Getting involved in space without being a rocket scientist
I’m a rocket scientist - I did an aerospace engineering degree at the University of New South Wales, did some research work there in space propulsion tech (solar sails, they’re cool!), and I founded my own space company Spiral Blue, which I’ve taken through the 2018/19 Catalysr program.
I’m doing this for two reasons. The first is that I grew up in an environmentalist household, and have always been concerned about people using up all of Earth’s resources. While a teenager, I realised that if we wanted to avoid a future of rationing and stagnation, we had to expand into space. Funnily enough, Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder and richest man on Earth) came to the same realisation a little earlier than I did (and explained it really well here), which is why he’s spending billions on his rocket company Blue Origin.
As you might have guessed, the second reason I’m doing what I do is because space is cool.
Of course, we can’t work on expanding human civilisation into space just yet -the technology and economics needs a bit more work. This is why people like me are working to develop these technologies and finding ways to commercialise these technologies by benefiting people here on Earth. For example, the space technologies we’re developing at Spiral Blue have the potential to improve water quality monitoring for agriculture, aquaculture, and environmental protection. Not exactly what you’d expect of a space company right?
But here’s the problem. Plenty of people generally agree that we need to work on expanding human civilisation into space. But not everyone can be a rocket scientist, and not everyone has a few billion dollars lying around to hire an army of rocket scientists. If this is you, then you’ve probably given up on involving yourself in the space industry.
Thankfully, there is a really great way to get involved in space that might allow you to have a far greater positive impact than your average rocket scientist. In fact, not being a rocket scientist is probably better for this.
Here’s my suggestion: Be an early adopter of space technologies.
This might include earth observation, communications, or navigation/tracking. These technologies touch virtually every sector, including agriculture, financial services, construction, and mining.
For example, if you’re a fisherman, do you have a subscription to marinetraffic.com? Marinetraffic.com displays location data of ships and boats, thereby helping vessels plot safe routes. They do this by picking up ship radio beacons, specifically the Automatic Identification System (AIS). AIS beacons of ships near ports can be picked up antenna at ports, but once they’re over the horizon, it’s up to satellites to pick up these beacons. Companies like Spire operate satellites that are capable of picking up vessel location and status from AIS beacons and sending it back to ship tracking services like marinetraffic.com.
So in essence, a marinetraffic.com subscriber is indirectly supporting one or more satellite companies like Spire! And because satellites need rockets to get to orbit, this means a marinetraffic.com subscriber is supporting rocket companies too.
Now this is just one example of a quick and easy way for anyone to support the space industry. There are many more examples that I’m aware of, and you might be able to think of something yourself that I might not have thought of. Please feel free to reach out to me if this interests you.
In favour of brevity, I’ll leave you with just one more recommendation: Join a community! I run a meetup group myself, called OrbitOz, where we routinely discuss similar topics through our monthly events. We’d love to have you join the conversation.
And of course, if in this process you have any startup ideas related to space, don’t hesitate to reach out to Usman Iftikhar at Catalysr. He’s just as much of a space nut as I am!
*Taofiq was part of the 2018 Catalysr program. If you are a migrant entrepreneur with an idea for a startup, apply to Catalysr today at www.catalysr.com.au. Applications close July 1st.
