/themes/custom/particle/dist/app-drupal/assets/awn-logo.svg
Skip to main content
  • Market Sector
    • Aerospace
    • Air Transport
    • MRO
    • Defense and Space
    • Business Aviation
  • Markets
    • Aerospace
      • Aircraft & Propulsion
      • Connected Aerospace
      • Emerging Technologies
      • Manufacturing & Supply Chain
      • Unmanned & Urban Aviation
      • Commercial Space
      • Program Management
    • Air Transport
      • Aircraft & Propulsion
      • Interiors & Connectivity
      • Airports & Routes
      • Airlines & Lessors
      • Safety, Ops & Regulation
      • Maintenance & Training
    • MRO
      • Aircraft & Propulsion
      • Interiors & Connectivity
      • Emerging Technologies
      • Supply Chain
      • Safety, Ops & Regulation
      • Workforce & Training
    • Defense and Space
      • Aircraft & Propulsion
      • Sensors & Electronic Warfare
      • Missile Defense & Weapons
      • Supply Chain
      • Budget, Policy & Operations
      • Space
    • Business Aviation
      • Aircraft & Propulsion
      • Interiors & Connectivity
      • Airports, FBOs & Suppliers
      • Flight Deck
      • Safety, Ops & Regulation
      • Maintenance & Training
  • Products
    • Market Sector

      • Aerospace
      • Air Transport
      • MRO
      • Defense and Space
      • Business Aviation
    • Type View All Products
      • Intelligence Bundles
        • AWIN - Premium
        • AWIN - Aerospace and Defense
        • AWIN - Business Aviation
        • AWIN - Commercial Aviation
      • Market Briefings
        • Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
        • Aviation Daily
        • SpeedNews
        • The Weekly of Business Aviation
      • Directories
        • Air Charter Guide
        • Aviation Week Marketplace
        • Route Exchange
        • The Engine Yearbook
      • Data Services
        • AC-U-KWIK
        • Aircraft Bluebook
        • Airportdata.com
        • Airport Strategy and Marketing (ASM)
        • CAPA – Centre for Aviation
        • Fleet Discovery Civil
        • Fleet Discovery Military
        • Fleet & MRO Forecast
        • MRO Prospector
      • Publications
        • Air Transport World
        • Aviation Week & Space Technology
        • Aviation Week & Space Technology - Inside MRO
        • Business & Commercial Aviation
        • CAPA - Airline Leader
        • Routes magazine
        • ShowNews
      • Resources
        • Downloadable Reports
  • Services
    • Services
      • Advertising
      • Marketing Services
      • Fleet, Data & APIs
      • Research & Consulting
      • Network and Route Planning
      • Marketplace
  • Events
    • Events View All Events
      • MRO
        • MRO Americas
        • MRO Asia
        • MRO Baltics, Eastern Europe and Russia (BEER)
        • MRO Europe
        • MRO Latin America
        • MRO Middle East
        • MRO Transatlantic
        • Military Aviation Logistics and Maintenance Symposium (MALMS)
      • Commercial Aviation
        • Aero-Engines Americas
        • Aero-Engines Asia
        • Aero-Engines Europe
        • Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference (ASC)
        • Commercial Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference - Europe (ACE)
        • Engine Leasing, Trading & Finance
      • Aerospace and Defense
        • A&D Mergers and Acquisitions Conference (ADMA)
        • Aerospace Manufacturing Conference (AMC)
        • Aerospace Raw Materials & Manufacturers Supply Chain Conference (RMC)
        • DefenseChain Conference (DCPE)
      • Air Transport
        • CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit
        • CAPA Latin America Aviation & LCCs Summit
        • CAPA Live
        • Routes Americas 2021
        • Routes Asia 2021
        • Routes Europe 2021
        • Routes Reconnected
        • TakeOff North America 2020
        • World Aviation Outlook Summit 2020
        • World Routes 2021
      • Business Aviation
        • Business Aviation Week 2020
        • Business & General Aviation Conference (BGA)
      • Awards
        • 20 Twenties
        • Aviation Week Laureates Awards
        • Program Excellence Awards and Banquet
    • Webinars
      • Upcoming Webinars
  • About
    • About Aviation Week Network
      • Our Story
      • Content and Data Team
      • Aviation Week & Space Technology 100-Year
    • Contact Us
      • Subscriber Services
      • Advertising, Marketing Services & List Rentals
      • Content Sales
      • Events
      • PR & Communications
      • Content Licensing and Reprints
      • FAQ
  • Log In
  • Register
  • My Account
    • Profile
    • Sign Out
  • AWIN Access
  • My cart
  1. Back to Defense and Space

Share

Space Technologies To Watch

Graham Warwick
Commercial Lunar Landers

Commercial Lunar Landers

Astrobotics

The first two landers under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative—Astrobotics’ Peregrine (pictured in concept image) and Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C—are scheduled to touch down on the Moon’s surface in 2021. NASA has 14 companies on contract to deliver science experiments and technology demonstrations to prepare for human lunar missions beginning in 2024.

Space Nuclear Power

Space Nuclear Power

USNC Tech

With renewed NASA interest in nuclear propulsion for faster deep-space missions, Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies has proposed a nuclear-thermal propulsion flight demonstration using a safe fuel made from particles of high-assay low-enriched uranium encapsulated in zirconium-carbide ceramic. Specific impulse is more than twice that of chemical rockets.

Orbital Debris Mitigation

Orbital Debris Mitigation

Astroscale

With proliferating megaconstellations and increasing surveillance fueling concerns about collisions creating orbital debris and endangering satellites, Astroscale will launch its ELSA-d end-of-life services demonstration mission in March 2021. The servicer and client satellites plan to demonstrate capture techniques needed to remove defunct objects from orbit.

Cryogenic Fluid Management

Cryogenic Fluid Management

Lockheed Martin

NASA in October 2020 awarded four contracts totaling $256 million for in-space demonstrations of technologies for long-term storage and transfer of high-energy cryogenic propellants—whether launched from Earth or produced in space—essential for establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon and enabling crewed missions to Mars.

Reconfigurable Satellites

Reconfigurable Satellites

CesiumAstro

Hypergiant Industries is working with the U.S. Air Force to field a low-Earth-orbit constellation that can be retasked between imaging and communications within minutes, enabled by machine learning. CesiumAstro in 2021 will launch a cubesat with an active, phased-array antenna and software-defined radio able to produce steerable, shapable beams dynamically.

Orbital Transfer Vehicle

Orbital Transfer Vehicle

Momentus

Ride-sharing reduces the cost of launching constellations but exacerbates the challenge of deploying satellites with limited maneuverability to reach their correct orbits. This is creating a market for orbital transportation services such as Momentus’ Vigoride. A demonstration mission is planned for January 2021, with a robotic arm to be added in 2022 to grab and move a satellite.

3D printing

In-Space Manufacturing

Redwire

With the 2020 milestone of 3D printing of a ceramic component in orbit, manufacturing in space is advancing to support sustained operations on the Moon. Redwire subsidiary Made in Space produced the ceramic turbine blisk on the International Space Station. It plans a mission in 2022 to manufacture spacecraft booms in orbit as a step toward in-space resource utilization.

Internet of Things Satellites

Internet of Things Satellites

Swarm Technologies

Nanosatellite constellations for low-cost global Internet of Things connectivity are growing, but the satellites are shrinking. Swarm Technologies in September 2020 launched 12 of its hardback-book-sized SpaceBee nanosats, beginning deployment of a 150-satellite constellation to provide global two-way data communications at $5 a month per connected device.

Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing

Relativity Space

Relativity Space’s goal of additively manufacturing almost entire launch vehicles took a step forward with a full-duration firing of its Aeon 1 rocket engine in November. The firing has kept the startup on a path to test-fly its Terran 1 smallsat launcher in 2021, ahead of commercial service in 2022 at $12 million a flight.

Previous
Next

A dramatic shift toward commercial space missions, including those supporting the return of humans to the Moon, is fueling a flood of new technologies entering the market

Graham Warwick

Graham leads Aviation Week's coverage of technology, focusing on engineering and technology across the aerospace industry, with a special focus on identifying technologies of strategic importance to aviation, aerospace and defense.

Aviation Week Intelligence Network
Monitor the market and connect your business to the people, programs and proprietary data driving the Aerospace & Defense market - only available with AWIN.

ASD_AWIN_thumbnail_270

Stay Connected.
Stay Informed
Grow Your Business.

Learn How
Aviation Week & Space Technology
Award-winning analysis of the emerging trends, programs and technology propelling the global aerospace and defense industry forward.
Subscriber benefits include:
 
Current Analysis by Article
 
View Entire Print Issue
  

awst

 

Subscribe

Follow us on

Markets

  • Aerospace
  • Air Transport
  • MRO
  • Defense and Space
  • Business Aviation

Products

  • AWIN Intelligence Bundles
  • Market Briefings
  • Publications
  • Data Services
  • Directories
  • Resources

Contact Us

  • Subscriber Services
  • Advertising, Marketing Services & List Rentals
  • Content Sales
  • Events
  • PR & Communications
  • Content Licensing and Reprints
  • FAQ

Other Resources

  • Aviation Week Marketplace
  • Knowledge Center
  • Newsletters
  • ShowNews
Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Informa Markets, a trading division of Informa PLC.
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use