Blindness due to retina diseases affects over 200 million people globally, and that number is expected to reach 290 million by 2040. The two most common retina degenerative diseases are called Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Retinitis Pigmentosa affects one and a half million people globally. It starts with peripheral vision that goes dark, until the person is completely blind. AMD affects in the US alone 30 million people over 55, including 10 million in the blinding stage. AMD starts with central vision that goes dark, until the person is totally blind.

RIKEN, Japan’s largest research institution, Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, and Kongsberg NanoAvionics announced on the 7th of August their collaboration on the NinjaSat1 X-ray observation mission. The aim of this two-year mission in low Earth orbit (LEO) is to observe X-ray photons from bright X-ray objects in the universe. The NinjaSat team intends to observe black holes and neutron stars that brighten suddenly in X-rays and coordinate with on-ground optical observatories to study how matter accretes to these compact objects. 

Warpspace has announced that the National Research and Development Agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has accepted its proposal, "Development of a modem and router to realize a multi-protocol platform for optical communications in space,"  for the Japanese "SBIR Program" (one-stop-shop type) for fiscal year 2023.

The moment the decommissioned ISS burns through re-entry and plunges into the Pacific Ocean will be heart-breaking. Granted, we will still have the Chinese Tiangong space station as a symbol of governmental and entrepreneurial prowess. But once the (American) private sector is solely in charge of orbital space stations other than Chinese ones, albeit with some friends and allies governments support as anchor customers, what will happen with global micro-G accessibility?

Back in the 70’s, the Japanese space agency JAXA run an experiment called the Japanese Cat's Whisker Experiment. It took place aboard Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974, the same year Pink Floyd released “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Contrary to what you might think, it did not involve cats.

The United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) recently hosted closed meetings of the Legal Subcommittee’s Working Group on Space Resource Activity at its headquarters in Vienna. The Working Group has just completed the first year of its five-year mandate to review the regulation of such activity, including possible “additional international governance instruments”. Although it had planned to meet only during the Legal Subcommittee’s annual two-week session earlier this year, the Working Group failed at that time to agree on even a preliminary statement.

Acktar Ltd. has announced that it has successfully completed the first-ever coating of fine ceramics for Kyocera Corporation, Japan. Acktar's expertise was necessary to provide a light-absorbing black coating that works in complement with the excellent physical qualities of Kyocera's cordierite components.

On the 5th and 6th of June 2023, the Financial Time’s held its second Investing In Space conference. Similarly to last year, it was held in a hybrid form. The first day online, the second day live from London. Titled “Balancing Optimism with Realism”, the two-day summit hosted a selection of investors, innovators, government, and end-users for analyses of the opportunities of space.

The Financial Times Investing In Space Summit took place in person and online on 05-06 June 2023, under the motto "Balancing optimism with realism". In Part 1 (LINK) we covered the state of the space market and its investment value. We also looked at why the future for UK space looks bright, and how different countries can have differentiated space investment and capacity-building strategies. In Part 2, we will look at more stories behind the numbers, bold visions, disruptions, opportunities, emerging markets such as space-based solar power as potential remediation to climate issues, space resource utilization, and Moon mining, and even alternative modes of access to space. Readers who missed this event are encouraged to check out the Video-On-Demand.

The Financial Times Investing In Space Summit < https://ftspace.live.ft.com/agenda > took place in person and online on 05-06 June 2023, under the motto "Balancing optimism with realism". Indeed it was the first significant space investment and financing conference to take place after the rise of interest rates by the US FED, together with other macro headwinds, such as conflict-driven economic deterioration. This thorough and intensive FT conference did a fairly good job of articulating trends and putting the spotlight on both mainstream markets (launchers, constellations) and emerging space activities, Moon included.