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New capabilities and entrepreneurialism are making space exciting again

49 points by martincmartin 10y ago

untilHellbanned 10y ago
Can someone say when ROI from space will happen?
- vanattab 10y ago
  It depends on what you mean by "from space". The sat communication industry is already making money. When will Mars/Moon/Asteroids missions produce an ROI? Your guess is as good as mine.
- nkoren 10y ago
  I suppose it will be when weather satellites can tell us when a hurricane is inbound, and when navigation satellites can tell us our location at any time, and when communications satellites can provide us with near-instantaneous bandwidth from anywhere in the world, and when imaging satellites provide us with mapping services that improve everything from agriculture to urban planning to national defence. so... somewhere between 20-40 years ago, I'd reckon?
vanattab 10y ago
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the article. It contains a number of interesting details I had not heard before and I follow the industry to some degree.
- igravious 10y ago
  I agree. Interesting times ahead for the entire industry. In the grand scheme of things, according to the article, SpaceX may be getting the lion's share of the attention (at least on this site) but innovation in “smallsats” and small rockets is the more likely path to revolutionising and democratising space. So many projects to keep an eye on: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic, and the oh so cute Firefly (I want them to succeed based on their name alone!). http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.png http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.p... And so many satellite companies … OneWeb http://oneweb.world/ http://oneweb.world/ being (perhaps) the most intriguing. The next five years are going to be very very interesting. edit: SpaceX caveat; Of course if it is the long term mission of Musk & co. to enable humanity to go multi-planetary then they are in a different ball-game to all but national operators really …

49 points by martincmartin 10y ago

untilHellbanned 10y ago

Can someone say when ROI from space will happen?

vanattab 10y ago
It depends on what you mean by "from space". The sat communication industry is already making money. When will Mars/Moon/Asteroids missions produce an ROI? Your guess is as good as mine.
nkoren 10y ago
I suppose it will be when weather satellites can tell us when a hurricane is inbound, and when navigation satellites can tell us our location at any time, and when communications satellites can provide us with near-instantaneous bandwidth from anywhere in the world, and when imaging satellites provide us with mapping services that improve everything from agriculture to urban planning to national defence. so... somewhere between 20-40 years ago, I'd reckon?

vanattab 10y ago

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the article. It contains a number of interesting details I had not heard before and I follow the industry to some degree.

igravious 10y ago
I agree. Interesting times ahead for the entire industry. In the grand scheme of things, according to the article, SpaceX may be getting the lion's share of the attention (at least on this site) but innovation in “smallsats” and small rockets is the more likely path to revolutionising and democratising space. So many projects to keep an eye on: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic, and the oh so cute Firefly (I want them to succeed based on their name alone!). http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.png http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.p... And so many satellite companies … OneWeb http://oneweb.world/ http://oneweb.world/ being (perhaps) the most intriguing. The next five years are going to be very very interesting. edit: SpaceX caveat; Of course if it is the long term mission of Musk & co. to enable humanity to go multi-planetary then they are in a different ball-game to all but national operators really …