SpaceTech: The Next Frontier of Humanity

Space, a place that has been out of reach, despite being visible from anywhere on our planet. It has been a subject of people’s curiosity and has been a very important aspect of science as well. And as of today, space has become one of the main areas where countries are trying to establish their presence through the implementation of national projects by both governmental and private organizations.

The SpaceTech ecosystem is growing exponentially and evolving rapidly with new solutions being developed almost every single day. The days when space-related business was being dominated by public sectors are now long gone. New private space and even non-space companies are now entering various levels of development chains of SpaceTech. While the number of private space-related companies is prevalent in the United States, many other regions such as Asia and Europe are slowly catching up.

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Need for Innovation in SpaceTech

Whenever we think of the various usecases of space, what comes to mind are probably various technologies we use today extensively such as television satellites, Global Positioning Systems in our cars and mobile devices, or even weather tracking satellites.

SpaceTech usecases and solutions have been expanding into more diverse fields than ever before. For example, the usual information services that come to us from weather satellites which utilize images of terrain and cloud formations are being used in a diverse range of industries such as agriculture, fishing, and even finance and logistics.

Without any question, space is the next frontier for humankind, with multiple organizations and even countries focusing their resources on getting a piece of space business action, which is soon expected to become a booming industry. Commercial space travel may also soon be a reality with various top companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic preparing feasible solutions. With the skies already conquered by normal air travel, it is now time for the dawn of space travel for the masses.

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The Billionaire Space Race

While we talk about SpaceTech, we can’t help but also bring into light the ongoing space race. The billionaire space race is just a colloquial name given to the rivalry among three big entrepreneurs who have entered the space industry from other industries, particularly from the computing industry. This space race of the 21st century involves mainly the sending of rockets to the ionosphere, the launching of orbital rockets and even suborbital tourist space flights.

From the time when we once witnessed the modern world's two superpowers, USA & USSR, race each other to be the first on the moon, we now have billionaire-run corporations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic race each other to a future of exo-planetary travel and tourism. These organizations did make good on their promises, by successfully launching astronauts and, in two cases, their billionaire barons to the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.

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SpaceX

News about SpaceX was all the rage in the last few years when founder Elon Musk promised an innovative solution to interplanetary travel. They are a private company dealing in spaceflight that sends satellites and people to space, including the NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. SpaceX is also creating and testing their StarShip system for lunar landings and, hopefully, for future crewed Mars missions as well.

?SpaceX deals with a wide variety of customers from the private sector, governmental entities, and even the US military. which pays them to launch various cargo payloads into space. They revolutionized orbital launches by introducing reusable rockets, which would autonomously land back on Earth at a designated point once the payload was sent to Earth’s orbit. The company is focused on developing space exploration technology alongside its usual launch services.

“Starship”, the company’s signature rocket which is under development, has yet to complete its first orbital flight. However, Musk is positive that the ship will meet its targets on time. These targets include a trip around the moon in 2023 and reaching Mars in this decade. If successful, they could help make humanity into a multi-planetary species.

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Blue Origin

Founded by the former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin is one of the few rocket companies that can be comparable at a level of technological achievement to SpaceX. In 2015, Blue Origin hit its first big milestone by sending a rocket above the Kármán Line, the internationally-recognized boundary of space, and landing it back. Even though this is not as challenging as bringing back an entire rocket from orbit, it was a record for the books in private space exploration.

Blue Origin is building a similar if not more powerful rocket compared to the one used in the Apollo Lunar Missions and is also developing a lunar lander that could bring humans back to the lunar surface. Designed completely in-house, it is one of the most powerful rockets ever made.

As for the future, Blue Origin is competing against Elon Musk's SpaceX to land astronauts of NASA on the moon by 2024. Blue Origin has a number of projects planned in its pipeline. In December, NASA gave the green light to Blue Origin for future Earth observation missions, satellite launches, and planetary expeditions using its new Glenn rocket, allowing the company to take one more step closer to the cosmos.

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Virgin Galactic

Forming as a part of the famous Virgin Group, Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson which aimed to provide space flights for tourists in the near future. Virgin Galactic is also regarded as the front runner of the famous billion-dollar space race as it has already put one of its space planes in outer space in 2018

Having already sold hundreds of tickets for future space flights, Virgin Galactic has shown immense promise in space tourism. Although early customers are mainly celebrities, extremely high-income individuals, and scientists, their long-term goal is to provide ordinary people with affordable space flights.

Virgin Galactic intends to make a business from flying tourists into suborbital space, and intends to start space flights in 2023, at least 3 times a month. Their current flagship vehicle, the VSS Unity, is scheduled to fly once a month starting in late 2022, while its next-gen spacecraft, the VSS Imagine, will begin its test flights in early 2023, and will fly amateur astronauts in the later half of that year. While it may not have as much experience as SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic sure holds tons of promise as the underdog in the space race.

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Venture Investment Trends in SpaceTech Startups

Indian SpaceTech Startups are now soaring to new heights, with funding in this sector jumping over 198% in 2021 alone, touching $67.2 million which is up from the $22.5 million in 2020. And according to the Crunchbase data, venture funding has grossed nearly $5.2 billion for global SpaceTech companies in 2021.

Top Indian SpaceTech startups that raised funding include satellite and applications-based startups Pixxel and Dhruva Space. Thanks to a slew of policy changes proposed by the government in 2020, the SpaceTech sector saw a massive increase in private players, which in turn enabled this funding rush.

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Innovative SpaceTech Startups in India

• Pixxel – Founded in 2019 by 20-year-olds Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, Pixxel launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite “Shakuntala” on the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket, which hosts a high-resolution hyper spectral commercial camera, from which images were recently retrieved, bringing it one step closer to monitoring the health of the planet around the clock.
• Agnikul Cosmos - Founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM, and Professor SR Chakravarthy, Agnikul Cosmos test-fired the world’s first rocket engine, which was completely 3D printed, called Agnilet. Being happy with the affordability and versatility of the manufacturing process, it signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Indian Department of Space to leverage ISRO’s facilities and expertise to undertake experimental tests for its 3D printed semi-cryo engine and a few other systems.
• Astrogate Labs - Started in 2017 by Nitish Singh and Aditya Kedlaya, Astrogate Labs enables satellite operators to more data from their systems in space back to earth securely and affordably. The firm has developed a space-to-ground laser communication system, which can be integrated readily onto any satellite platform to provide high bandwidth and high-speed downlinks. They also plan to develop space-to-space laser terminals for communication as well.
• Dhruva Space - Launched in 2012 by Sanjay Nekkanti, an alumnus of SRM University, and later joined by Abhay Egoor, Krishna Teja, and Chaitanya Dora, this SpaceTech firm offers modular application-agnostic satellite platforms to enable reliable, fast and cost-effective space access. They also provide integrated one-stop access to their clients, coupled with both launch and ground station services, to own and operate space-based assets.?

What's Next for Human Endeavors in Space?

Nearly 45 years ago, Apollo 17 returned to Earth after landing a crew on the Moon. Today’s younger generation knows this very well, as humankind set out on a daring mission never attempted before. Hundred more ventured into space in the following decades, but none have done more than circling the Earth in a spacecraft. The International Space Station is one such artifact, probably the most expensive one ever constructed.

Regardless of our wants to travel through interstellar space, SpaceTech has flourished in different ways: communication satellites, satellite navigation systems, environmental monitoring, weather forecasting, and even surveillance. Many other nations have now come to undertake various space projects, not just the superpowers. However, most of these include expensive, unmanned missions and spacecraft.

However, one can be hopeful to look forward to a plausible future. In a few centuries from now, we may have small pioneering groups who would be scouring the vast expanse of space, or at least just the planets of our solar system. We may even find a way to develop technology to protect ourselves from the dangers of living in space, or better yet we may re-design the human genes to adapt accordingly.

From a cosmic perspective, the current era that is dominated by humanity only represents a small area right in between billion years of our evolutionary history and the possible billion years of our evolutionary future via technology, either here on Earth or somewhere far beyond in space.

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Article written by:?Sean Pinto?@ Incubate Hub

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Incubate Hub?is Asia's largest Open Innovation & Corporate Venturing platform to drive Digital Transformation & Sustainable solutions working with Startups, Students & Professionals. We also help Startups engage with our 52+ clients including Mondelez, Faurecia, P&G, Accenture, Tata, DCB Bank, Fidelity, ITC Infotech, IBM, NASSCOM, Analog Device, Nasscom Foundation & Quest Global