Image of Mars via NASA / JPL-CALTECH
Yesterday marked the end of the Perseverance rover’s 300m mile journey to Mars and the start of a 687-day mission to find aliens better understand whether the planet would make for a nice place to live.
Costs for development and operation of the rover will likely total $2.4B…
Since the 1960s, NASA’s Mars programs have led to countless innovations, including materials for heart surgeries, methane-leak detectors, and — importantly — carbonating beer.
With Perseverance, it’s no different:
For Perseverance, Maxar Technologies built a robotic arm to scoop samples, Northrop Grumman built navigational sensors, and drone company AeroVironment helped build the rover’s onboard helicopter.
Just this week, Axiom Space raised $130m to build the first commercial space station, while SpaceX raised $850m to fund future missions.
As space travel and exploration have become more popular, other companies have specialized in building anything from wrenches for astronauts to zero-gravity espresso machines for the ISS.
Known as the space-for-earth economy, goods and services sent to space for use on Earth — including for telecommunications, Earth observation, and national security — made up 95% of the $366B in 2019 space sector revenues.
But as costs decrease and successful missions attract new entrants, expect both the space-for-earth and space-for-space economies to scale up.
For now, the Perseverance rover’s clearest immediate impact on Earth is, without a doubt, limited edition Krispy Kreme Mars doughnuts.