The inevitable and exciting commercialisation of space

The commercialisation of space is an inevitable and exciting prospect, says Paul Kostek senior member of the IEEE and advisory systems engineer to Base2 Solutions

Having reached the 50^th anniversary of the first Moon landing, the future of the space industry is being considered by many. For some, the new goal is to put humans on Mars – an ambitious target, which requires considerable innovations in space flight and technology. For others, the next frontier is the commercialisation of space, whereby it is used to harvest resources or as a place to send people through tourism.

Until now, the commercial use of space has consisted of organisations placing satellites in the Earth’s orbit to provide services such as Earth imaging, television broadcasting, telecommunications or navigation systems. However, with developments in space technology continually improving, those in the industry are looking further afield still. New, private companies are pioneering the next era in space exploration and are generating a significant amount of interest from the public and investors. These companies are increasingly looking to fully explore and possibly colonise space.