
New capabilities and entrepreneurialism are making space exciting again - martincmartin
http://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2016-25-08/space-2016
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vanattab
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the article. It contains a number
of interesting details I had not heard before and I follow the industry to
some degree.

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igravious
I agree. Interesting times ahead for the entire industry.

In the grand scheme of things, according to the article, SpaceX may be getting
the lion's share of the attention (at least on this site) but innovation in
“smallsats” and small rockets is the more likely path to revolutionising and
democratising space.

So many projects to keep an eye on: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic,
and the oh so cute Firefly (I want them to succeed based on their name
alone!).
[http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.p...](http://infographics.economist.com/TQ/images/scrollchart_bg.png)

And so many satellite companies … OneWeb
[http://oneweb.world/](http://oneweb.world/) being (perhaps) the most
intriguing.

The next five years are going to be very very interesting.

edit: SpaceX caveat; Of course if it is the long term mission of Musk & co. to
enable humanity to go multi-planetary then they are in a different ball-game
to all but national operators really …

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untilHellbanned
Can someone say when ROI from space will happen?

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nkoren
I suppose it will be when weather satellites can tell us when a hurricane is
inbound, and when navigation satellites can tell us our location at any time,
and when communications satellites can provide us with near-instantaneous
bandwidth from anywhere in the world, and when imaging satellites provide us
with mapping services that improve everything from agriculture to urban
planning to national defence.

so... somewhere between 20-40 years ago, I'd reckon?

