The spacetech team at BIS Research, recently, concluded an extensive webinar on ‘Sustainable Space Economy – Needed Philosophy and Next Steps’. The webinar was hosted by principal consultants, Arunkumar Sampath Kumar and Nilopal Ojha. The guest on this webinar was Mr. Timo Mustonen, founder of space research and technology firm Sustainable Space Economy.

The session was full of industry insights as well as deep marketing intelligence around space economy and how can it be more sustainable in the near future. Some very critical questions were raised during the session by the attendees, which were duly answered by the panel of speakers.

Here’s an excerpt from the QnA that took place during the webinar:

Q. What are the key ingredients in sustainability when it comes to spacecraft manufacturing?

Answer: So basically when it comes to the spacecraft manufacturing, the reusability is crucial. Apart from this, the overall structure wherein the ride sharing and the capabilities where they are using certain propulsion technologies for more sustainable approach towards the entire process and from the point of cost along with the operation is quite essential. And looking at the current scenarios where in the alternate technologies are also coming up for delivering those satellites in space such as hyperplanes, hypersonic aircrafts, it is creating a very niche market as of now. So, there are player coming up with those technologies to facilitate the launch services.

Q. Who pays for deorbiting defunct satellites and fractured debris particles?

Answer: I feel that the customer should be paying because customer is getting the benefit as well. There are instances where people do talk about the ownership for those assets in space. There are government organizations who are cataloguing all those debris in space and are coming up with those stringent regulations where they are looking to make people accountable for their own assets in space.

To conclusively prove who owns whatever pieces of debris would require installing some sort of accountability through space situational awareness services. The count of service providers offering space situational awareness services has seen a significant growth lately.

And, while half of these service providers may be in their early growth phase, they are going to become huge organizations going forward and will provide multiple space situational awareness services that's going to enable the industry.

The need of the hour is to get a more data-driven hold of what's happening in orbit. So, moving forward all the activities in space, whether regular or abnormal, would be easier and more feasible to be identified and conclude who caused what problem and who is supposed to own it. But then you know until the regulations kick in, you know that accountability cannot be put into practice

Q. Should space startups really focus on sustainability as their primary focus and will they be securing funds and customers alike? And how is this sustainability connected to the success, especially for the startups?

Answer: So, when you start thinking about your startup company and when you make those decisions in the early phase about how close sustainable is to your business objective, I would say that developing water-based thrusters is not more expensive compared to developing any other thrusters.

And even if your customers, investors, or other stakeholders do not question about your business model being sustainable right now you should think in that way that in long term. Based on every study, companies which are focusing on sustainability are more profitable.

When we talk about startups, they do tend to experiment a lot with the technology and come up with more viable sustainable solution. To give you an example, there are various service providers who are facilitating the space infrastructure and there are companies such as Orbit fab who are providing refueling technologies as well.

In last five years when we started looking into the space infrastructure domain as a whole and as a topic, there was no mention of companies who are looking to provide these services in space.

But today, there are lots of opportunities that have been created and there are companies who are willing to pay for reactivating their satellite in space.

So, as you can see, if you are a spacetech startup coming up with a viable solution, people are there to pay you. And I believe for all these startups, as long as their product is sustainable and it is providing value addition to the existing infrastructure, people will surely be paying for that.

Q. Will investing in sustainability cost the space market participant? Will such investment result in increasing prices of products/services?

Answer: Any change implemented within the organization for orienting the organization with a long-term vision will come with its own cost. That cost will include both monetary and opportunity segments and the organization will be investing in those regards over the long term as it implements the policies it subscribes to (with respect to the changes it has decided on). However, such a cost will not be a burden adversely impacting business. The investment in this regard will be realized by the business in the future. If planned from the early-stage start-up phase, the cost of sustainability can be contained significantly as there will not be a cost of re-orientation.

Q. How should government agencies and/or regulatory bodies drive the concept of sustainability within the space industry? What is the benefit of doing so?

Answer: A focus on sustainability while evolving the regulatory frameworks such that investing in sustainability gets incentivized will help regulations drive the growth of the market through sustainability. A focus on sustainability will limit the need for precautionary measures that might be required to protect domestic market participants. A sustainable space economy will be driving a global integration of space market participants over the long run. Government regulatory frameworks and guidelines specifically targeting sustainability will be a great starting point in this regard. Attaching incentives including but not limited to tax breaks and eligibility for government programs can help initiate this trend in a sustainable manner.

Q. Can consortiums enable sustainability in the space industry? Will they end up being dominated by the bigger market participants where the smaller startups have no voice at all?

Answer: Yes, they will. Collaborative approaches allow the industry participants to integrate their objectives and arrive at a mutual understanding without compromising on their competitive advantages. Any suggestions from such consortiums can help government agencies capture an inclusive view of industry requirements which can further enable inclusive regulations.

Larger corporations have dominated consortiums historically. However, the larger portion of the space industry currently is the NewSpace market which is dominated by start-ups. Therefore, at this point, multiple consortium opportunities exist where statups can get together and drive industry wide collaboration for fair competition and sustainability. The consortiums need to have relevant expert support to drive such efforts across the markets.

Watch the complete video below: