Are we becoming closer to a Space sharing economy?

Never has the Space industry seen such a huge momentum led by decreasing costs fostered by increasing technological innovation.

Democratizing industries is a common phenomenon, especially across innovative segments of the digital economy. It’s not hard to realize this when we think about how decreasing costs and added innovation from mobile devices and the Internet have changed our daily lives - just think about how transportation (Uber), shopping (Amazon) or communication (Facebook) have evolved.

The same goes with Space. Not too long ago, this sector was steered only by large and governmental organisations as its technology and missions take such a heavy investment, from development, launching to maintenance phases throughout. Now a movement of new startups and universities are paving the way in Space innovation, starting new segments and making this sector more affordable.

Democratizing Space is already taking place

Taking currently the spotlight, SpaceX is bringing costs down in launching costs through reusable rockets. Secondly, Space Robotics is exponentially more relevant, being its applications in the form of robotic rovers or artificially intelligent autonomous systems ever more significant to boost mission efficiency and reduce its costs.

Third, cubesats and nanosats are increasingly more popular. Being greatly tinier, lighter and cost-effective to develop and launch than the regular satellites, these small space equipment has enabled a big push in innovation in the sector and facilitated the entry of private organisations to take their stake. So, a movement of democratizing Space is already happening in the back-end, in its development stages.

So, what about democratizing Space to its end users?

No doubt that this industry is setting the pace to the world’s technology competitiveness itself and will define our future too - Yes, the technology brought by Space is going to further revolutionize the way we do business, governance and communicate in a much more transparent and inexpensive way.

While combining low costs with innovation, the next step might be spreading to everyone the access to satellite data services, from broadband communication to monitoring images from Earth that allows a much more just social environment.

The answer … ? - Adding blockchain technology to the small satellites, which orbit just 200 thousand km above us - that’s it.

Article written by Teresa Duarte @ VisionSpace