Commercialisation of Earth's orbit, opening space for business

Over the years, if there is any particular sector that has thrived to this day and age, it is the oil industry. Ask any market expert, and they will tell you that the form of the primary source, oil, has been in constant use to this date. But the only thing that changed is the end products and the technology around the extraction of the primary source of oil.

Similarly, this has been the case in the global space industry, specifically, the commercialisation of the orbits. Ever since the private players were allowed to venture in space in the early 60s, multiple products have churned out, from primarily catering the communication to now catering almost every sector across the globe. 

So, how did the commercial journey begin and how a specific orbit, the Low Earth Orbit, became the old man’s treasure for the new age space fanatics? Let us dive deep down and understand how a few Indian startups are revolving around the space solution sector?

Discovery of a new oil source - Emergence of the satellite in the commercial space sector

There are various sets of satellites orbiting our Earth as we speak, and some are bound to join the spree soon by some country, and by 2027 there are going to be 7,000 small satellites added in the orbit. But instead of talking about the classification of the satellites, let us try and understand the need that brought satellites into existence in the first place.

Communication, one among the first purposes of sending satellites into the Earth’s orbit. It was meant to create and establish a secure wireless channel for government agencies and their defence forces. 

Later with time, enter the private players with adequate capital, who were able to build the same technology, but this time, to cater citizens and create a monopoly which would later turn into an oligopoly, the current state of the global space sector.

Here, the purpose of bringing the satellite into foray was not a market trend as we see today towards any product bought in front of us. It was initially driven with the scope of "connecting people", with relatives, friends, or governments who needed to broadcast their public-oriented welfare programme, public announcement, and monitoring status of their defence forces. 

In short, the communication sector was null and void. A citizen would only rely on age-old mail services motioned by manual labour. This particular issue was nothing different from the oil that gave birth to a whole new sector and moved the world to this date. 

To this date, the void of communication seems to be rich enough, with enhanced technologies and urbanisation, and multiple solution providers, people today are at the verge of falling for the latest mode available in the market, just to bring the entire world in their palm. 

"Hence, us, the primary customers, will always welcome new solutions for our convenience, from wired telephones to present-day smartphones."

Bird's eye in Space - Advancing human civilisation via earth observation satellite

Before even establishing a broadcasting and telecom channel via space, it was a weather satellite that was put forth in helping various meteorologists understand and predict weather conditions across the globe. Since then, we have been advancing towards space and finding the right spot in the set of orbits (GEO, MEO, and LEO) to station our satellites for aiding us with various applications.

Soon, back then, the commercial sector was wide open, it required the right talent and enough capital to set the ball rolling. From the perspective of the private sector, the world was like a mining area with infinite minerals, that can be rooted out and sold to create a billion-dollar market.

And it did so today, the global space sector is worth around $350 billion, and expected to grow even further as we speak. 

So how did the EO sector manage to plunge such a distance? Well, it all comes down to the data generated by satellites. Over the years and decades, there has been a constant demand for precise and accurate data sets from space for applications like natural disaster management, agriculture sector, banking firms, and the most crucial aspect of all, global warming.

These applications have been the focal point for the private space industry and continue to be so to this date. The need by such consumers on the ground made the private space industry retrospect and rectify a lot of their approach (technical) in addressing the issue.

Leaving no stones unturned, the private industry did what was needed. With a constant focus on innovation, and raising abundant capital to fuel the former, a few hundred thousand dollar satellites today are capable of doing a job of a multi-million dollar satellite made a decade ago.

How? The innovation was in making the design more effective, integration of sensors to deliver the desired results and developing low-cost communication channels with the ground stations. 

Altering the commercial market

Today, sending satellites into space is not an expensive affair, as the cost of manufacturing one has significantly declined by 80% - 90%. Hence, making space for new age space enthusiasts to participate in the sector.

Besides, the demand for data solutions has risen to such extents that the sector has witnessed startups looming in the space-based sensors for data transmission. 

For instance, Astrogate Labs, an Indian spacetech startup has ventured into optical communication where the former has built a complete end to end sensor. These sensors then enable satellites to communicate better with their nearby counterparts and transfer large amounts of data to ground stations, where sensors developed by the startup can integrate to receive the data in a short period. 

On the other hand, sensors to enable satellites to have a collision-free manoeuvre has also emerged, which in India is being developed by Digantara Research and Development. 

But wait, there is more to it, with an increase in LEO satellites, the private sector is now witnessing small satellite launch Vehicle or SSLV private ventures. These vehicles are much smaller and compact to their counterparts like Falcon 9, PSLV, and GSLV to name a few. 

Hence, assisting these small satellites, one-way small satellite launch vehicle market has also taken shape in India in the form of Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos.

Data - The new oil 

A raw mineral like gold, diamond, or oil from the shore, is not used in its natural form of occurrence. These minerals are refined, filtered, channelled through multiple stages to make an end product, which can be then used by industries or people like us. For instance, below is an overview of a data refinery by Blue Sky Analytics.

Same is the path taken by data analytical ventures or the downstream sector. For instance, Jatin Singh, Founder, Skymet Weather once said during our conversation that,

“If a crop type map is to be prepared, we procure raw satellite images from sources which are then studied by our satellite data interpretation experts. Along with their inputs and extended field surveys, we come out with area-wise acreage estimates of key crops like soybean, paddy, cotton, groundnut, etc., well before they reach markets, thus helping the stakeholders to plan their related crops well in advance.”

By now, it would have been clear for most people that data is just like oil, extracted from the ocean floors. Similar to the derivation of oil into multiple end products, geospatial data sets are also refined, processed and studied depending upon the application. For instance, Skymet uses satellite data sets to churn out an air quality forecast map, as one can see below.

Now, what goes behind the screen in making these data commercially applicable is an intriguing take, where more than one tool comes to act, like machine learning, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, as it makes data more accurate and precise, enabling stakeholders like the government and other agencies to make better decisions.

If observed, satellite data management has churned out a whole new standalone industry, which in turn is propelling a new market fuelled by data intelligence. After all, data is indeed the new oil.

Sources of reference: YourStory, Bryce, Science Learn, Geospatial World, Airbus and NewSpace India.