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SpaceWatch.Global Opinion

#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Creating a Commercial Space-Based Solar Power Industry

The idea of space-based solar power has been around since the 1960s, but recently gained new momentum. While we already use solar power today on Earth, there are a few drawbacks to putting solar panels on our rooftops or fields. The most important is the intermittent nature of Earth-based solar power, as its power generation fluctuates during the day - and goes down to zero at night. In addition, to compensate for this intermittency and the low load factor (appx. 11 % yearly average), large areas of land have to be covered with solar power to produce enough energy, and storage or backup capacities are needed for the nights and winter months.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Space and foresight on synchronous orbit

As space activities and innovative technologies emerge around the world and the space economy becomes increasingly global, it is worth investigating how space services and applications can support strategic foresight and its embedding into policymaking. Understandably, amidst all this trouble on planet Earth, it is perhaps easy to forget how important space has become to us and our future.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Have you thought about integrating Social Media and Satellite data for disaster management?

Landsat. Credit: Swarnajyoti Mukherjee

The Earth Observation (EO) market is expected to grow in the area of prediction and detection of risks, post-disaster rescue, recovery efforts, infrastructure planning, urban development utilities, and national mapping agencies. Satellite data can be integrated into system control to construct warning systems for assets management, to effectively decrease the response time in operation and increase management of precise and predictive maintenance. In other words, the growth of EO data creates a potential growth both in mitigating against climate damage and economic and efficiency growth across industries, across regions. But this potential will only come to fruition if utilized.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: On Chinese Balloons And Other Devices – A Space perspective

The past four weeks have been eventful for the US Air Force. On Wednesday, February 1st 2023 an unknown floating balloon, the size of three school buses, was spotted flying over Billings, Montana, at around 18 km above the ground. On Friday, February 3rd, Mao Ning, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Foreign Minister’s spokesperson, released a note claiming that the airship was  “of a civilian nature, used for scientific research such as meteorology. Affected by the westerly wind and its control ability is limited, the airship seriously deviated from the scheduled route. China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States due to force majeure”.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Smaller, Faster, Smarter: an alternative view to the European Space challenge

2023 is a pivotal year for European space domain. With several challenges knocking at its doors -among others, the necessity to sever itself from Russia and to defend its communication assets, and the lack of a heavy rocket launcher -which makes the Union dependent on the American SpaceX for constellation launches- the discussion on how and where Europe should strategically invest to remain in the game is of pivotal relevance. The debate often focuses on the amount of funding available and the magnitude of difference between Europe and the US. However, this might be an incomplete way to look at the picture. What if there are smarter ways to be independent and competitive, even with a smaller budget?

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Highlights from the Software Defined Space Conference 2022

Software Defined Space Conference opening by Sille Kraam Deputy Secretary for Economic Development

The Software Defined Space Conference 2022 was the second conference in the series launched in 2021, earlier with the name Cyber and Space Security Conference. The second edition took place on the 26-27 October 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. The conference was initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication for Estonia and co-organised together with the Estonian Space Office to create a vibrant community for space cyber security.

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