Newspace

The term Newspace generally refers to this epoch of disruptive change in the space business. Newspace got famous when the space tycoons Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos got involved in a race towards the most advanced rockets. Before that time, the focus of space activities had always been on a handful of large companies and subcontractors who built satellites, ground stations and rockets according to common, relatively strict procedures defined by space agencies. Everybody believed this was necessary for reliable space infrastructure development. Just like in aviation, in space you can't easily carry out a repair if the spacecraft is high in the sky. Even if a crew and passengers are not involved, the costs can be considerable in case of a technical error.

Newspace breaks with rigid structures and methods that are common in the classical (so-called 'upstream') space industry and reduces them to 'terrestrial' structures and methods. The production then usually becomes more, faster, cheaper per piece, and so on. For example, smaller satellites are now being built with less quality assurance, but in larger numbers and with a much lower cost per piece. In case a satellite falls out-of-service, we tend to worry less if there are many left to do the job.

Newspace will also consciously develop technologies cyclically with technology transfers between terrestrial applications and space applications. Aerospace applications usually require high performance (low weight, high strength, great durability, reliability), while terrestrial applications usually require large numbers and low prices. So there is an improvement to be expected in every cycle, in every technology transfer from earth to space and vice versa.

Is Newspace a good move towards sustainability? At first sight not, as it threatens to launch too much objects into space, increasing the problem of space debris. On the other hand, thanks to Newspace, we now have reusable rockets. But the largest leap towards sustainability is to be expected from the developments in life sciences for long duration manned space missions. Water and waste reuse, small scale agriculture and other essential biological functions will find sustainable implementations in space and on the Earth.

I refer to my blogs space trends in 2022 and sustainability engineering. 

Picture from shutterstock.com