All the time they were on the ground, people looked up and wondered what was outside. Now more than ever, as discussed by a recent panel of experts, people are equipped to learn.
“We really have, for the first time, not only the ability to answer those questions, but to get to and live among the stars,” said Douglas Terrier, associate director for vision and strategy at Johnson Space Center of NASA. “It’s really a wonderful thing to think that we exist at this time.”
Terrier was joined by fellow panelists Matt Ondler, CTO of Axiom Space, and Tim Crain, CTO of Intuitive Machines, along with moderator Arturo Machuca, director of Houston Spaceport, to explore what contributed to the unique this moment for commercialization in space. The panel, presented by Houston Spaceport and hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership, took place at the Houston House at SXSW on Sunday, March 13th.
An industry exclusively run by the government has evolved to include commercialization – and not just at the corporate level.
“We’re at this point of change where access to space is easier – companies are evolving and not just NASA and big companies like Boeing and Lockheed can participate in space,” Ondler said.
This evolution is crucial to continue developing the technologies needed to advance the industry. Ondler’s company Axiom Space is working on the first commercial space station for lower earth orbit, or LEO. This project will be 100 to 1,000 times cheaper than the cost of building the International Space Station.
“We’re really using a lot of history and a lot of government investment to build our commercial space station,” Ondler said.
LEO’s economy is a trillion -dollar economy – and one that has been overtaken by commercial companies, which is exactly what NASA needs to allow it to refocus efforts to return to the moon with its Artemis project.
“We overcame the first hurdle where we were able to commercialize low-earth orbit operations,” Terrier said. “That frees us up to look further.”
For decades, the aerospace industry has been responsible for producing technologies that, in addition to their application in space, can also make a difference in the world.
“We spend a lot of money going into space, but what it does is advance all these things that we need to invent, and they find their way into applications in medicine, water purification, clean energy – everything is returns ten times the value to our society, ”Terrier told the panel.
Today, Terrier says the galaxy’s economy is more than $ 400 billion-and only a quarter of that is government investment. With this influx of companies working on space innovation, Houston has everything it takes to be a leader in the field.
“Innovation and the ability to commercially engage in space requires a lot of ideas and new ways of looking at things,” said Crain, pointing out the area around JSC and the spaceport. “The more opportunities we have for these ideas to come together and be exchanged, that will open up the potential for commercialization to be successful.”
He goes on to say that the city is building a critical mass with space tech startups, talent within engineering and manufacturing, government support, and more.
“It’s more open now than ever for both the city and for NASA to support companies that want to work in Houston,” Crain said. “When you combine all those ingredients, the opportunities are really endless, and this is the place to go.”
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