Over the next decades, our relationship with space will change dramatically. It will increasingly become a place where business and industry thrive. Tourists will go into orbit, taken there by private companies; new launch vehicles will take off, different in design but sharing the challenge of slashing the cost of space access. Energy and data will rain down from orbiting satellites, some owned by governments, others by private organizations, and many networked together to create a giant Internet. Entire industries will spring up to create an off-Earth economy.
Space access costs are being reduced dramatically. Nowadays, space launches cost 11 times less than in 2010 and satellites cost 100 times less. The global launch services market was of $20 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow to $120 billion by 2040.
In-space manufacturing provides a unique class of products highly valuable to the communications, materials and biomedical industries on Earth. Space manufacturing is a rapidly growing market and it is estimated to reach $60 billion by 2040.
Space tourism is expected to become a new industry. The space tourism market could generate up to $100 billion annually by 2040. Suborbital tourism is expected to grow faster than orbital tourism over the next decade.
Demand for energy and resources will double from 2025 to 2040. Space mining will become a reality. There are between 1 and 3 million tons of helium-3 on the Moon, enough to power Earth for approximately 3,000 years.
Demand for geospatial data is increasing exponentially. Smartphones penetration grows at a rate of 15% per year, and the use of sensors at 30%. The global geospatial market is expected to triple, from to $400 billion in 2024 to nearly $1.5 trillion by 2040.
Space exploration is poised to bring historic discoveries. Robotic missions have found water, but if life exists beyond Earth still remains a mystery. Detecting exolife will be the greatest discovery of all time, changing our understanding of the universe and our place in it forever.