RESOLVING SPACE CONFLICTS THROUGH ARBITRATION: A PATH TO PROFITABLE INVESTMENT IN THE STARS
The commercial space age is now well and truly underway. This is evidenced both by the increasing publicity surrounding the growing number of privately initiated space-based endeavours, undertaken by companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as by the exponential growth of the sector as a whole. Morgan Stanley has estimated that the space industry, worth an annual $350m in terms of revenue in 2019, is to hit a turnover of between $1 to $1.7 trillion by 2040.
That the space industry appears to have crossed an inflection point in its growth rate is a result, in part, of a number of significant technological advances with impressive cost implications. These include updates in rocket technology that have reduced costs for low-Earth orbit launches from $65,000 per kg to just $1500 per kg – a 97.7 percent decrease (Aerospace Security), developments in mobile telecommunications technology that have reduced the cost of satellites from as much as $400m to less than $1m – a 97.5 percent decrease (Washington Post), and more than an 80 percent decrease in the price of the solar panels that enable satellites to generate power while in orbit (IRENA).
These developments are leading to ripples across a wide range of industries and are revolutionising the possibilities that can be derived from space-based ventures – for example, LEO satellites are being used to provide communications networks in remote regions and conflict zones, governments are using satellite imaging to monitor degradation of infrastructure networks, and farmers are using satellite-enabled tracking to follow their herds, analyse weather patterns and predict crop performance.
Apr-Jun 2023 issue
Mayer Brown International LLP