Entertainment: New Frontier of Space Economy
The single largest issue with development of space economy is WHY? Any sustainable business venture has to provide answer to this question. In the beginning of the space race, the primary reason for space assets and exploration was caused by military issues. LEO provided unique reconnaissance capabilities that were highly valued by military establishments of great powers. From this came the first major pillar of space economy - earth oriented remote sensing.
The second major pillar is telecommunications, that became the first major commercial market, responsible for roughly a quarter to a third of satellites and space launches.
The third pillar, human space flight, is still highly dependent upon government investment and despite many hopes of commercial, large scale space tourism failed to materialize. Unless some true physics breakthrough is found, it is likely that HSF will remain a niche reserved for a very small number of people due to its high costs.
The fourth pillar, space oriented remote sensing, includes planetary and asteroid exploration as well as sun monitoring. This pillar has some commercial benefits (for example, space weather and asteroid detection/mitigation).
What is common to all these pillars is that they do bring direct or indirect benefits for their investors (either governments or businesses on the Earth). And the only way to significantly increase investments into space related assets and activities is to explore additional benefits for people on Earth. Anything related to space obviously has some "magical" attraction for certain part of population. This can be linked to popularity of science fiction novels and movies, space-themed games, documentaries etc. It is no mistake that vocation of astronaut is the closest we can find in the modern age of the noble, fearless hero character. It is also continuously among dream-jobs of young children for decades. Space, it seems, has been best utilized by the entertainment industry.
Thus far, serious space business had stayed clear from entertainment label, although many of them use it for their promotion. Space agencies publish their work trying hard to influence public opinion in order to secure funding support. Launch providers regularly broadcast their launch campaigns. Satellite operators use slick animations to give their assets and capabilities to augment their space orientation as "coolness" factor. But it is extremely rare to use entertainment as the primary goal of space venture.
There are only two examples that I am aware of. The most notable is Mars One, with the leading idea to use "Big Brother/Survival" type of TV show as a funding vehicle to sending people to Mars. This concept attracted so many attacks on technical feasibility that everybody missed the novelty of their approach - utilizing value of entertainment for funding space activities. The second, much lower scale effort is SpaceVR - startup with a goal of adding virtual reality cameras to ISS for people on Earth. Like Mars One, this effort really addresses a desire of public for space related experiences.
Both ventures really try to appeal to mass market for their revenue. But both also have something missing: both approaches are leaning on passive participants. In both cases it relies on drama aspect (Mars One) and breathtaking view (SpaceVR) that would have limited appeal to both the number of people and the duration of their engagement. But Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) have been massively successful. World of Warcraft alone has sustained annual revenue in the range of $1 billion for one decade. There are also other successful MMORPGs. Especially popular is Minecraft, which has been reported to have more than 70 million copies at the beginning of 2015, and has sustained more than a million concurrent players (that are playing at the same time).
Gaming, as active/engaging entertainment venue has been growing and surpassing other media entertainment values. For example, the most popular games have budgets and revenues larger than blockbuster movies. Thus the question is whether this popularity can be exploited for space based adventure.
There are several key technologies that make it possible, unlike before. Miniaturization of space based electronics (mainly through cubesat movement) has enabled highly capable building blocks that can be used to build fully functional satellites. Standardization has brought prices down significantly, so that main components can be bought off-the shelf and satellites can be design in the matter of weeks instead of months and years. But the most important issue is needed bandwidth/throughput for HD video streams. So far it has been very expensive to provide sustainable high throughput down-link from space assets. But due to introduction of laser based communication terminals, it has the potential to increase the throughout several orders of magnitude using the same aperture and beaming power. And last, but not least, in-space 3D printing enables creation of custom shapes when and where requested. Combining all these technologies together, there is unique situation ("a perfect storm") that enables creation of space-based MMORPGs. In essence, new technology enables replacement of virtual worlds with immersive telepresence in the real world on some remote location.
Space themed telepresense based MMORPG might not be for everybody, but it addresses "an itch" of numerous space-enthusiasts around the world, who are mostly limited to passive consumption of space based media entertainment, or need to pursue full-blown carrier in space industry. Internships in popular "New Space" companies, amateur cubesat builders and Google Lunar X Prize participants are some of the ways how people can satisfy their space enthusiasm.
The second major pillar is telecommunications, that became the first major commercial market, responsible for roughly a quarter to a third of satellites and space launches.
The third pillar, human space flight, is still highly dependent upon government investment and despite many hopes of commercial, large scale space tourism failed to materialize. Unless some true physics breakthrough is found, it is likely that HSF will remain a niche reserved for a very small number of people due to its high costs.
The fourth pillar, space oriented remote sensing, includes planetary and asteroid exploration as well as sun monitoring. This pillar has some commercial benefits (for example, space weather and asteroid detection/mitigation).
What is common to all these pillars is that they do bring direct or indirect benefits for their investors (either governments or businesses on the Earth). And the only way to significantly increase investments into space related assets and activities is to explore additional benefits for people on Earth. Anything related to space obviously has some "magical" attraction for certain part of population. This can be linked to popularity of science fiction novels and movies, space-themed games, documentaries etc. It is no mistake that vocation of astronaut is the closest we can find in the modern age of the noble, fearless hero character. It is also continuously among dream-jobs of young children for decades. Space, it seems, has been best utilized by the entertainment industry.
Thus far, serious space business had stayed clear from entertainment label, although many of them use it for their promotion. Space agencies publish their work trying hard to influence public opinion in order to secure funding support. Launch providers regularly broadcast their launch campaigns. Satellite operators use slick animations to give their assets and capabilities to augment their space orientation as "coolness" factor. But it is extremely rare to use entertainment as the primary goal of space venture.
There are only two examples that I am aware of. The most notable is Mars One, with the leading idea to use "Big Brother/Survival" type of TV show as a funding vehicle to sending people to Mars. This concept attracted so many attacks on technical feasibility that everybody missed the novelty of their approach - utilizing value of entertainment for funding space activities. The second, much lower scale effort is SpaceVR - startup with a goal of adding virtual reality cameras to ISS for people on Earth. Like Mars One, this effort really addresses a desire of public for space related experiences.
Both ventures really try to appeal to mass market for their revenue. But both also have something missing: both approaches are leaning on passive participants. In both cases it relies on drama aspect (Mars One) and breathtaking view (SpaceVR) that would have limited appeal to both the number of people and the duration of their engagement. But Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) have been massively successful. World of Warcraft alone has sustained annual revenue in the range of $1 billion for one decade. There are also other successful MMORPGs. Especially popular is Minecraft, which has been reported to have more than 70 million copies at the beginning of 2015, and has sustained more than a million concurrent players (that are playing at the same time).
Gaming, as active/engaging entertainment venue has been growing and surpassing other media entertainment values. For example, the most popular games have budgets and revenues larger than blockbuster movies. Thus the question is whether this popularity can be exploited for space based adventure.
There are several key technologies that make it possible, unlike before. Miniaturization of space based electronics (mainly through cubesat movement) has enabled highly capable building blocks that can be used to build fully functional satellites. Standardization has brought prices down significantly, so that main components can be bought off-the shelf and satellites can be design in the matter of weeks instead of months and years. But the most important issue is needed bandwidth/throughput for HD video streams. So far it has been very expensive to provide sustainable high throughput down-link from space assets. But due to introduction of laser based communication terminals, it has the potential to increase the throughout several orders of magnitude using the same aperture and beaming power. And last, but not least, in-space 3D printing enables creation of custom shapes when and where requested. Combining all these technologies together, there is unique situation ("a perfect storm") that enables creation of space-based MMORPGs. In essence, new technology enables replacement of virtual worlds with immersive telepresence in the real world on some remote location.
Space themed telepresense based MMORPG might not be for everybody, but it addresses "an itch" of numerous space-enthusiasts around the world, who are mostly limited to passive consumption of space based media entertainment, or need to pursue full-blown carrier in space industry. Internships in popular "New Space" companies, amateur cubesat builders and Google Lunar X Prize participants are some of the ways how people can satisfy their space enthusiasm.
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