The moon has formed the isolated backdrop for a new era of space exploration. As you read this, there are teams of exploration advocates around the world striving to reach its surface. This goal may be accomplished as early as next year.

This new age is one that is being led not by spacefaring superpowers seeking to fly flags and footprints but instead by numerous private companies, each vying to demonstrate their capability to fly 385,000 kilometers through the vacuous darkness of space and safely soft-land on our celestial neighbor. The rise of such companies follows the renewed focus on the moon by space agencies around the world, spurred on the by the Global Exploration Roadmap, as we prepare once again for crewed deep space exploration. This resurgence of lunar exploration has reached fever pitch and soon these private companies will provide the capability to deploy scientific and commercial payloads to various locations on the moons surface for the first time in history.

The price tag to perform such a magnificent feat of engineering? About $1 million per kilogram. Think about that for a second; thats the mass of just 1 liter of water.

As the space industry continuously vies with the worlds biggest issues for its share of public support (and funding) it is imperative that we do everything we can to lower these costs and deliver milestones that truly benefit those of us left here on Earth. So, with such price tags on our most basic amenities, how could we ever possibly afford to permanently expand humanitys presence further into space?

The answer lies in going back to the roots of human existence; living off the land. The moons barren surface was once described by Buzz Aldrin as magnificent desolation and it appears to be exactly that at first glance. But lying within the unmoving surface layers is a treasure trove of resources adequate to nurture a settlement of future explorers.

Among the plentiful resources on the moon are various metals trapped as oxides in the surface material (regolith). These oxides can be used in the coproduction of oxygen and pure metals to provide astronauts with breathable air and sturdy 3D-printed structures in which to shelter from micrometeorite impacts and the constant stream of potentially lethal cosmic rays that emanate from supernova explosions far outside our solar system.

Looking much further ahead, rare Earth metals may also be extracted for use in our advanced electronic devices or even Helium-3 for fuel in our yet-to-be-built fusion reactors. But the most immediate, and to me the most exciting, avenue for resource utilization on the moon is lunar ice.

Water has long been theorized to exist on the lunar surface due to a unique quirk of the entwined orbital geometry between the Earth and the moon. Due to this very stable set up, which has existed for billions of years, the moons axis is tilted only 1.5 degrees relative to the suns incoming rays. This means that at the lunar poles there exist regions within deep craters that are utterly untouched by sunlight.

This, coupled with the fact that there is little-to-no atmosphere, means that there are extreme temperature differences between light and dark on the moon, upward of 150 degrees Celsius. These unlit regions within craters, referred to as permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, are now known to host vast quantities of water ice that have been lying in perfect isolation for hundreds of millions of years. Although an exceedingly difficult number to quantify, it is commonly believed that the quantity of water in these PSRs exceeds 100 million tons.

Companies and agencies around the world are already investigating if this lunar water can be successfully and efficiently harvested. If so, it will unlock untold possibilities for our future in space.

The beauty of lunar water is that it may prove to be remarkably easy to harvest with robotic technologies. ESA already has plans to demonstrate this through a proposed mission called Heracles. By utilizing a new NASA-led space station around the moon, the Gateway, which is slated for construction in 2024, astronauts can tele-operate a rover and collect lunar samples for eventual return to Earth. Whats more, many of the transportation companies that intend to fly to the moon within the next few years seek to demonstrate roving capability once on the surface. This means that within the next decade there may be tens of companies with the ability to harvest water robotically in preparation for the return of humans to the surface.

A mission profile which relies heavily on precursor robotic utilization, although perhaps not as exciting as watching a human bounce gleefully across the dusty lunar surface in low gravity, will reduce risks for astronauts. If enough water can be harvested in advance by their robotic companions, astronauts can arrive at a rudimentary base with preliminary supplies, thereby reducing the amount of propellant used at every step in the mission.

With access to lunar ice, we can finally realize our vision of sustainable, affordable expansion beyond low Earth orbit. Of course, the most obvious examples of this are purifying lunar ice through a simple boil-off procedure into drinking water. Or one could use solar arrays to harness the suns energy to electrolyze the ice and form oxygen for astronauts to breathe; a practice which is already commonplace aboard the International Space Station. Water will allow us to begin cultivating fresh food, which will have huge benefits for astronauts physical and mental health during future missions.

The list goes on. Water is even vital when not being consumed. Due to its high hydrogen content, it can be utilized as an efficient radiation protection to help shield astronauts from the never-ending stream of cancer-inducing space radiation.

In the far future, it will also be possible to convert lunar ice into liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to form a rocket propellant with impressive characteristics. By leveraging the moon, or more precisely cislunar space, as a refueling station on the highway to deep space it may be possible to drastically lower the price of space exploration as we would no longer have to lift hundreds of tons of extra propellant off the surface of the Earth. This point, I should note, is heavily contested due to the difficulties in storing liquid hydrogen over long durations. However, the skeptics would appear to be betting against the worlds richest man, Jeff Bezos, and his space company Blue Originit is no coincidence that their lunar lander, Blue Moon, will rely on a newly developed engine fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Skeptics aside, there is no doubt in my mind that the moon is the ideal next steppingstone on our global exploration journey. And by utilizing the available resources in-situ, we will gain the ability to greatly reduce the costs of exploring the moon and work toward a truly sustainable and permanent outpost in space. Over the coming decades, and with the right nourishment from national agencies, new deep space industries will mature, and a lunar economy will be born: an economy with lunar water at its heart.

Calum Hervieu is a mission analyst at Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH (formerly PTScientists GmbH), a Berlin-based company that aims to land a privately funded spacecraft on the moon.

This article originally appeared in the Oct. 21, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

Continued here:

Op-ed | Living off the land: Lunar water is key to crewed space exploration - SpaceNews

SpaceX's Starship prototypen before the explosion on Wednesday.

The top of SpaceXs Mk1 Starship appears to have blown off during a pressure test of the prototype rocket. Livestream cameras set up by third parties to watch the spacecrafts construction captured footage of the explosion.

The companys CEO and founder Elon Musk downplayed the incident, replying to a Twitter comment about what this means for the spacecrafts development by saying, This had some value as a manufacturing pathfinder, but flight design is quite different.

In an emailed statement, the company said, The purpose of todays test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected. There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback.

Starship is the space companys next-generation program for space exploration, which it intends to use to provide service to the Moon, Mars and possibly elsewhere. On a conference call organized by NASA earlier this week, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell stated that the company could land a Starship craft on the Moon as early as 2022. Its not clear yet if this incident would impact that ambitious timeline, but the companys emailed statement indicated that its Starship team is focused on the Mk3 builds, which are designed for orbit.

This isnt the first time that SpaceX has experienced failures, either in testing or on the launch pad. It suffered a failure of a commercial Falcon 9 launch in 2016 as well as the failure of a test of its crewed Dragon spacecraft earlier this year. But the company tends to take such failures in stride, seeing them as part of the iterative process to improve its products.

For example, the company first successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2016, but not until after multiple failures that the company celebrated in a highlight reel called How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster on YouTube. That video has since been viewed over 14 million times.

This article has been updated since publication to include comment from SpaceX.

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SpaceXs Starship Craft For Space Exploration Blows Its Top During Test - Forbes

2019 has been a very exciting year for space-related events. Here we explore some of the most notable space missions of the past and explore the most notable and exciting space moments of this year.

Trust us when we say the events detailed below are far from exhaustive.

RELATED:5 TECHNOLOGY TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2019

We are living through an exciting and vibrant time in space exploration. Events are happening at a break-neck speed, and news change almost daily.

For this reason, any declaration of the "latest" space mission would quickly become redundant.

There are many current and in-development space missions by various private and public space agencies around the world. For up to date news on missions it is recommended you sign up to and follow each organization on social media and via their websites.

But, taking NASA as an example, their website is the best place to find the latest news of their ongoing and planned space missions.

This is something of a personal choice, but there are some very significant events in space exploration over time. Some notable milestones in our exploration of the heavens are as follows:

1. The very first satellite in space - In October of 1954, the Soviet Union launched humanity's first artificial satellite in history - Sputnik 1. This was not only a triumph for humanity in general but it almost single-handedly led to the creation of NASA.

2. The first human in space - Another amazing achievement by the Soviet Union. In 1961,cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin, onboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, became the first human in space.

3. The first lunar landing - In a classic game of one-upmanship, NASA pulled out all the stops to plant the very first human beings on the Moon. Apollo 11 stands as one of man's greatest technological achievements of all time.

4. The Hubble Space Telescope - Launched in April of 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been a gift that keeps on giving. Offering unprecedented views of the universe around us, Hubble has led to many discoveries beyond all the hopes and dreams of its designers.

5. The first private spacecraft - In June of 2004, SpaceShipOne was designed and built by an aerospace development company known as Scaled Composites. Flown by a South-African born American, it actually managed to fly past the boundary of space.

This laid the foundations for the current explosion in private enterprises turning their hand to space exploration. As more and more private enterprises enter the market, humanity's future in space will undoubtedly get better, cheaper and more accessible to private citizens in the future.

Here is a summary of the past and future events in all things space in 2019. A lot has happened this year and, as such, the following is just a hand-picked sampling of the most notable events of the year.

On New Years Day of 2019, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completed its journey to Ultima Thule. This was the furthest object that we've ever managed to visit in our Solar System.

Scientists pored over the first images received but will have to wait for a little longer for the rest of the probe's data to arrive on Earth.

China was also hoping to land its Chang'e-4 lander on the far side of the Moon in January. On the 4th of the month, all their hard work paid off with the lander touching down on the mostly unexplored side of the Moon.

The probe returned some interesting images and very exciting data for astrophysicists to sift through at their leisure.

NASA's Mars Insight Lander's HP3began drilling the Red Planet's surface at the beginning of the month. They plan was to reach about 5-meters in-depth to take important measurements on the internal surface temperature of the planet.

But, for some as yet unknown reason, it hit technical issues and couldn't penetrate beyond 30 cmin depth.

This month, Israeli private non-profit, SpaceIL launched their first Moon lander onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The team hoped to plant an Israeli flag and make some magnetic readings if they successfully completed their landing sometime in April of 2019 (more on this later).

The Moon itself also made a show for Earth-bound spectators this month. On the 19th of February, it passed closer to the Earth than usual to provide a Supermoon in the night's sky.

This same month, the Juno probe was planned to make a sweeping visit to Jupiter. True to form, the probe got some great images of the gas giant. Further flybys were also scheduled for May, July, and September of the same year.

Japan also made its attempt to collect samples from the asteroid Ryugu this month. The probe called Hayabusa2, successfully fired a pellet at the asteroid's surface to gather some of the asteroids material for analysis.

Further sampling attempts were planned for later in 2019.

In March, SpaceX launched and tested one of their crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft in the rigors of space. the craft, called Demonstration Mission 1 (DM-1), wasn't actually crewed but the data they gathered would guide future crewed flights.

After months of delay, it successfully reached orbit and made its way to the ISS.

Boeing also planned to test its brand-new CST-100 Starliner this month. The craft is currently under development to provide a vehicle to transport crews and materiel to the ISS.

Sadly it was plagued with delays and rescheduled for April.The test was to be uncrewed, and following its successful completion, a crewed test would be attempted in August of 2019.

This has since been revised again, with current estimates for an unmanned test flight in December of this year.

April started out brilliantly with a close approach of NASA's Parker Solar Probe to the Sun. This followed other approaches in late 2018 and will not be the last for many years to come.

This month also spelled the end of a contract with Russia and NASAfor delivering people and stuff to the ISS using their Soyuz spacecraft. This contract was established following the unfortunate retirement of their own Space Shuttle program in 2011.

For this reason, NASA has been busy working with Boeing and SpaceX to find an alternative logistics solution. But it was announced in February of 2019 that NASA may still consider using Russian Soyuz craft until alternatives are found.

April was not the best month for the team behind the Israeli gambit to put a probe of their own on the Moon. SpaceIL, a private venture, had teamed up with Elon Musk's SpaceX to attempt to plant an Israeli flag on the lunar surface.

Sadly, all contact was lost with the Beresheet lunar lander in the afternoon of April the 11th as it crashed into the Moon's surface. Despite the setback, the team is hoping to send a second Moon lander in the not too distant future.

Also this month, SpaceX had hoped to make a test flight of their Starship craft. "Starhopper" managed to perform a short, tethered, engine test leading to future plans for untethered testing later in the year.

SpaceX also successfully tested another of its Heavy Falcons this month. Not only was the launch a success, but they also managed to recover all three of its booster rockets.

May was a quieter month for space exploration. But there were some notable events.

The first was the Eta Aquarid meteor shower on the 6th of May. This is a fairly regular event that peaks around early-May every year.

The meteors are actually debris leftover from Halley's comet when it passes close to Earth on its rare visits.

On a more dramatic note, SpaceX's Dragon Crew Capsule was confirmed to have exploded during another test this month. This was the very same capsule, DM-1, that had proved successful back in March of 2019.

Astronomers also released an interesting report on the recent asteroid impact on the Moon's surface this month. Leaving a crater about 15-meters wide, the collision was reported in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In other news, a rocket designed by a team of students from the University of Southern California (USC) Rocket Propulsion Lab (RPL) successfully launched a small rocket that reached the edges of space. The tiny 8-inch (20.3 cm) diameter, 13-foot (3.96 m) tall rocket, called Traveller IV, is the first student-designed craft to ever do so.

Towards the end of the month, an asteroid also made a 'close' approach to our beloved home planet. The mile-wide (1.6 km) rock with its own small moon, passed around 3.5 million miles from Earth.

Also this month, a Soyuz rocket was hit by lightning with no ill-effects on the 27th of May.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took some impressive images of Mars this month. Using it'sHigh-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment(HiRISE), the orbiter captured images of an impressive and supposedly newly formed crater on Mars.

Also this month, NASA announced that their Curiosity rover had detected high levels of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This sparked much debate about the likely source and potential for finding life.

By far, one of the most spectacular Space events this month was the Strawberry Moon. Many people around the world who were able to catch a glimpse were left awestruck around the world.

In the middle of June, a new study was released that pointed to the fact the Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, might have saltwater comparable to Earth's oceans under its icy crust. Using data fromHubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectograph (STIS)the team reported they've picked up the spectral signature of irradiated sodium chloride.

This month, SpaceX successfully launched another Falcon Heavy Rocket. What was different about this event was the fact that, for the first time, the company successfully resued one of their booster rockets from previous launches.

But it came at a cost. They failed to recover the central core unit.

Towards the end of June, scientists announced they had found an exoplanet that bears a striking resemblance to Earth.TheCARMENESsurvey team announced that the planet that orbits Teegarden's star, the 24th closest star to our own, is only 12 light-years away.

Airing on the 29th of June, the "Apollo 11" documentary premiered on CNN. The film was edited and directed by Todd Douglas Miller and was compiled from hours of real NASA archive footage of this history-making event in human history.

Earlier in the month, researchers revealed that there may be a way for black holes to form without the need for a collapsing star. The theory, called 'direct collapse' was proposed by two researchers at Western University in Ontario, Canada.

Also at the start of July, the first total eclipse of the Sun since 2017 was enjoyed by onlookers in South America. Parts of Chile and Argentina were treated to one of the most spectacular events the heavens have to offer.

Researchers also put to bed any notion that the now infamous'Oumuamua asteroid was actually an alien spaceship. Much to the disappointment of many excited members of the public.

Deployed into space in late June, the Carl Sagan inspired LightSail2 solar sail spacecraft was reported to be operational and ready to deploy its innovative propulsion device (which it did later in July). If successful, this will provide a proof of concept for the tech for future applications.

In mid-July, a United Arab Emirates spy satellite failed to make it into orbit and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. It appears a serious rocket failure occurred only two minutes after liftoff.

The bad news was not exclusive to the UAE in July. The European Galileo GPS satellite system suffered a major outing in July too. Costing over 3 Billion Euros to date, a mysterious technical issue left Europe relying on American satellites until service was restored.

In late July, India also made its own attempt to launch a Moon lander and rover to the Moon. CalledChandrayaan-2, it had originally been planned for launch in January but was delayed for several months following technical issues.

In early August, researchers revealed they had detected the highest energy photons ever recorded from the Crab Nebula. The team was unable to explain how they are created by the nebula, however.

Also in early August, NASA announced they had found a new "Hot Earth" exoplanet. The space agenciesplanet-hunting satelliteTransiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, orTESS for short, spotted the new planet as well as two others orbiting its parent star.

Also this month, an "Ultra-Massive" black hole was discovered in the universe. With an estimated mass of over 40 billion suns, this new black hole is one hell of a monster.

SpaceX's space-bound Roadster made it's the first orbit of the Sun this month. Launched onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket test in February of 2018, the Roadster has been a tour of our solar system over since.

It won't come close to Earth again until November 2020. We say close but it'll be somewhere in the order of32.2 million miles (52.8 million km) away by then.

On the subject of SpaceX, a Chinese private space company, LinkSpace, also announced the third successful launch of its reusable rocket. The Beijing-based company reported it reached 300-meters in height before safely returning to its launchpad 50 seconds later.

Also on the subject of SpaceX, Elon Musk announced it might be a good idea to nuke Mars to prepare it for human settlement. Although it might sound a little gung-ho, there is some merit to his suggestion.

Back onto the subject of black holes, scientists revealed they had evidence of one swallowing a neutron star. The event appears to have occurred 900 million years ago,and must have been an impressive thing to have seen if you were close enough at the time.

On a lighter note, the hyped "Storm Area 51 Event" that was planned on the 20th September 2019, turned out to be a bit a flop. But it was fun to watch some of the attendees attempting to "Naruto run".

In September, SpaceX revealed its candidate landing sites for future Mars missions by the private space company. These sites appear to have been penciled in for their Starship once its development is complete.

Probably the main news event this month was the announcement of a million-dollar prize for the first image of a black hole. The team of eight at EHT split the 3 million prize between them.

On a completely different subject, researchers also announced they had made cement in space for the very first time. A recent series of experiments on the ISS discovered it was actually possible to get cement to solidify in microgravity.

India's Chandrayaan-2arrives at the moon but contact was lost with its lander, called Vikram, creating serious doubts about the mission's success.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the team behind the apparently ill-fated Vikram Lunar landerdid later announce that they had found it. The team was still unable to make contact, but they announced that it appeared to be operational and was expected to complete its planned 7-year mission.

Water vapor appears to have been discovered on an exoplanet for the first time, according to findings released in September. What's more, the exoplanet also appeared to be in the habitable zone of its parent star - - could it harbor life?

Our solar system was visited by another interstellar tourist in September.C/2019 Q4,believed to be a comet, was spotted by an amateur astronomer and got many stargazers very excited indeed.

Just at the close of the month, Elon Musk announced that he wants to put SpaceX's "Starship" into orbit within the next six months. Whether they can achieve it or not is anyone's guess.

There was some very exciting news earlier this month. Scientists announced that they had potentially discovered the existence of the basic ingredients for life on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

NASA also announced earlier this month that the Juno probe was ready to jump Jupiter's shadow. The maneuver was needed to prevent the probe's solar panels from being obscured by the gas-giant blocking the sun.

Astronomers announced they had found twin baby stars growing amongst gas and dust in October.The remarkable find sheds new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars.

There was also some good news for people hoping to one day colonize the Moon. Oxygen and metal were found to be present in Lunar soil. Analysis of samples of regolith found that it was around 40-45% oxygen by weight.

A NASA engineer revealed information about a new form of propulsion that could achieve 99% the speed of light. Called an EmDrive, it requires no propellant and could prove to be the future of space exploration.

Scheduled for launch between October 15th and November 14th, the ESA plans to launch their own planet-hunting mission. CalledCHEOPS(Characterising Exoplanets Satellite), it will look for planets orbiting bright stars close to our Solar System.

Uranus(don't, just don't) is also scheduled to make its closest approach to Earth this month. This will mean it will look a little bigger and brighter than usual.

On the 2nd of November, the Moon will pass in front of the ringed planet Saturn. skywatchers in New Zealand will get the best views but it should still be impressive from other locations around the Earth.

On the same day,Northrop Grumman will launch the Cygnus NG-12 cargo mission. It will resupply the ISS.

On the 11th of November, Mercury is set to transit the Sun as viewed from Earth.This won't happen again until 2039 so be sure to check it out.

If you are hoping to see this amazing event, make sure you use special equipment. It is, after all, extremely dangerous to look directly at the Sun.

Sometime in November, SpaceX is also planning to send its first crewed Crew Dragon mission to the ISS.This will be the Crew Dragon's first test flight with astronauts on board following the uncrewed DM-1 mission in March.

SpaceX will need to ensure any issues they've uncovered with DM-1's untimely explosion earlier in the year have been rectified.

During the festive season, Japan'sHayabusa-2 spacecraft is scheduled to depart the asteroid Ryugu andreturning to Earth in December 2020. It will bring its valuable cargo of samples for rigorous analysis on Terra Firma.

December also means it's time for theGeminids meteor shower. This shower is caused by debris from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.

On boxing day 2019, we will be treated to a rare annular solar eclipse. But only, that is, if you are in the right place at the right time.For an annular eclipse to happen, the Moon has to be at its furthest from the Earth, so it doesn't quite cover up the Sun.

Read this article:

The Most Exciting Moments About Space in 2019 - Interesting Engineering

SANDUSKY, Ohio The next stage of human space exploration will start this weekend right here in Ohio at NASA's Plumbrook Station in Sandusky when the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft arrives for environmental testing.

According to NASA, the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft is "built to take humans farther than theyve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities."

Artemis 1 Orion left the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday and it and its crew will arrive at Mansfield Lahm Airport, 2000 Harington Memorial Road, on Sunday afternoon. The Artemis I Orion will be delivered via NASA's Super Guppy aircraft.

The airport will be open to the public for anyone interested in watching the spacecraft being unloaded. Anyone who plans to attend should arrive no later than 1:30 p.m. The Super Guppy is scheduled to land at 2:30 p.m.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock will make an appearance at the main airport terminal office and be available for autographs from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Additionally, there will be exhibits and activities from noon to 5 p.m.

NASA will use a 135-foot-long truck to take the Artemis I Orion to its Space Environments Complex (SEC) at the Plumbrook Station. According to the agency, the SEC "houses the largest and most powerful space environment simulation facilities in the world."

To see a virtual tour and find more information about NASA's Plumbrook Station, click here.

The rest is here:

NASA's Orion spacecraft to arrive Sunday and undergo environmental testing in Sandusky - News 5 Cleveland

The term frontier markets typically refers to international diversificationthat is, investing outside United States bordersand specifically nations that are developing economically and newly open to investment. But what if we were to widen that definition out a bit, from international to interplanetary? Would that be the final frontier in investing?

Richard Bransons space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic Holdings SPCE, -9.85%, had its initial public offering (IPO) in the last week of October 2019, making it one of the few pure-play, publicly traded companies in the space industry. If you want to hitch a ride, a single round trip will set you back $250,000and no, theres no one-way rate.

Is that price tag out of your budget? There are other ways to push toward the heavens, namely by launching your portfolio into space.

Michael Fairbourn, education coach at TD Ameritrade, noted there are two ways to look at investing among the stars: Space tourism and space exploration. Space tourism companies such as SPCE are officially called suborbital space tourism because they remain in the earths atmosphere. The privately held Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, +0.63% founder Jeff Bezos, is in the space tourism business but is also developing a variety of technologies, including vehicles to access suborbital and orbital space.

The second type of space-related investing focuses on traditional space exploration that goes beyond the earths atmosphere. According to Fairbourn, the driving force for space exploration investments is what the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] invests in. "It has the knowledge base and the spending. But the funny thing is, SpaceXs activity is what really prompted NASA to get back on board and start looking again at exploration, Fairbourn said, referring to the company owned by Tesla Inc TSLA, -6.14% founder Elon Musk.

Privately held SpaceX falls into the space exploration category because it aims to deliver satellites into space. The company received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval in March 2018 to deliver 4,425 satellites into space. In October, the company and the FCC filed paperwork for another 30,000 satellites with the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations entity.

With so many satellites approved for launch into space, interested investors may want to look at companies manufacturing satellites. There are four publicly traded companies in this industry: ViaSat, Inc. VSAT, +0.48%, Intelsat SA I, +0.57%, Iridium Communications Inc IRDM, -1.75%, and Teledyne Technologies Inc TDY, +0.99%.

Another category for space exploration is companies involved in rocketry, which delivers both space tourists and payloads into orbit. Some names better known for their work in the defense sector spring up here, including Northrop Grumman Corporation NOC, +0.27% and Lockheed Martin Corporation LM, +0.31%. Some of these companies are devoting significant research to rocket science, such as LMT, which gets 18% of its total net sales from space.

There are fewer of these companies, but it could potentially be a growing division because of what NASA is looking to do with increased exploration, Fairbourn explained. But he was quick to add that the outlook could change at any time.

Boeing Co BA, +1.34% also has significant money tied up in space. The firm is creating the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle as well as the Space Launch System, which is designed to carry people and cargo into deep space.

Not a recommendation. For illustrative purposes only.

NASA is also looking at moon exploration. Maxar Technologies Inc MAXR, +3.00%, a newer company in the space industry, was awarded the first propulsion system contract from NASA for the Artemis program that aims to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024. MAXRs system drives the spaceships to the moon and navigates back to Earth. The firm is also assisting in the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a U.S.-European spacecraft.

Another smaller company involved in the moon mission is Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc AJRD, +1.06%, which develops propulsion and power systems for space vehicles.

Some companies are using their space ties to help push boundaries back home on terra firma. Sports equipment and apparel maker Adidas (otcmkts:ADDYY), for example, is launching an effort with the International Space Station to test productsincluding sneakers, soccer balls and compression garmentsin a gravity-free environment, in hopes of optimizing performance.

Speaking of apparel, astronauts cant go into space without protective gear. Earlier this year, SPCE teamed up with Under Armour Inc UAA, +2.59% to supply passenger outfits. And for the rest of us? News reports mention that UA said it would offer a capsule collection in 2020 featuring flight jackets, base layer pieces, and hoodies to wear on Earth. So even if you cant afford $250,000 for a trip to space, you can go boldly and dress like youre taking a suborbital vacation.

And who knows? It was only a generation ago that intercontinental air travel was a luxury reserved only for the well-heeled among us. Perhaps by the end of the next decade, well all be accustomed to standing in line at the Space Transportation Safety Administration, removing our moon boots as we walk through the X-ray machine, and grabbing our assigned seats, preferably not middle seats in the coach section.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Out Of This World: Is Space A New Twist On Frontier Investing? - MarketWatch