The Future of Space

For most of its history, the space industry has been funded by governments, but now it is undergoing a renaissance because of investment from private enterprise. Much of this is coming from Silicon Valley, using the principles of agile design and manufacturing to bring a new era of space technology. There are two promising economic models for growing development in space right now, and neither of them are space tourism or asteroid mining, although there may be a small amount of this activity on the 25-year horizon. More valuable, and more immediate are the projects of data collection and data transmission, both of which would require a web of nanosatellites enveloping the earth. Data collection is essential because as our economies are increasingly global in production, reach, and impact, it is necessary to have a perspective on macro-level information about Earth. These very small satellites, no larger than grapefruit, would hang out in low Earth orbit, and use sensors and cameras to monitor not only scientific data but also material and construction flows, as well as agricultural development. The project of data transmission is equally important because universal connectivity has become a global expectation, but one that is impossible to solve with cell towers alone. The same web of nanosatellites will be able to carry transmissions across their web, as well as up and down to the surface, increasing GPS resolution and possibly becoming the foundation for 6G connectivity. A number of startups are investing in this right now. Both of these projects will demand making rockets smaller, more reliable, and reusable. These projects carry huge value for global industry, stewardship, and communications, and they will drive the advances in space technology in the coming decades.
This video on “The Future of Space” was commissioned by China Mobile as part of an online course. It is one of 36 lecture videos. A version with Chinese subtitles is available at Citic Migu: citic.cmread.com/zxHtml/listen...
A transcript of the lecture in English is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1oymg...

[@DavidZhouZ]

is it possible put the video on podcast?