The final frontier is opening up and countries and companies are jostling for position. The stakes are high!
The new space economy involves a rapid expansion of Earth observation and communication satellites over the next 10 to 20 years to serve the endless array of new applications being developed every day that will depend on satellite imagery, remote sensing or global positioning data to improve quality of life or security.
Over 140 space companies have been founded and funded since 2000, with over 100 next start up ideas being studied globally each month.
In 2015, venture capital firms invested almost $2B in commercial space start-ups, which is double the amount of venture cash invested in the space industry in all of the previous 15 years combined.
Recently, Morgan Stanley released a forecast that indicates that the Global Space Industry will be a $1.1+ trillion industry by 2040.
The future of some of even the most traditional of industries will be in space. Look at mining, in which Canada is a leader here on Earth. Just one asteroid, the size of a football field, is estimated to have between $25 billion and $50 billion worth of rare and precious metals. NASA estimates that the total value of the 18,000 asteroids that are currently in the vicinity of Earth could be up to $700 quintillion. Space mining missions will start as early as 2020. Tiny Luxemburg plans to be the world leader in space mining.
