NAVIGATING OPPORTUNITIES AND TRENDS IN SPACE SECTOR: A MORE VIGILANT APPROACH NEEDED

We are witnessing the mushrooming of space related new entries and diversified space related activities.  It’s not just SpaceX but there are more than 10,000 total Companies globally competing to open an unprecedented level of human access to space. The U.S. now has 5,582 space-focused companies, almost ten times more than the next country, the UK, which has 615.

Competition between these companies has led the value of space-focused companies to cross the $4 trillion USD mark for the first time ever and is a key factor in reducing launch to orbit cost by almost two orders of magnitude in the past 20 years.

From SpaceTech analytics to navigation and mapping, Cloud solutions to manufacturing, Public private partnerships to exhaustive research and development, Satellites to rockets carrying goods and humans, elevating outer-world human experiences, the fascinating journey of space exploration is marked with wonders of human intelligence and capabilities.  AND YET, since the launch of first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, the SPUTNIK in 1957, the explorations, invasions and venturing into outer space by human beings is now reaching alarming levels of concern for safety and security of what is being built as an inter-dependent ecosystem.

Although, the LEO constellations have brought 24/7 coverage for end users in relatively real time, ample amounts of data, particularly inaccurate and misleading data needs to be pre-processed, controlled and contained on-board or in-orbit or at source via responsible restrictions and self-regulatory practices.

Whether it is domain awareness, traffic control and management or emergence of situational awareness, tracking debris management to collision avoidance, in-orbit or de-orbiting services, further R&D, from protecting ground capabilities and space assets and so on, having vast network of satellites with extensive connectivity, with sensitive technologies to manage and rush of space commercialization, the complexity and security of all these efforts and assets are more imperative now.  All parties involved in space developmental objectives need to focus on having safety and regulatory governance for the right balance of space sustainability practices.

The exhaustive space landscape and its value chain must be secured with adaptive assets, resilient policies and regulations and responsible strategies and initiatives.