Abstract
The new space economy is booming at increasing pace, since the first years of 21st Century. The sector moved first steps, from 1997 to 2004, when about 20 companies competed to win the X-Prize. The $10 million Ansari XPRIZE was conceived and funded by the philanthropists Peter Diamandis and Gregg Maryniak, with the purpose of reducing the risk and cost of going into space, incentivizing the creation of a reliable, reusable, privately funded manned spacecraft, so as to finally make private space travel commercially viable. Before the Ansari XPRIZE, spaceflight was the sole responsibility of governments. Space tourism was considered too dangerous and expensive for the general public Space exploration was neither possible nor affordable for the private sector. The 27 September and October 4 2004, Scaled Composites won the X-Prize: it’s vehicle SpaceShipOne had flown 2 times over 100 km altitude in one week, piloted by Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie. That was the trigger. Low cost access to space was demonstrated, and many brave entrepreneurs and investors started to work and push the new space economy to grow up. 2015 can be considered the second key milestone, when Elon Musk and its company Space X, demonstrated the reusability of the rockets’ first stage. A new space company, Space X is now leader of the launch market worldwide, having downsized the cost of the orbital launches from $50.000 / Kg to current $1.500 / Kg. When fully reusable orbital vehicles will be available (Starship), we can expect a further downsizing of the cost to orbit, at $100/Kg. and less. The global value of the space economy is now worth about $0.5 trillion, and likely will reach $1.5 trillions before 2030. The space economy is leading the global economy development, and demonstrates more and more to be the sole sustainable development, in this first half of the 21st Century. This lecture covers the past, the present and the future of the space economy, providing a comprehensive look on the industry and growing market.
A short bio
Adriano Vittorio Autino, born in Moncrivello (VC, Italia), is co-founder and former President of the Space Renaissance Initiative, since 2010 Space Renaissance International (SRI), an inter-cultural non-profit association, whose mission is the opening of the space frontier: low-cost access to space, space tourism, industrialization of the geo-lunar space, use of near Earth asteroids, and the full development of space economy. Adriano is diplomed in Industrial Electronics, acting since 1971 as a software and system engineer, then project manager and entrepreneur in the field of real-time automation systems. His insatiable curiosity and the desire to engage in frontier fields have led him to work in the aerospace environment, and to devise and develop an integrated software system, supporting the systems engineering and the project lifecycle management processes. Adriano authored and co-authored several books, papers and articles on the theme of civilization expansion into the outer space.
Links
Follow the Livestream on the Space Renaissance YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/live/LdgY34EpINs
and click ‘going’ on the Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/524620919600099
Adriano Autino’s book “A greater world is possible” is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/greater-world-possible-expansion-civilization/dp/1727889924
