The space industry is by no means a new one. Since the late 1940s, human beings have been innovating in their efforts to reach beyond the sky. Here are some recent developments in the space industry that deserve your attention.
Media Development
Like any well-developed commercial industry, the space industry has an emerging internally oriented media. Journals like The Space Report and Space Safety Magazine provide people working within the space industry with comprehensive internal news sources. Space industry media is diversifying. No longer are industry reports exclusive to government agencies and internal company communications. Information sharing is now recognized as an essential element of progress.
The Return Of Political Sabre Rattling
Space has unfortunately been a political battleground ever since the launch of Sputnik on October 4th 1957 by the Soviet Union. The space industry was born during the cold war, when opposingly aligned political blocs sought to use their exploration of space to justify their supposed superiority in the eyes of citizens. The ‘space race’ of the mid-20th Century was something akin to a proxy war, and both sides were aware that the technology used for peaceful means in space also had military applications.
Thankfully, this use of space as a venue for political sabre rattling came to an end in the 1990s when new agreements for international cooperation in space were agreed. In 1998, a collaborative orbital space station project known as the International Space Station was launched, which helped to foster cooperation between the two great spacefaring nations of the world.
Alas, the 2020s have seen the return of space as a venue for political bluster. From Donald Trump’s announcement of a ‘Space Force’ to Russia’s threats to stop collaborating in Western spacefaring projects, it truly seems as if the dark days of tit for tat space threats have returned.
Starlink
In our ever more networked society, internet access is more essential than ever. In rural areas and areas in conflict, however, it is very expensive and sometimes even impossible to acquire high speed broadband. Satellite relayed internet has been in operation for several years now, but it has generally been offered on a small scale and at a high price.
The much hyped ‘Starlink’ project is a different kettle of fish altogether. The intention behind the project is to create a network that enables a vast amount of coverage at reasonable prices due to the potentially huge uptake. Whether this pricing becomes a reality is yet to be seen. Regardless of whether they achieve their aims, the team behind Starlink have certainly managed to get a great deal done in a short amount of time. 2335 Starlink satellites have been launched so far into low orbit. While custom appears to be relatively slow, the SpaceEx company behind Starlink does appear to have had some early PR successes. In one such case, they offered Starlink connectivity to the citizens of Ukraine, whose internet access was jeopardized by a large scale Russian invasion of their territory.
Commercial And Recreational Sub Orbit Spaceflight
Sub orbital spaceflight takes place when a craft reaches outer space – but only just. The flight needs to reach space, but still intersect with the Earth’s atmosphere and gravitational pull. This kind of spaceflight is much, much cheaper than an orbital flight and reentry. Not that it is by any means cheap. Large budget commercial space companies like Virgin and SpaceEx have trialed recreational sub orbital spaceflight. High profile flights by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have demonstrated the feasibility of these recreational spaceflights, but not their affordability.
Perhaps more than a recreational boon, commercial sub orbit spaceflight could be revolutionary for the launching of satellites. A great deal of the cost for launching satellites involves getting them off the ground and through the atmosphere. Sub orbital spacecraft have the potential to deliver multiple satellites into orbit at a greatly reduced cost. Because they do not undergo the same reentry stresses as high orbit spacecraft, they can be reused many times.
3D Printing
3D printing has quietly changed almost all aerospace industries. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, 3D printing allows for the swift transference from the design stage to the production stage. Traditionally, components needed to go through a long manufacturing testing stage before being produced into a tangible object. Secondly, 3D printing allows for the perfect production of extremely complex components. Space bound components need to be manufactured to the highest degree of accuracy if they are to work reliably. In the past, this meant a careful manual assembly process that required extremely skilled workers. 3D printed components can be created with the click of a button and have extremely tight variable dimensions which allow them to be reliably used in space. The production of affordable commercial space products is impossible without the level of automation afforded by 3D printing technology.
Smaller Satellites
The cost of launching a satellite increases exponentially with the size and weight of that satellite. Satellite launch rockets only have a limited space in their payload sections and take an astronomical amount of fuel to break free of the earth’s atmosphere.
The scaling down of satellite sizes, therefore, has been of paramount importance in the commercial space industry for some time now. In recent years 3D printing and automated production methods have enabled scientists to create micro satellites. The most well used kind of micro satellites are known as ‘cube satellites’. These tiny cube-shaped spacecraft can be launched in large numbers from single rockets, which makes them far more cost efficient than traditional large craft. Cube satellites can be very small indeed. The examples launched by NASA measure only 10cm3. This small size enables startup companies that could otherwise not afford to launch a satellite to get their foot in the door.
Even smaller satellites are likely to be common in the future – enabling hundreds of units to be deployed in one launch. Some companies are working on nano and pico satellite systems that will make cube satellites seem like cumbersome giants.
