Space Resources

By Dr. John B. Sheldon U.S. Vice President Mike Pence gave a remarkable “Kennedy” style speech on 26 March 2019 in Huntsville, Alabama, where he stated that the United States will put Americans on the Moon again – in as soon as five years. China demonstrated, with Chang’e 4, their …

While SpaceIL’s Beresheet lunar lander met with a tragic end on the Moon’s surface, it has paved the way for a number of other private Moon missions that are currently in the works. Among these is Japan’s ispace, and SpaceWatch.Global’s Editor-in-Chief Helen Jameson spoke with Kyle Acierno about the company’s …

The space robotics market is predicted to hike from USD 2 billion in 2018 to around USD 3.5 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report. The market is experiencing rapid technical development owing to the integration of AI technologies into systems developed for space exploration. Several companies are developing AI-based robots …

Maxar Technologies has announced that the spacecraft bus it is building for NASA’s Restore-L project to refuel a satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has completed an important review process called the Critical Design Review (CDR). With the CDR complete, the spacecraft bus is on track to ship to NASA …

Engineers designing ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission to the Didymos asteroid pair are developing advanced technology to let the spacecraft steer itself through space, taking a similar approach to self-driving cars. “If you think self-driving cars are the future on Earth, then Hera is the pioneer of autonomy in deep …

The European Space Agency (ESA) has set up a dedicated unit to work on the standardised nanosatellites called ‘CubeSats’, teaming up with European companies to develop low-cost technology-testing missions. Missions in preparation include a double CubeSat to test rendezvous and docking techniques, and one to explore near-Earth asteroids. A fast-growing …

NSR’s In-Orbit Servicing Markets, 2nd Edition (IoSM2) report forecasts $4.5 billion in cumulative revenues from In-Orbit Satellite Services by 2028. While growth is anticipated across all applications in all orbits, GEO satellite life extension will yield the largest share of revenues. As more LEO constellations start to launch, NGEO players …

Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence of the Kingdom of Belgium, and Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, signed a joint declaration at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels on 23 January 2019 in which the …

By Dr. John B. Sheldon The role of commercial space in today’s national security environments is known well enough. There are useful policy debates to be had over what national security space systems a state should absolutely provide for to ensure sovereign decision making in war versus where commercial entities …

Human space exploration has received another significant boost with the successful landing of a Chinese probe on the far side of the moon – a feat that has never before been accomplished. Chinese state media confirmed that the spacecraft had performed a ‘soft landing’ at 10.26am (2.26am GMT) on January …