We seem to be making a bit of a mess of running the economy on planet earth. Can we do any better in space? The final frontier was once the exclusive playground of the superpowers’ military-industrial complexes, as the cold war played out above our heads. But space has rapidly been globalised and democratised, opening up to other countries and private sector companies.
Some 40 governments spent a total of $64bn on space activities in 2013, led by the US, China, Russia and India, according to the latest figures from the OECD. A new generation of space entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, has also emerged, promising to transform the economics of space travel. More than 50 satellite telecommunications operators supply an increasingly fast-changing market.
Rupert Pearce, chief executive of Inmarsat, one of the biggest of those operators, says the satellite industry is being transformed. “We have seen an incredible step change in the pace of innovation,” he says. “We are living in a world of pervasive connectivity.”