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Tracking space debris is a growing business
- jgwil2 5y agoRelated discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28523946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28523946
- visviva 5y agohttps://archive.is/uL5Sb https://archive.is/uL5Sb
- oblak 5y agoAlright, any companies that are likely to go public and make some money?
- shoto_io 5y agoThis seems to be a similar trend like VC-backed "Deep Sea" startups exploring the unchartered oceans floor. Does anyone know how these space and marine startups are planning to make money?
- burkaman 5y ago> LeoLabs sells data to satellite operators, space agencies, America’s armed forces and insurers keen to calculate better actuarial tables for spacecraft. > Customers include insurers keen to see if policyholders fly their satellites as safely as they claim to. > Northstar, for example, plans to charge annual subscriptions of between $10m and $100m. > Naturally, this orbital-tracking technology has military value as well. I think most of these companies are assuming they can get big government contracts once this becomes a big enough problem. Lockheed Martin has Space Fence (https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/space-fence.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/space-fence.ht...) which was presumably funded by a government contract
- twelve40 5y agosince OP asked specifically about VC-backed (and not bootstrapped or a lifestyle government consultancy), i guess the question is they must have at least pitched a $1bn+ TAM, no? in which case even having a couple of $100m contracts, even when it does miracles for lifestyle, would not be enough. Caveat, don't know much about this, just intuitively it doesn't seem like a VC hypergrowth story?
- paxys 5y agoFor space at least I think the question is as broad as "how will an internet company make money." There are limitless applications in satellite launch and operation, debris tracking, asteroid mining, defense, research contracts, tourism.
- Torwald 5y agoI don't know any of their plans. - With private enterprise in space, you will be able to sell such data to insurance companies, maybe. - You can sell the data to governments who want to have it for any form of control reasons. - Science can use that data for exploration, this could potentially lead to breakthroughs, which in turn could lead to markets whose players depend on your data. Or just science labs are buying your data.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoAre you aware of the Seabed 2030 effort? I believe it’s entirely not for profit. https://seabed2030.org/ https://seabed2030.org/
- irateswami 5y agoI would bet any amount of money that it's a private space debris tracking conglomerate that discovers a widowmaker asteroid coming at us... ...and they make us subscribe to a rundle for the rest of our lives to keep it from hitting us. "Earth, and life on it." - brought to you by Facebook, probably
- pshc 5y agoSurely the US or China would immediately seize control of any organization that crucial to national security
- Jtsummers 5y agoThe US government (these days at least) is perfectly happy to let private enterprises take on the costs and risks. They'll just contract it out. You see the same thing across the entire intelligence and defense sectors (some major systems are maintained not just by contractors at military facilities, but at facilities owned and operated by contractors). Space launch is a contemporary example of an important capability that the US has demonstrated they're happy to mostly hand off to private enterprises (mainly SpaceX these days).
- JshWright 5y agoThe sort of radar used to track debris in Earth orbit isn't really that useful for detecting Earth crossing asteroids.
- quantified 5y agoSide effect, intended or not, will be these companies encouraging junk.
- Rebelgecko 5y agoA side effect we've already seen is that these companies tend to be a bit more alarmist about conjunctions that are incredibly unlikely. I suppose it's good marketing.
- quantified 5y agoSpacejunk is not good and I expect is going to get much worse with all these “many and cheap” commercial satellites going up, plus I’ll assume a military encounter in the next 50 years to liven things up. Space tourism gets a little more exciting with 10,000 mph paint flakes knocking on your picture windows.
- jobigoud 5y agoI was thinking about this as well. A bit like the rumors that some viruses are created or spread by anti-virus companies.