SPACE MARKETS

from COSMO 28

by BFCMedia

EVENTI SOTTO IL CIELO

DI JOSE SALGADO* THE SUSTAINABILITY OF SPACE

Most of the commercial space industry today is supported by

satellites placed on the Low Earth

Orbit. There are currently 6,500 satellites in space, of which almost half are inactive, and by 2030, the industry will launch 17,000 more satellites. Every object launched, potentially increases the risk of collision and thus the creation of more space debris. As of today, there are 27,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball traveling in space at a speed of 28,000 km per hour. This threat puts a risk not just the limited orbit space, but a 450 billion dollar industry that is expected to grow to 1 trillion in the next 10 years. Even though there are already some companies trying to mitigate this problem, the rate at which we launch satellites is rapidly increasing, just in 2020, the industry registered

the highest number of satellites launched per year in history, with

1,283 satellites. Most of the key players in the space industry are aware of this situation and although subjects like “space debris management” and “space traffic management” are now included in every space summit, the

solution is a complex combination of technology, government

leadership, and a business case. Reusability is however one of the key pieces that are shifting the mindset of the industry and better preserving Earth’s orbit. Reusability not only has a strong economic incentive but also challenges the premise that hardware supporting space activities

*JOSE SALGADO IS A SPACE INDUSTRY ADVISOR AND FOUNDER OF D-CONSTRUCT SPACE CONSULTING. needs to stay in space after reaching its purpose. For the growing segment of in-orbit demonstration and physical and biological experiments, reusability is possible by sending a payload into orbit, conducting an experiment or test, and then bringing it back to Earth for the retrieval and repurpose of the payload. Currently, this cycle is only possible thanks to the ISS and resupply vehicles like the Dragon, however, new options will be commercially available very soon, for example, ESA’s Space Rider. A new european, reusable, orbital vehicle that will fly on Q2, 2024 on top of a Vega-C.

Space Rider’s maiden flight will

last two months, and it will land at Kourou spaceport. This versatile free flyer has a hatch that opens while in space to provide payloads with radiation exposure, and also with the ability to test sensors and other systems. The re-entry component of Space Rider opens new possibilities for in-

orbit demonstration and in-orbit

manufacturing, where companies can now test their technology or built something in space and retrieve it back on Earth, avoiding the pollution of LEO and with the chance to reuse their payload. Although Space Rider is an initiative from the European space agency, it has a commercial component, which means that is customer and partner agnostic, so the industry can benefit from it. Besides Space Rider, other interesting initiatives include