The Emerging Space Economy

Article by George Pullen & Samson Williams                                    July 30, 2021                                        (financialexpress.com)

• Soon, the Space Economy will encompass production, trade, and commerce for goods and services both familiar and brand new taking place between the ‘Karman line’ (approximately 100 kilometers overhead) and ‘Cislunar space’ (the area between geostationary Earth orbit and the Moon’s orbit) creating another world of possibilities for humanity and a Fifth Industrial Revolution.

• Today, the Space Economy is composed of all the industries – rockets, satellites, telecommunications, weather research, defense, etc – that together amount to a trillion dollar ecosystem in space that make our modern day digital life possible. By the end of the next decade, the Space Economy will be valued at more than $4 trillion dollars. By the 2040s it will exceed $10T.

• Consider space tourism as championed by Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos. Today’s space tourists will lead to tomorrow’s space hotels and corporate space stations devoted to cutting edge technological research and production. This will unlock trillions of dollars of economic activity. And space travel will require new infrastructure in spaceports on Earth. Tourist spaceports are planned for Maine, Ireland and Mumbai, India.

• Currently, our Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought forth advancement in digital finance, robotics, AI, Big Tech, and big data, genetics, health and medicine, nuclear, solar and advanced battery energy technology – all at an accelerated and unprecedented pace. The expanded exploration and permanent habitation of space is the logical outgrowth of these advancements. And these technological leaps forward will lead to unimaginable new products and services in turn.

• Today’s students, who may never actually get out into space, will develop the future of humanity both in space and here on Earth, and shape the Space Economy of the Fifth Industrial Revolution as rapidly as we did the Internet and its super highways of information, data, and possibilities in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Space Economy goes beyond tourism and into the areas of production, trade, and commerce for goods and services both familiar and brand new taking place between the Karman line (approximately 100 kilometers overhead) and Cislunar space (the volume between geostationary Earth orbit and the Moon’s orbit) creating another world of possibilities for humanity.

The Space Economy is a $450 Billion ecosystem we all interact with daily. As a matter of fact, you’re probably reading this on a mobile device or internet connection made possible by a satellite in Space. In short, the Space Economy is composed of all the industries (rocket and satellite manufactures, telecommunications, climate change researchers, data and finance experts, Defence, etc…) that come together to create the trillion dollar ecosystem above our heads that make modern day, digital life possible. By the end of the next decade The Space Economy will conservatively be valued at more than $4 Trillion Dollars, US. By some estimates The Space Economy may exceed $10T by the 2040s.

How is this possible? Before we jump into the billions of dollars that go into National Defense annually (the US Space Force’s budget alone for 2021 is $15.2B, not to mention other Super Power’s budgets for Space) and what Global Power means in the Space Race 2.0, let’s consider just

Space tourism, as most recently championed by Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson and Amazon’s and Blue Origin’s Founder, Jeff Bezos.

Space tourism was created from a combination of Sci-Fi imagination and

technological advancement, packaged together by economic incentives. Today’s space tourists will lead to tomorrow’s space hotels. Modular construction of space hotels will provide the opportunity for the economies of scale for corporate space stations devoted to cutting edge technological research and production of science and material not possible on Earth. This will unlock Trillions of dollars of economic activity, the equivalent of an eighth content, and one equally as valuable and important. Of course to get to Space hotels we will need entirely new infrastructure for launch, landing and “space traffic control”. These new epicenters of Space travel will be called “Spaceports”. Spaceports are the 22nd century’s version of airports and seaports. Keep your eye out for spaceport Ireland, Maine spaceport and of course spaceport Mumbai, as India will play a critical role in developing the tools, technology and human resources that fuel The Space Economy’s expansion.

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