Beyond the earth
I chose space as the inaugural theme for our series of mood board deep dive sessions, serving as a humble reminder of the vast universe that dwarfs our existence. This mood board is a co-creation with Lanny, another long time space enthusiast and fellow space investor.
Occupying a rim of the Milky Way and propagating on an inconspicuous planet in the vast universe, we humans have long been thirsting to grasp and comprehend the unknown, regardless of the epoch or the race. Space, an infinite and mysterious expanse, hosts everything from galaxies to the smallest particles of matter, encapsulating phenomena that range from the flow of energy to the passage of time.
The pursuit of space exploration offers fresh perspectives on the human species' connection with the cosmos, informing our future direction and potential for evolution. It embodies our perpetual quest for identity, existence, and the essence of reality. With advancements in materials and manufacturing technologies, the journey of exploration has become increasingly accessible to the private sector.
This mood board intends to break down the complex space exploration and pinpoint viable opportunities for entrepreneurial innovators. This creation marks our initial step towards demystifying this vast and complex field, concentrating on prospects that hold promise for commercialization, given our constraints on time and resources.
Mood Board
Less Input, More Output
To put our investment thesis in the simplest words, we believe in the value of space-tech ventures that minimize inputs while maximizing outputs through technological innovation, balancing efficiency and utility, and fueling needs and providing insights with the least power and costs.
Explanatory notes
Three Stages of Space Exploration
After a deep thorough research and analysis, we extracted three interconnected and progressing stages of space exploration in the commercial landscape — from Space for Earth to Space in Space to Space for Space.
Space for Earth: The primary purpose of this stage is to unlock the economic potential of space to enhance our lives and human condition on Earth. It involves the development of good and services produced in space or leveraging spaces’ unique benefits in service for end users on Earth. For instance, using satellite captured Earth image and data to monitor farm lands for the agriculture industry or companies. This stage underlines the Earth-to-Space and Space-to-Earth methodology, resource and information flow, and pioneering space’s unique benefits to Earth.
Space in Space: While building the present at Space for Earth stage, we aim to facilitate the future to the final Space-for-Space stage, which requires the indispensable transition supported and expedited by this Space-in-Space process. This stage strives to enhance the enablement and capabilities of the connectivity and transition between 1st and 3rd stages, from an Earth-centric economy to a space-based economy. It focuses on developing goods and services to accelerate the advent of a self-sustaining space economy, such as transportation tools to take human or other cargo into space.
Space for Space: We believe that this stage will be the long-term future of our entire species. It aims at establishing foundations and infrastructure in space for sustainability in continued space exploration and continuity of the human kind. It involves producing goods and services in space and for space’s use, such as in-space communications through Moon-based telecom infrastructure, unlocking human species’ potential to reside beyond the Earth. However, the coming of this final stage is built upon the continuous development and thrive of the first two stages.
Less Input More Output’s Application on the Three Stages of Space Exploration
Poking into the commercial space-tech implications of building the present and facilitating the future, we broke down the current value chain of space-tech into three consecutive layers —— from Manufacturing the Foundation to Operating the Process to Servicing the Earth and Space.
Manufacturing the Foundation: The foundation of space-tech does not differentiate much from an industrial manufacturing industry. Innovations on materials, energy sources, and the manufacturing that integrates these two components constitutes the backbone of space-tech. Engineering natural resources such as carbon fiber, titanium into operational satellite parts, processing chemical elements into rocket fuels are both examples of this layer. Technological innovation is key at this stage —— to fabricate new materials or energy sources or engineering methodologies that can maximize the functionality of outputs while minimizing complications or human power.
Operating the Process: Leveraging the foundation, the operation of space-related missions generally follow a sequential order from launch to in-space operations to task carry-out to wrapping up the tasks.
During the launch phase, transportation tools such as rockets and spacecrafts carry human, resources, cargo, and equipments into space in preparation for further tasks.
Transitioning to the next phase, in-orbit or to-orbit operations, such as last-mile tug in, route and direction control, debris or risk avoidance, are handled by ground and space operations.
Following on that, tasks specific to the end-purpose, such as data collecting, image capturing, resources mining and storing, space people servicing, are carried out to fulfill the space missions.
At last, completing or finishing the tasks often require returning the human or tasks-generated cargo back to Earth, or de-missioning and re-orbiting the used equipments and satellites.
Efficiency and utility are of crucial importance to achieving the best or most results for these space-related tasks with the least sufficient enough operational resources or power.
Servicing the Earth and Space: In the Space-for-Earth stage, we see several specific applications derived from the space-related tasks that will meet particular end’s needs.
Providing Earth or space information through images, data, signals or other forms
Providing resources such as space materials, solar energy
Connecting human-and-human or human-and-Earth through telecommunications or GPS
Monitoring geospatial environment, weather and climate, military and defense
The criticality here is to maximize the satisfaction of needs or derivation of insights with precision while minimizing the manpower and costs.
There will be more application scenarios to be tapped into for the Space-for-Space stage once the foundation is firm with a solid flow of transition.
Hypothesis
Combing the above analysis, three categories of opportunities got us excited:
Innovations in materials and hardware that could significantly reduce manufacturing costs and enhance launch efficiency
Innovations in software and business models aimed at improving the compatibility and efficiency of space operations
Development of space data infrastructure and its applications
Ongoing Questions
The current framework draws inspiration from the existing space operation process. Whether there are any uncovered approach or innovation opportunities that are outside of our framework?
What are the intrinsic motivations and opportunities for space exploration in relation to economic activities?
How might changes in the global landscape influence our thesis development and the broader context of space exploration?
What potential exists for innovations arising from cross-industry technology collaborations to impact space exploration?
Space exploration presents a complex yet thrilling frontier for innovators, requiring a multidisciplinary approach to navigate its evolving landscape. As venture investors, we are eager to engage as thought partners, delving into the subtleties of this domain and supporting the development of groundbreaking ideas for future possibilities of humanity.
When we find ourselves entangled in chaos, let's cast our gaze beyond Earth, for new inspirations may await us among the stars.