, he had held President Taft’s horse at the Wright Brothers Flier demonstration for the US Government. And there we were, watching a live TV broadcast from the moon!
