Strategic advice to leverage new technologies

Although government investment still makes up the bulk of space-related funding, a combination of three main factors has resulted in a foundational evolution of the industry, often referred to as “New Space.” New Space has generated an unprecedented rise in the number of space players, rocket launches, spacecraft in orbit, and volume of space-generated data. This issue of Amplify explores the key challenges that the space industry faces in its journey toward long-term sustainable growth and value creation.

Matteo Ainardi, Arnaud Siraudin, and Guillaume Storck present a way for businesses to envision future space ecosystems and their associated value chains. A recent study, conducted by the EURO2MOON association (including Arthur D. Little), endeavored to understand demand drivers, value chains, and areas of uncertainty around lunar resource use. Propellant production was used as an illustration — the reaction engines needed to power vehicles on the lunar surface and traveling to/from Earth (and beyond) will need propellants. The study examined both the supply side and the demand side, developed scenarios of a future ecosystem, proposed a likely value chain, outlined use cases, and estimated those use cases’ likely ranges of demand. Beyond giving a peek into lunar opportunities, the article can help businesses considering lunar-economy investment better understand how to account for inherent high levels of uncertainty.

Ronald Birk, Lori W. Gordon, and Eleanor Mitch outline the factors behind the need for a system that dynamically updates space supply chain information. Along with higher demand, there is competition among sectors, such as medical device and auto makers, for certain commodities and many rare-earth elements. The authors propose a distributed ledger technology (DLT) system called “Space supply chain Topology for Assessing Risk (STAR)” that would create a nexus for all stakeholders in the space supply chain community. STAR would include trusted partnerships via information-sharing agreements, information wells that let partners leverage an array of structured and unstructured data, a network of cloud-based platforms that enable secure processing of data among partners across the space enterprise, data integrity via DLT, and assessments of priority items to discover weak areas in space supply chains. The article describes the four key risks STAR would identify and calls for community dialogue about a space enterprise solution that “shines a light on dynamically evolving risks.”

Sylvester Kaczmarek dives into the cybersecurity issues threatening current and future space exploration. In addition to bad actors who have targeted satellites by jamming, spoofing, and data hijacking, there’s the potential for spacecraft life-support, navigation, and propulsion systems to be hacked. Breaches that threaten communications between ground stations and their space assets are also possible, as is interference with the data streams that flow constantly between satellites and public and private entities. Kaczmarek advises a number of strategies for mitigating space-related cyber threats, including AI models that anticipate and prevent attacks before they occur, encryption methods resistant to quantum attacks, and international cooperation to harmonize regulations across countries.

Victor Heaulme takes a look at the space waste problem through a technology lens. He notes that the Kessler Syndrome (i.e., orbit overpopulation leading to object/satellite collisions that greatly affect space access) is becoming increasingly possible. Along with policy making, Heaulme describes technologies for more accurate tracking of space objects of all sizes, monitoring software that automates collision warnings, and technology that remotely removes objects in orbit. These include two systems that cause decaying orbits, one that uses a specialized satellite to push space objects and one that moves objects into a different orbit from Earth.

In this Advisor, Cutter Expert Curt Hall examines how retailers like Walmart, Wayfair, and Savage X Fenty are using GenAI, AR, VR, computer vision, digital twins, and social collaboration to improve the shopping experience.

The cloud has revolutionized the way businesses operate, offering unprecedented agility, innovation, and resilience. In this Advisor, Myles Suer stresses that the key to leveraging cloud investments isn't solely in cost-cutting but in enhancing the ROI by accelerating business outcomes and value delivery.

As we explore in this Advisor, information technology can be leveraged to maintain real-time inventories of carbon assets and could be used to create a system designed to meet specific GHG-mitigation goals.