Features

The very existence of human life on earth today is dependent on space-based services. From banking and money transfers to streaming online content and using maps, the internet and other technological capabilities are being widely used by everyone across the world. From the individual level to the international level, space-based services play a crucial role. However, there are still many challenges and threats within the space domain, that need to be addressed at the national, regional, and global levels. All these imply the fact that space is both a competent and vulnerable domain in the contemporary world.

ISU Space Studies Program (SSP) offers an intensive nine-week course hosted each year in the timeframe June-August in different locations in our planet earth since 1988. The SSP provides courses in all space disciplines, as well as hands-on education through workshops and professional visits for people working in space-related fields who wish to broaden their knowledge base. Particularly, participants spend more than 3 weeks to work on 4 team projects to address current and future challenges in the space sector.  

The global space economy has been estimated to reach 1 trillion USD of revenues by 2040 (Morgan Stanley, UBS), but such numbers have been generated starting from a 2016 baseline of 340 billion USD for the Satellite Industry only and adding all the other marginal sectors in an unclear fashion.

The Ocean is the birthplace of our species and essential to our survival. It is responsible for producing approximately one third of oxygen on Earth and allows the regulation of Earth’s climate. The oceans are also an important source of food and 10% of world’s population depend on it. Since the advent of space in 1958 humans have learned to use satellites to observe our planet.

This has been an amazing summer at Instituto Superior Técnico - Tagus Park in Oeiras, Portugal, especially for the energetic, driven, and inspiring people making up the Down 2 Earth Team Project. Under the proposed topic of Space for Non-Space, the team focused on the downstream value chain trying to identify potential gaps and suggesting new ideas to foster the uptake of space data by the non-space sectors. 

Microgravity enables a better life on Earth – The case of protein crystallization from a TP of the SSP 2022 edition in Portugal. A 3Is (international-intercultural-interdisciplinary) team of 22 participants of the SSP2022 in Portugal has intensively brainstormed this summer to identify the business potential of doing research in space-based microgravity conditions.

Diversity is difficult to measure and quantify, given all the aspects and shapes it takes, yet it is easy to witness and observe the lack of it in many fields including the space sector. If the space sector and all its disciplines should be used to help improve life on earth and observe it (amongst other purposes), shouldn't it be represented by all terrestrial individuals equally? In an ideal world, yes! But history and social biases have prevented our progress towards this perfect world, and we find ourselves today with a space sector still dominated by cis white-male individuals.

Being part of a growing economy is where you want to be these days. And Space promises to be among one of the fastest growing sectors, with huge spillover potential into other industries. Currently, the space economy has been estimated to be at around 386 billion USD in revenue, and expectations predict it to be at 1 trillion USD by 2040. The outlook is attractive and moving within the space sector one could have the impression of booming space businesses. But are those numbers legitimate?

The term “space insurance” often refers to first-party insurance that covers pre-launch, launch, initial operations in orbit, and longer lifetimes in orbit. There are two main reasons why space firms buy insurance. The first is for “refund” purposes – it allows them to recover costs that led up to an accident, repay financiers, and exit a business entirely.

On September 1st and 2nd of 2022, the Latin American Satellite Congress (LATSAT) took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Aerospace professionals from different parts of Brazil and the world came to participate in the two day event. Hundreds of people gathered to listen to talks about services and new technologies from the satellite market, the new space race, and the prospects for aerospace science in Latin America. The event was organized by Glasberg Communications, promoted by Teletime News and Tela Viva, and hosted by Samuel Possebon, telecommunications expert and Teletime’s editorial director.