Effects of commercialisation in the European space sector

Space activities are evolving from publicly financed to commercial undertakings. In 2000, the 50% mark was reached in Europe and this figure shows a steadily increasing tendency. Reduced public funding and increased technical maturity in space technologies have been the major forces driving this commercialisation process. European industry has adapted itself to this new environment with a number of mergers over the last decade. Strategic alliances represent the second, current phase in this process in order to cope with the challenges of the global space sectors. Besides national space legislation, new regulatory frameworks, initiated by the European commission and the WTO, as well as an increasingly internationally oriented workforce will accelerate this commercialisation process.     

Space technology transfer: Spin-off cases from Japan

Government organizations have to justify high expenditure during periods of financial crisis such as the one we are experiencing today. Space agencies have attempted to increase the returns on their investments in space missions by encouraging the commercial use of advanced technologies. This paper describes two technology transfer (TT) cases promoted by JAXA, in order to identify the organizational models and determinants of TT. The development of a TT process from space to Earth not only benefits the aerospace industry but also the network of national companies. The aim of the paper is to investigate who the actors are and the nature of their role, as well as the determinants of the TT process in the Japanese space sector. The case studies confirm the typical path of transfer as ‘Earth–space–Earth’.     

Innovation and change? The evolution of Europe's small satellite manufacturers

Since the 1980s a trend has emerged to contain the cost of space missions, which has favored trials in the construction and launch of small satellites. This effort has considerably reduced the cost of the satellites because the construction process uses both traditional components and important technological innovations. There have also been market openings for small satellites, both within the telecommunication sector and for scientific missions and those related to Earth observation. This paper contains the results of a survey of the largest manufacturers of small satellites in Europe and investigates how far (if at all) they have changed the structure of the European space industry. It finds that, through the acquisition of small satellite manufacturers, traditional large companies operating in the field of space in Europe have secured for themselves important technological innovations and market opportunities, while maintaining their oligopolistic position.     

Space as a strategic vision for Turkey and its people

Turkey entered the 21st century making increasing efforts towards rapid economic and technological development, social change and renewal of its infrastructure. Naturally this process places a heavy load on the current system and it affects every section of society at various rates. Turkey must get involved in new areas in order to continue its development progress by minimizing such effects. One of these new areas is space, which has become an important tool for protecting and improving civilization and is a strategic expression of Turkey's future. This article outlines Turkey's potential in space activities, considers the current situation of space activities in the country and shows their evolution over 20 years with a view to identifying promising developments. Turkey is actively determining the necessary policies to allow future generations to compete in the international arena in the long term. But Turkey must also clarify what sort of space organization model it wants to pursue.     

New business opportunities in space

Outside the big space industry conglomerates, there are a number of much smaller firms, often with great specialist expertise, in existence. A concentration of such companies is found around the aerospace centre of Bristol in Southwest England; these companies are seeking to expand the UK space business and explore new opportunities, not only in traditional fields but also in up-and-coming areas such as exploration and space tourism. To this end their forum held a one-day conference in Exeter. One of their members reports on the proceedings.     

Strategies and determinants for successful space technology transfer

The following paper reports the results of a research work carried from 2008 on the topic of strategies and determinants of space technology Transfer (TT). In particular, the aim of this study is to present: 1. The policies and strategies the major space agencies adopt for TT, 2. The operational mechanisms and determinants involved in the transfer of space technologies to other industrial sectors. To this extent we have conducted in the last five years: six case studies of large space agencies, four TT case studies concerning the construction of scientific satellites, two case studies focused on space to earth TT programs undertaken by the Japanese aerospace agency, and two TT case studies examining Italian space companies.The comparative and comprehensive analyses of these studies indicate that the space agencies of the more industrialized countries aim primarily at consolidating and developing the industrial systems in their own countries, which include the use of technology transfer programs, and that the transfer of space technologies follows the route “Earth–Space–Earth”. With regard to the determinants of the TT process, the most important of these correlate with the type of technology in transfer, whereas organizational, economic and financial determinants have less significance.     

China''s space policy: review and prospects

This article reviews the current status of the Chinese space programme, covering its military origins, launchers, applications satellites, manned spaceflight and exploration. It examines the growing commercialization of China's space activities and how far this is likely to be successful, especially in the light of MTCR constraints and other legal regulations. It is nonetheless concluded that commercialization, along with joint ventures with foreign companies, has been crucial to the development of China's space programme. However, the country still lacks the resources to become a first-rank space power.     

From suborbital space tourism to commercial personal spaceflight

Excellent essays have been recently published on the profitability and the future of space tourism. This paper is intended to supplement the considerations in this field and emphasizes the further potential evolution of commercial personal spaceflights. Indeed, based upon work done at the International Space University (ISU) the oligopolistic character of suborbital space tourism has been linked to marketing and product life cycle (PLC) considerations and has led to the thesis that space tourism as a profitable sector will require a follow-on strategy. Orbital space tourism, on one hand, could become an extension of the PLC but, on the other hand, it is assumed that point-to-point (P2P) commercial space transport will become the long term sustainable market. Without ignoring technical challenges, this paper will mainly concentrate on marketing and commercial aspects of personal spaceflight.     

宇航微波开关研究现状及发展趋势

宇航微波开关大量应用于各类通信卫星中，是卫星有效载荷的基本组成单机之一，其主要功能是备份高失效率的微波通道单机，或作为路由器实现微波通道信号切换。国内外多家宇航公司对微波开关开展了多年的研究。在设计方面，微波开关涉及的学科领域包括高频电磁学、低频电磁学、力学和热学；在生产工艺方面，微波开关涉及高精密机械加工、热处理、表面处理以及精密装配，这是一种多学科交叉的空间高精密电子产品。主要对宇航微波开关国内外的研究现状、典型产品、技术方案和产品性能等方面进行了重点介绍，同时对微波开关中的关键技术进行了仿真分析，最后总结与分析了微波开关的发展趋势。     

Contemporary Czech space policy and its future prospects

Czechoslovakia was the third nation to have a citizen in space when Vladimir Remek flew in 1978. It was present at the formulation of international space law principles and ran some space-related projects within Intercosmos. The Czech Republic reassumed this tradition after Czechoslovakia was dissolved in 1993. There are no special funds to support space R&D. Hence, participants must compete for R&D resources with companies from other areas of industry. This improves their competitiveness. Czech society is broadly interested in space-related activities. The graduate system structure reflects this. Not only can one study space-related courses at technical universities but international space law is an obligatory part of international public law courses in the Czech Republic. Strong support for space activities is mirrored in the institutional fragmentation of this sphere. Competences in space applications are distributed among some 20 institutions and organizations. This status harms the Czech potential in space activities and R&D. The Czech Republic became a member of ESA in 2008 but Czech companies have not taken advantage of the full potential of membership. Participation in international projects is very important for a small post-communist economy because economic growth is based on convergence towards developed countries, which may dissipate after 2020. Now is the right time to strengthen the primary research that will establish a strong foundation for innovation-based economic growth.     

一种应用于空间碎片演化模型的碰撞概率算法

针对碰撞概率算法Cube模型参数影响空间碎片演化模型的仿真结果问题进行了深入分析与研究，并将原Cube算法进行改进，由此提出I-Cube模型。经过多次蒙特卡洛仿真结果验证，I-Cube模型对演化过程中空间碎片碰撞概率的计算更为准确合理，空间碎片长期演化模型的结果不再依赖于自身碰撞概率算法的相关参数，提高了空间碎片长期演化模型的稳定性与可信度。     

刍议上市公司会计政策选择与会计信息披露

随着会计政策选择的空间不断增大，会计政策选择出现的问题越来越多。如何规范上市公司会计政策的选择，提高上市公司的信息披露质量成为人们探讨的一个重要内容。本文从我国上市公司会计政策选择的现状人手，进一步分析会计政策选择对信息披露的影响，对于促进上市公司合理选择会计政策、维护资本市场的健康运转有一定的借鉴意义。     

On the contribution of space medicine in the public health care

With the beginning of space era, a new branch of medicine has arisen and has been developing along with human exploration of outer space. And even though space medicine mainly faces the same problems as traditional medicine--cosmonauts health care and their high efficiency--this branch, has its own features, associated with the unusual factors of space flight, of which weightlessness is the major one. During the development of manned cosmonautics (duration of a human stay in space has reached already 438 days), methods of cosmonauts medical support and monitoring of their condition have been developed, knowledge of human possibilities and methods of process of organism adaptation to various and frequently severe conditions of external environment have increased. All this led to the fact that nowadays space medicine can become useful for improvement of human health care not only in space but also on the Earth. Moreover, the problem of implementation of cosmonautics achievements, and in particular of space medicine, in practice of public health care presents one of the most important issues concerning human health care. It is also connected with public opinion which is more and more concerned about the efficiency of significant expenses on space activities, especially lately. People often are set by the questions: what has space given, what fruits has space research provided to mankind, which results of this research can be used on the Earth already today for improvement of their life, for discussion of many difficult earthly problems? In terms of using cosmonautics possibilities, its achievements for health care and treatment, it is possible to define a few branches, in which purposeful studies are carried out.     

Continuum Model for Space Debris Evolution with Account of Collisions and Orbital Breakups

The paper discusses the mathematical modeling of long-term orbital debris evolution taking into account mutual collisions of space debris particles of different sizes. Investigations and long-term forecasts of orbital debris environment evolution in low Earth orbits are essential for future space mission hazard evaluation and for adopting rational space policies and mitigation measures. The paper introduces a new approach to space debris evolution mathematical modeling based on continuum mechanics incorporating partial differential equations. This is an alternative to the traditional approaches of celestial mechanics incorporating ordinary differential equations to model fragments evolution. The continuum approach to orbital debris evolution modeling has essential advantages for describing the evolution of a large number of particles, because it replaces the traditional tracking of space objects by modeling the evolution of their density of distribution.     

A brief history of Baikonur

The Baikonur launch site was the world's first and remains its most important in terms of the historic missions that have taken off from it. This article describes the background to the construction of Baikonur, the steps taken to keep it secret from the West, and its chief facilities. It enumerates the major space missions that took place there, as well as acknowledging its failures, e.g. the lunar programmes, before speculating on its future. An increasing emphasis on commercial launches seems likely.     

The export of space technology : Prospects and dangers

The export market for space technology, goods and services is still in its infancy, but trends indicate definite economic growth in prospect. Private companies are increasingly keen to find a foothold or increase their share in the ever widening market. National goverments are undertaking a variety of measures to help and encourage them in the export of space technology. Competition for the older US producers is sharpening from foreign firms. Political conflict is arising based on this competition and on the potential dual use of some space technologies for civilian and military purposes. The main Western industrialized countries have recently agreed on common Guidelines to control the export of launcher technology that could be used for delivering nuclear weapons. The ‘Guidelines for Sensitive Missile-Relevant Transfer’ will affect the export of much space technology and equipment.     

Russian space commercialization - getting the banks involved

While the world market for space goods and services has grown enormously and continues to do so, Russia's meagre share of it is out of all proportion to its technological and intellectual base. This was initially the fault of its rigid political system, which has made it hard for companies to adapt to a market economy. This viewpoint argues that Russia's banks, which have played a major role in the country's economic reforms, should be encouraged to invest in its space industry. In particular they could finance the ‘space education’ of the business community and fund surveys and feasibility studies. In the long term this could generate large profits and would improve their standing in the world. Ultimately they might join specialist international bank associations set up to finance cooperative ventures.     

Russia's place in space: a home view

This paper analyses Russia's view of its involvement in international space cooperation and the Western concerns associated with this. In the current economic and political situation the Russian administration and space industry are eager to take part in all kinds of international space activity, which is seen as an opportunity to sustain the country's scientific and technological potential. Russia claims a fair share in both commercial space operations and joint space development programmes, appropriate to its capabilities as the world's number two space power. Western concerns about Russian interference in its policy and the problems involved in dealing with Russia should be solvable and are less dangerous than reverting to a situation of confrontation.     

Informed consent v. ITAR: Regulatory conflicts that could constrain commercial human space flight

The Human Space Flight Requirements (promulgated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) seek to protect the fledgling commercial space flight industry by shifting risk from the operator to the space flight participants. However, in order to do this effectively the regulations require a great deal of information to be given to the participants. The information required might be extensive enough that it could be considered “technical data” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. If this is the case then commercial spaceflight companies will have to get export licenses for non-U.S. participants on their flights which could cause additional costs as well as other problems.     

The United States, the only space superpower

The US space program has emerged from a difficult period of budget cuts and uncertainty about its goals leaner, fitter and much more focused. This contrasts with the world's other major spacefaring countries, which find themselves either the victim of severe economic circumstances (Russia), politically floundering (Europe) or no longer certain of their priorities (Japan). The author briefly appraises each major programme before analysing the current US success. He warns that leadership must not be squandered as it was in some fields after Apollo.