What benefits do space technologies bring to the earth?

Mankind has long benefited tremendouslyfrom space technology, especially in the field of communications, navigation, observation of the atmosphere and subsoil. However, their further development can bring us much more benefit.

Positive impact today

Over the past 60 years,more than 8,100 satellites, 135 vehicles sent to the Moon and the ISS built. Each of these projects costs millions of dollars, but ultimately the benefits far outweigh the costs. Even if you don’t take into account that over the past year satelliteindustry earned $ 277 billion in revenue; space technology has become a critical element of our daily lives, affecting governments, industry, and personal decision making.

Accurate weather forecasting withorbital systems save thousands of lives every year, warning people about natural disasters. Earth monitoring provides us with useful information necessary for efficient agriculture, fisheries and forestry management, and monitoring harmful activities and pollution.

Space communications capabilities have a positive effecton almost all aspects of human civilization. Satellite technology has already revolutionized banking, finance, telecommunications, making international calls, video streams, multimedia and radio commonplace.

Global navigation systems that maydetermine the location with an accuracy of several centimeters anywhere in the world, affect logistics, military operations, electrical networks, industry and many other areas.

In addition to commercial satellite services, itselfthe space industry is in the process of moving beyond the limited state budgets, opening up new economic opportunities, not only for those who work directly in this sector, but also for many related companies.

In addition to the economy, new discoveries and achievements in this area inspire young people, which stimulates the development of science, technology and art.

Joint space projects between countries are sometimes the only positive force opposing mutual suspicion and geopolitical rivalry. The ISS is a prime example.

There are currently over 2000 examples.space technologies that have found useful applications on Earth, including battery powered power tools, lyophilized food products, integrated circuits, lightweight isolation, advanced kidney dialysis, and automatic transactions.

Prospects for the next 5-20 years

Constellations of communications satellites that planlaunch into low orbit will benefit end users of business services in various sectors of the economy. SpaceX, OneWeb, Telesat, Amazon and Samsung have already announced plans to create such projects. 

Researchers on the ISS and some private companiesbegin to develop orbital production projects. They provide for the creation of products that are more profitable to produce in microgravity than on Earth. These include ZBLAN fiber optic material, bioprinting, industrial crystallization, super alloy casting and ceramic stereolithography.

The first supersonic air transport appearedin the 1970s, but recently several companies have begun to explore the technologies of hypersonic aircraft and suborbital flights, which will make it possible to reach any point on Earth in less than an hour. This area of ​​​​development includes space tourism and comfortable orbital hotels.

With increasing knowledge about the space environment, humanityrealized that asteroids that could cause great harm would hit the planet's surface from time to time. An early warning system is the first step, but technology to deflect them is now beginning to be developed.

In open space there is no sunlightfiltered by the earth's atmosphere, there is also no change of day and night, so orbital power plants will be able to operate around the clock. The collected energy will then be transmitted in the form of microwave or laser beams to ground-based receivers, which convert it into electricity. China has already announced the development of such a system.

Many researchers discuss prospectstransferring data centers into space. In addition to saving on cooling (vacuum can be used as a heat insulator), they can be powered by solar panels around the clock, and hard drives work better in microgravity.

Economists predict space miningwill soon become the new gold rush and create the first trillionaires. The extracted water can be used as fuel, and valuable minerals and elements for orbital construction and production. At the same time, mining methods will differ from terrestrial ones due to environmental conditions and a higher concentration of valuable materials in asteroids.

Limited physical resources and highthe cost of operating in space will stimulate the improvement of the systems of recirculation of gases, water, nutrients, materials necessary for life support, as well as methods of organic farming. Technologies for more efficient use of limited resources can be applied on Earth.

Potential in the more distant future

In the long term, wideThe production and disposal of waste in open space will become widespread. The development of space industrialization will allow the creation of global structures such as a “canopy” to control the level of solar radiation and incoming light to control the temperature of the atmosphere.

In some cases, low gravity mayhave a positive effect on the human body, which can be used for medical purposes. For example, diseases associated with obesity and joint pain can be partially or even completely eliminated under microgravity conditions on the Moon, Mars or orbital station.

Humanity's mastery of distant worlds will openopportunities for social, economic and political experiments. The construction of isolated ecosystems will also allow the creation of conditions for biodiversity conservation, breeding of endangered species, or even recreation of extinct ones.

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