Space Forward Podcast

We talk to Matthew Weinzierl, an Associate Professor in the Business,

Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School.

Weinzierl has worked as an economist for McKinsey & Company and The White

House Council of Economic Advisors. Professor Weinzierl’s early research

focuses on the optimal design of economic policy, and more recently he has

launched an array of projects focused on the commercialization of the space

sector and its economic implications.

In this episode, we’ll be diving right into the dynamics of the space sector, space commerce, space business, space industry, space market, and the fundamental forces driving their development.

It’s a great pleasure to welcome Matthew Weinzierl, an associate Professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Matthew has worked for McKinsey & Company, and the US government as an economist on The White House Council of Economic Advisors. While much of Professor Weinzierl’s early research focused on the optimal design of economic policy, in particular taxation, he has recently launched an array of projects focused on the commercialization of the space sector and its economic implications.

Matthew, together with his Harvard Business School team, have published multiple case studies just this past year: on Space X and Economies of Scale along with Made in Space and the business of In-Space Manufacturing, all of this along with an article emphatically proclaiming: “The Commercial Space Age is Here” in the Harvard Business Review.

CONTENT

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:50 Harvard Business School Case Studies Part 1

00:04:30 Niels Bohr & and defining the space market, space commerce, space business

00:05:59 Two different economies: Space for Earth, Space for Space

00:09:57 Deconstructing the space sector & Self Organization of markets

00:12:24 Rockets don’t scale | Space Elevator

00:15:18 Scaling and populating space

00:17:35 Who is paying for it and why?

00:21:18 Analogies to historical IT and Telecommunications market development

00:23:44 Industrial Economics in space

00:30:31 Spire Global | Going from globalisation to solar-system-ization

00:32:31 Blockchain, NFT, Smart Contracts for products from space

00:34:37 Is there a need for an international Space Trade Institution?

00:36:04 HBS Case Study Part 2 | Made in Space

00:38:24 Space Killer Apps Part 1

00:39:25 Closed Loops, 3D-Printers, and The Star Trek Replicator

00:41:34 Is there a business case for Resource Extraction in space

00:44:19 Space Killer Apps Part 2

00:45:48 Up-and-comers in the space sector

00:47:10 Space Economics in the context of rational human behavior

00:50:00 Strongest disagreement between the space economists

00:51:36 Why space at all?

In this episode we seek to understand the decision-making environment in which Space Business Angels operate and the mindset they follow when making investment decisions, exploring best practices, and getting an industry outlook from those with skin in the game. We talk about risk mitigation, selling shovels instead of digging gold, drivers of scale, investing horizontally vs vertically, why Luxembourg produces above the average space companies, and the role of EBAN Space.

Our guest today is Fabrice Testa, Chairman of EBAN SPACE, the space branch of Europe's leading early stage investors network, and Co-Founder of both the Luxembourg Space Tech Angels and Maana Electric. An Aerospace Engineer by training, Fabrice is a space business angel, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of Maana Electric which aims to be the utility company of the solar system, starting with solar panels on the Moon. He has supported start-ups in growing and scaling their ideas as a mentor, coach, and in several other key capacities.

CONTENT

00:01:59 Intro

00:07:57 Logistic growth curve and similarities to the IT industry in the late 1970s/80s/90s

00:12:18 Categorisation of the space market

00:19:39 What are the early segments of the market that need to grow

00:25:16 Drivers of scale / Total Addressable Market

00:30:16 Advices to founders

00:34:03 MBAs vs Engineers / Immediate Value to the customer

00:39:09 VCs and their investment periods

00:45:02 Skin in the game

00:47:31 CAPM / Risk assessment

00:52:39 Outliers / Risk of failure

00:56:40 The different risk variables of Business Angels and Venture Capital

01:00:48 Is it better to be a Business Angel or a VC?

01:03:16 Vertical vs horizontal space industry portfolio

01:07:50 Increasing chances to find outliers

01:11:46 Empty company containers full of money (SPAC)

01:18:28 Where is the next Rocket Valley / Satellite Valley?

01:21:45 What is Luxembourg doing right?

01:24:12 The role of EBAN Space / Next Steps

01:30:53 Humans want to explore

In this episode, we seek to understand the decision-making environment in

which Space Business Angels operate and the mindset they follow when making

investment decisions ― exploring best practices, and getting an industry

outlook from those with skin in the game.

In this episode, we’ll take you on a deep dive into the physics of space travel. Are we merely grappling with a challenging engineering problem or will new breakthroughs, an entirely new physics be required in order to utilize space to its fullest potential?

We will discuss this question with our guest, Professor Martin Tajmar, renowned Austrian Physicist, Professor and Chair of Space Systems at the Technical University of Dresden, and hurray, a Fellow International Space University Alumnus, a member of the family. Martin has worked at NASA, ESA, in South Korea, and the Austrian Institute of Technology, performing research on electric and miniaturised propulsion and on breakthrough propulsion physics. Professor Tajmar is the author of the book: “Advanced Space Propulsion Systems” and has received critical acclaim from the scientific community for his research on Electric Propulsion.

CONTENT

00:01:28 Intro

00:06:45 International Space University

00:08:26 The physics of space propulsion

00:10:36 The limits

00:13:36 Nuclear propulsion

00:18:50 Breakthrough propulsion

00:21:05 Option 1 | Inertial mass

00:22:40 Option 2 | Negative mass

00:26:10 Space X

00:38:08 Nukes for space propulsion

00:42:49 Option 3 | Negative mass self-acceleration

00:44:56 Option 4 | Zero-point Energy

00:45:26 Electric propulsion

00:51:20 Future

In this episode, we’ll take you on a deep dive into the physics of space

travel. Are we merely grappling with a challenging engineering problem or

will new breakthroughs toward an entirely new physics be required in order

to utilize space to its fullest potential?

In this intense episode we dig into the main issues preventing international and intercultural collaboration here on Earth which will prevent us from becoming a prosperous, inclusive, and peaceful multi-planetary species. In search of solutions, we begin with the power of law and then blast over to the ongoing space race between private actors and developing countries, uncovering who is really in power. Shattering conventional narratives along the way, we explore a supracultural code of space ethics, a way to ensure that space and its benefits for life on Earth remain accessible for all of humanity.

Our guest taking us on this journey of discovery is the bleeding-edge scientist Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, Professor of Space and Society at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at the University of Arizona.

CONTENT

00:00:53 Intro

00:01:56 Explorers

00:07:54 The Power of Law

00:11:57 Crime at the International Space Station

00:14:17 Lobbying

00:17:38 Who is really in power?

00:19:04 Level playing field

00:20:45 Rich get richer and people get wiser

00:21:55 UNCOPUOS

00:24:55 Property Rights & Protection / Support by your country

00:27:38 Scarcity / Limited resources in Space

00:29:22 Have we learned from colonization?

00:32:02 Universal cosmological feeling / Oneness / Overview Effect

00:37:33 Supracultural code of space ethics / Consensus ad idem / a meeting of minds

00:40:33 Solving the ills of society before we deal with fanciful things like space exploration?

00:44:14 Poverty and inequality are the root of every problem / human rights principles

00:48:52 Universal Principles / Natural Law

00:55:20 Space World Utopia vs reality / Bipolar world

00:57:10 Shattering the narratives / Kumbaya / Sexiness of Space

00:59:33 Space Law enforcement

01:01:41 The school for the Future of Innovation in Society

In this episode, we talk to Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty and examine the

bottlenecks toward international and intercultural collaboration here on

Earth, preventing humanity from becoming a prosperous, inclusive, and

peaceful multi-planetary species.

This episode has at its core the implications of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation, which figures the hard limits of rocket-based payload transportation to Earth’s orbit.

Furthermore, rockets are expensive, up to failure, risky and carry too little payload.

Making rockets more efficient reminds analogically of Henry Ford’s classic:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”.

One of the non-rocket approaches to get a fast, cheap, safe and repeatable transport to orbit is the Space Elevator concept which we are going to cover in the episode with our guest, the amazing Josh Bernard-Cooper, a University of St Andrews Physics and Philosophy student, International Space University alumni and Research Assistant at the International Space Elevator Consortium.

CONTENT

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:00 The basic concept of a space elevator

00:12:00 Google X, NASA

00:16:00 Motivation to build elevators

00:24:00 Design concepts

00:32:00 Speed of the climber and radiation

00:34:00 Main Challenges

00:37:00 Space debris and elevator collaps

00:38:00 Best place on Earth to install the elevator

00:40:00 Beta test the elevator on Moon and Mars?

00:41:00 Optimal Altitude for beta best

00:44:00 How many people are involved?

00:47:00 Non-rocket launcher ideas

00:49:00 Fundings, Prizes, Sponsors

00:52:00 Elevator in 10 years?

00:57:00 Realists vs Futurists

00:59:00 Why a lead blanket is useful in the Elevator

This episode has at its core the implications of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket

equation, which figures the hard limits of rocket-based payload

transportation to Earth’s orbit. We uncover alternatives with Joshua

Bernard-Cooper, a researcher at the International Space Elevator

Consortium.