Robotic Exploration of the Inner Solar System
- Paper number
IAC-05-A3.P.18
- Author
Dr. Chris Welch, Kingston University, United Kingdom
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Aerospace company creation is the embodiment of "From Imagination to Reality"; an entity and a technology are brought to life through the vision and efforts of entrepreneurs. Space is fertile ground for entrepreneurship, but the unique nature of aerospace means that it is often accomplished within a different paradigm than that familiar to other high-technology industries. The willingness of the customer to fund R and D, the high barriers to entry for competitors and the high engineering-high value content of space products provides fertile ground that has created hundreds of Entrepreneurial Space Companies (ESC’s) that are in many cases driving the innovations that are changing how we explore and utilize space. However; the nature of many of these companies is at first blush not well suited for angel or venture capital investment. As space entrepreneurship comes to the forefront, and as the challenge of connecting investors with viable opportunities manifests, it is important to understand how these companies have formed and succeeded.
The nature of these companies will be discussed within the framework of case histories of three successful ESC’s, and the unique aspects of their formation and growth reviewed. Issues involved in the creation and growth of Starsys Research, the company that Mr. Tibbitts founded and developed into a $20M spacecraft mechanisms company recently acquired by SpaceDev, will be discussed in detail. Particular focus will be placed on the unusual investment situation presented by these companies, and their contrast with traditional venture or angel funded entrepreneurial ventures.
Experience gleaned from the Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a not-for-profit partnership of the University of Colorado and SpaceDev Inc, will provide the basis for discussing unique aspects of the aerospace industry that both support and hinder the formation of ESC’s . Strategies for accelerating the formation and development of the companies will be presented. Although not VC backed, these companies can provide unique and sometimes unfamiliar opportunities for VC or Angel investment in later stages of their growth. These opportunities will be described and discussed.
The information above is a unique perspective on aerospace entrepreneurship that to the author’s knowledge has not been collated, presented or discussed in a public forum. The above paper has not been presented at any previous meetings, and the author’s attendance for the Symposium is assured.
To date, most space exploration has focused on the Solar System beyond Earth’s orbit. The inner Solar System between Earth and the Sun has received only limited attention. Possible locations of interest include the surfaces and sub-surfaces of Mercury and Venus and the inner heliosphere. The environments of these locations are sufficiently challenging as to preclude the possibility of physical human presence at them for the foreseeable future. Consequently, robot-mediated exploration will be required.
This paper will present the results of a project conducted by an independent team of graduate students and young professionals at the 2005 summer session of the International Space University in Vancouver, Canada, with the aims of:
beginitemize item Examining possible locations within the inner Solar System (i.e. within Earth’s orbit), characterizing their respective environments, evaluating their exploration interest and assessing the scope for both human and robotic exploration of them.
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beginitemize item Conducting a review of the current status and future plans and ideas for robot-mediated exploration of the inner Solar System, including extreme environments on and in Earth, where exotic life forms have been or may be discovered and assessing the prospect of finding evidence of past or present life-related processes at Venus, Mercury, or near-Earth asteroids.
enditemize
beginitemize item Investigating current and future space exploration technology and robotics, including robot-borne remote sensing and information management and assessing technology readiness levels for the different elements and their likely developments.
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beginitemize item Investigating current and future developments in machine intelligence, human-computer interaction, artificial life and assessing the implications of same for the project.
enditemize
beginitemize item Selecting an epoch for the missions to be considered and defining both the baseline capabilities existing at that time and one or more candidate space missions.
enditemize
- Abstract document