Space Technology

In this overview of the space tech sector, we focus on players in the following key sub-industries:

• Natural Resource

• Consumer Tourism

• Interplanetary

• Research and Development

• Data Providing Satellite

Natural Resource

Planetary Resources

• Product: developed 3 cubesats (miniature satellite for space research) to serve as technology demonstrators for future asteroid prospectors

• Founder: Eric Anderson (also co-founder of space tourism company Space Adventures) Peter Diamandis (founder of the X Prize Foundation); initial investors wealthy individuals including Google co-founder Larry Page

• Long term vision: prospecting near Earth asteroids for water ice that could later be extracted and then sold as propellant.

• acquired by block-chain company ConsenSys, Inc. in 2018 due to inability to close a funding round, not clear that ConsenSys will be able to provide significant resources and how Natural Resource fits into the ConsenSys’ culture

Deep Space Industry

• similar vision as Planetary Resources; also shift focus to non-toxic satellite ; acquired by Bradford Space in 2019

• Takeaway: cost-effective asteroid mining might not accomplished given competition in Earth terrestrial markets and the high cost of returning high-value minerals to Earth; both companies eventually shift focus from planetary mining to small satellite (market with clear and growing demand); currently not feasible since requires extensive operations off-Earth and need large amounts of cheap raw materials and fuel

Consumer Tourism

SpaceVR

• Product: VR headsets and sensory deprivation tank --a planetary journey of low Earth orbit while you float weightlessly in a zero-gravity environment.

• world’s first virtual reality camera satellite, betting on creating a market for cinematic, live, virtual space tourism; currently making deals with float spas across the US to scale

• Launching Overview 1, the world’s first virtual reality camera satellite into Low Earth Orbit (high-res, low orbit video that is also compatible with any VR headset) but failed to deliver (no space asset in orbit as of June 2019); Currently have $750k invested in the satellite and launch

• Founder: Ryan Holmes

• Fund-raising: $1.4M in funding over 2 rounds; Lead investor Shanda Group

Cohu exp

• Space Nation Astronaut Training Program: mobile gaming app (partnered with NASA to design games) -- 100 selected for real life training camp -- 12 ten-week astronaut training program -- 1 free trip to space

• Initial crowd-funding campaign record-breaking 3.4 million Euro in 2017

• Founder: Kalle Vähä-Jaakkola

• Financial difficulties: "Space Nation Astronaut Program" on an indefinite hold (Aug 2018); the company is filing for bankruptcy (Nov 2018); restructures in US(June 2019)

Space Adventures

• Product: zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights(with the option to participate in a spacewalk); other experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours.

• seven clients have participated in eight orbital spaceflight program as of 2019; sold nearly half a billion in space missions

• Price of each ticket range from 20 mil - 100 mil per seat

• Founder: Eric C. Anderson

• Takeaway: companies demonstrate the interest in space tourism, which can serve a catalyst for commercialization of space through encouraging cheaper transportation and natural resource extraction; as of now, technology is limited and extremely expensive, often combine with existing tech such as VR for immediate commercialization. Hard to scale in the near future

Interplanetary

Astrobotics:

• Product: space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions; end-to-end payload delivery service on landers and rovers to the moon

• first launch of expected to take place in 2020 on an Atlas V rocket

• As of 2018, payload delivery to lunar orbit is $300,000 / kg; delivery to the lunar surface is $1,200,000 / kg; and $2,000,000 per kilogram ($910,000/lb) for deploying a rover

• selected by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to study the first payload delivery mission to the South Pole of the Moon

• Fund-raising: a total of $12.5M in funding over 3 rounds with lead from NASA

Moon Express

• Product & vision: commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources

• Partnership with NASA for data purchase; government approval for commercial payload to moon

• Fund-raising: closed a $2.5 million bridge round led by Miami-based Minerva Capital Group. It has also raised $10 million of a planned $20 million Series B round

• Founder: Robert D. Richards

• Takeaway: interest in commercial payload (for space R&D, lunar satellite, brand promotion and social purposes); some of the existing partnership/services include rover, memorial services, time capsule.

Research and Development

Spacepharma

• Current market: pharmaceutical companies increasingly are looking to conduct experiments in space (Merck, Procter & Gamble and Eli Lilly)

• Product: tiny labs with components required for a variety of tests and hitches pre-installed; currently 2 minilabs in operation

• Unique advantage: expedite bacteria development (days instead of years); zero gravity enabled petri dish in 3D

• Pricing: $ 230,000 to rent up to six months

• Competition: Nanoracks & Space Tango

Data Providing Satellites

Kepler

• Founded in 2015

• KIPP, Kepler’s first satellite has been in orbit since Jan 2018

• Canada’s space and radio regulatory body – ISED – has supported Kepler

• Competition:

• Iridium (broadband, low total network throughput)

• Globalstar, Inmarsat

• Traditional satellite takes 15 years to refresh, Kepler only needs 3 years

• Business Model:

• Contracting $1mm with 1 satellite

• Priced # devices on network

Spire

• The company currently operates a fleet of more than 80 CubeSats (Lemurs), the second largest commercial constellation by number of satellites, and the largest by number of sensors. Its satellites are integrally designed and built in-house. It has launched more than 100 satellites to orbit since its creation.

• founded in June 2012

• Total raised $140M

• Products:

• The company’s satellites are multi-sensor. Data types such as Automatic Identification System (AIS) service are used for tracking sea vessels.

• The GNSS-RO weather payload measure temperature, pressure, among other key characteristics across a “slice” of the atmosphere, or "profile"

• ADS-B sensors were launched in 2018 to permanently track aircraft across all skies. This data is getting increasingly regarded as the new standard for modern aviation as it enables air controllers and companies to constantly monitor aircraft across isolated areas and oceans which ground-based radars are not able to cover

Geooptics

• Total raise $5.2M

• GeoOptics is developing a constellation of small satellites to collect data about Earth’s climate and environment from low Earth orbit (LEO). The constellation is called CICERO and the first operational satellite was launched in January 2018, and more are coming soon.

Planet Labs

• World’s largest constellation of earth imaging satellites, $200M raised thus far

• Primarily develops Triple-CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are then delivered into orbit as secondary payloads on other rocket launch missions.

• Each Dove is equipped with a high-powered telescope and camera programmed to capture different swaths of Earth.

• Each Dove continuously scans Earth, sending data once it passes over a ground station.

• Together, Doves form the largest satellite constellation in the world that provides a complete image of Earth once per day at 3–5 m optical resolution.

• The company had launched over 300 satellites, 150 of which are active

• The company has 3 satellite constellations - Flock, RapidEye, and SkySat

Iceye

• $65M raised thus far

• Commercialized the Synthetic-aperture radar, which is a satellite imaging technology that enables generating pictures of both land and sea, regardless of the time of day and in all weather conditions

• Ability to gather continuously updating satellite imagery, up to once per hour

Planetiq

• $20M raised

• PlanetiQ is launching a constellation of about 20 small satellites that will provide more than 400 million observations per day for weather and space-weather forecasting, as well as climate monitoring.

• The data is generated by GPS signals interacting with the earth’s atmosphere, and being captured and analyzed by our highly-proprietary satellite-borne sensors—this is called GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO).

• Our GPS-RO is highly sensitive compared to other versions of RO– we are High Definition.

• GPS-RO data is already ingested by global forecast models and is among the top contributors to forecast accuracy while also the most cost effective. But only a sparse amount of GPS-RO data has been available to date.

• The PlanetiQ constellation will deliver more than 10 times the amount of data provided by GPS-RO satellites currently on orbit, easily making GPS-RO the most important contributor to forecast accuracy.