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EmTech Singapore: Space, the next frontier

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - on 28 Jan 2015, 3:08pm

EmTech Singapore: Space, the next frontier

The panel discussion yielded some interesting questions, like what criteria does Virgin Galactic use to screen its clients.

"Space. The final frontier." said Sir Patrick Stewart (or rather Captain Jean-Luc Picard) in the intro of Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series. After all, barring the deep sea and underground, there is practically nowhere on Earth that mankind hasn't explored yet. Like it or not, we're heading for the stars next. Despite the setbacks faced (today is actually the anniversary of the Challenger disaster) in the past, companies and nations are more enthusiastic than ever about the prospect of stellar exploration and tourism.

At Emtech Singapore (organized by Koelnmesse) earlier today, space (its exploration and satellites) was the main topic on the agenda. Wanting to go to space has never been the problem (we'd jump at the chance if asked), it's the financial cost. Current technology is too crude and impractical for all but the very wealthy to enjoy space. Virgin Galactic (one of the companies at event) wants to make space tourism cost less. It's still going to cost millions (about 45 million per person is the current estimate) but it's about half of what it originally cost to send the original astronauts into orbit.

That's the number Virgin Galactic gave of the total number of people that's been in space. The company already has more than that lined up for their space flights.

Virgin Galactic is thinking big. They're not only banking on space tourism being a big thing, they have gone all in, betting a whole lot of resources into constructing their very own space port. It looks nothing like the Mos Eisley spaceport from Star Wars (no alien gangsters or smugglers...yet?) but at least it's set in the desert, the New Mexico desert to be exact.

Not exactly what you were expecting when we said space port, is it? Expected or not, that's what Virgin Galactic's space port looks like now.

Still Virgin Galactic isn't offering true space flight, at least not fully. You do break free from the bonds of gravity but Virgin Atlantic's space flights will only skim the edges of space before gliding back down to Earth. It's a start, right?

Speaking of Earth, Planet Labs (another company present at the event) gave a talk about their satellite mapping service. Planet Labs might be an unknown entity for now, but we bet that they'll be making headlines soon enough with their tech which should give Google Maps (and other similar services) a run for their money.

This is what normal mapping services offer.

This is an image from Planet Labs' satellites. Notice the difference from the previous image?

Planet Labs wants to revolutionize how we view maps by having a chain of satellites in orbit that covers every inch of the globe, snaping a picture of their coverage area every single day. This might seem trivial but think of how useful it could be in emergencies. Disaster relief efforts can be easily coordinated with accurate information of the area (such as how it looked like a day or two before). Don't forget about the military uses too. Remember when Saddam moved around his SCUD missiles during the original Gulf War? With constant mapping (real time mapping is something Planet Labs is working on), hiding stuff by moving them won't be an option.

Singapore's Kay Soon Low from the Nanyang Technological University on stage.

One interesting tidbit we got from the event is that Singapore's uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new desire to get into space. During the panel discussion, the speakers talked about how being an industrial nation has helped Singapore in the past and because of that, it can readily provide the hardware and support needed for space endeavors and satellite hardware. Perhaps one day there might even be a spacecraft manufactured locally? Whatever the case, it might not be such a bad idea to brush up on the stellar cartography and get the kids to enter a field related to space. That's the future it seems.

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