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AEROSPACE: SPACE TRANSPORT


The final frontier!


Space is emerging as a new frontier for private investors. Andy Pye looks at the move to take commercial aerospace beyond its normal boundaries and into space


M


ore people than ever before are using aviation to travel. In fact, there were over 78million passengers at UK airports in the third quarter of 2015 alone,


according to travel statistics fromthe Civil Aviation Authority. But further into the future, space is


emerging as a new frontier for private investors. Individuals can get a slice of the multi-planetary action for as little as $25,000. Angel investors are helping to finance out-of-this-world entrepreneurial projects in a race reminiscent of the early days of Internet and tech start-up funding. The space sector is subject to fierce


competition as never before. Start-ups worldwide and companies in emerging markets are forcingmore established businesses to transformtheir operations to be versatile, high-performing and cost competitive. Getting in at the seed stage is vital to


fuel an industry which according to Chad Anderson, CEO of Space Angels Network, brings space start-ups together with investors and holds enormous opportunity. “There’s a lot of business in space which is new,” he says, pointing out opportunities in reusable launch technology, small satellite constellations, private in-space habitats, lunar logistics and asteroidmining. Speaking ahead of his planned January


visit to the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, where he’ll join a panel at the Global Space Congress, Anderson says there are now hundreds of companies coming up in the space sphere. Anderson says threemajor


44 /// Environmental Engineering /// April 2017


trends aremaking the space sector accessible to start-ups for the first time – reduced launch costs,miniaturisation of technology and standardisation. Anderson joined the Global Space


Congress panel to examine financing space. Addressing a global audience of more than 600 space experts – including space agency leaders, C-suite space and aerospace executives, government ministers, top researchers and academics – the panel will share its insights on where space investment is coming from, how its return on investment can be calculated and its impact on the funding of R&D projects and innovative new space technologies. Angel investment, Anderson says, will


be the engine for entrepreneurial advancement of space opportunities. “Four years ago we averaged one deal amonth for ourmembers, today, we bring in two or


three quality deals eachmonth. Business is picking up on both the investor and entrepreneur sides of the equation,” he says. “There’s real excitementmounting, a real buzz around space,much as when investment in the Internet took off. And because there has been investment from well-known players, othermainstream investors are now interested in backing private space companies.” SpaceX has already demonstrated a big


step towards fully reusable spacecraft. The first stage rocket of one of its Falcon 9 launchers, having successfully lofted cargo to the International Space Station, managed to turn itself around, bleed off the enormous kinetic energy it had acquired while itsmain engines were burning, fly back down to Earth and land vertically – with balletic precision – on a rather tiny looking robotic barge floating somewhere in the Atlantic.


 Investment angels help launch the commercialisaton of space, below; and unmanned systems will play an increasingly important role in future civil and military aviation, bottom


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