Tweet

The Beginning of a Second Space Age

Guest post by: Michael Farrell

Article Overview: Since recent federal budget proposals will cut out a new lunar program, space transportation activities will be shifting to commercial companies, suggests former rocket engineer Mike Farrell with aspenIbiz. Read this short post to obtain some background about powerful efforts underway to commercialize satellite production, rocket launches, and space technology that could make you a Space Age Millionaire.

The Beginning of a Second Space Age

From the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 to Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind," the space race between the world's superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, captivated many including my generation. This space race motivated me to launch my first career as a rocket engineer. Fresh out of college, I landed an engineering position with General Dynamics where I cut my teeth designing, building, and testing missiles with the defense industry. For a couple of years (prior to joining Deloitte, a Big 4 accounting and consulting firm, as a management consultant), I worked hard at launching and guiding missiles to their target and innovated ways for the space business to apply the new and emerging computer technology.

After landing on the moon and a few more lunar missions, the United States efforts in space shifted to the Space Shuttle Transport system and ultimately the International Space Station. For over twenty years, shuttle launches were a national event, carried by major networks and watched by millions of people.

However as space travel became more routine the public's interest in space waned. It wasn't until the new millennium that support for a modern moon mission began to earn vocal support.

Recent federal budget proposals have cut out the new lunar program and shifted the space transportation business to commercial companies. The space program's budget is set to have a new emphasis on science. This would be a dramatic shift for the space program which has long relied on its NASA operations.

The potential demise of the new lunar program might seem by many to be the nail in the coffin of a space program that has been plagued by miscalculations, tragedies and budget woes. However there are others who see the glass as half full and will view the changing space program as the perfect opportunity to profit from a profitable, growing, and well-managed private sector in the aerospace and defense industry (where I began my career as mentioned previously).

It would be impossible to enjoy many of our modern communication and entertainment amenities without the benefit of space travel.

Technology for space travel, specifically satellites, has greatly improved technology ranging from defense to predicting weather. Our forays into the final frontier have furthered other important advancements such as super-strong and heat-resistant metals. In fact, the space program has helped pave the way for a number of profitable companies in the aerospace and defense industry, especially those in satellites.

In a recent World Market Survey of satellite construction and launch trends, there is the prediction of a busy decade with over 1,185 spacecraft expected to be launched. This will be a 47% increase of the previous decade. On the commercial side, low-orbiting satellites for the mobile voice and data industry sector will need to be upgraded. Emerging economies such as India and China will also help fuel the growth as their respective governments become more heavily involved in the new space age.

I trust this post has provide some background and evidence that powerful efforts are underway to commercialize satellite production, launches and other space technology. Business opportunities are emerging with companies that will prepare and send satellites and cargo into space for its government and commercial clients that will span needs of the Defense Department, those studying the solar atmosphere and the influence of the sun on the Earth, as well as transport of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and safely back to earth. These innovative business ventures and commercialization of space activities are generating alternative wealth creating opportunities that could make you a Space Age Millionaire.

In closing, I favor a quote from Steve Forbes. Forbes says that pursuing additional financial education and the resulting increase in our financial literacy (including the investment potential of breakthrough technology) will open our eyes to alternative wealth creating strategies and this will be the key to resolving our global financial crisis.

To gain the necessary financial education, it is best to obtain association with, access to, and membership in a wealth creation community. As a result, you will learn and have the knowledge to use alternative wealth creating strategies such as Bank on Yourself, debt reduction, and asset protection. You will be exposed to wealth acceleration investments in areas (discussed in previous blog posts) such as commercial space ventures, Carrier Ethernet technologies, nanotech lithography, robotics, nano-based next-generation battery technology, precious metals, water rights, oil, natural gas, potash mines, food commodities, and gold mines. You will have the knowledge to consider investments in energy assets that are inherently useful like oil rigs, hydropower, or methanol plants; things that are hard to build, difficult to replace, and costly to substitute; definitely not financial stocks, definitely not retail stocks, definitely not commercial property.

It is wise to monitor breakthrough technology as there are truly exciting developments afoot in the field of commercial space activities and businesses. I will continue to monitor developments and provide updates in future articles and at my blog over the next few weeks.

Finally, I want to thank Greg Guenthner and Jim Nelson of Agora Financial as they were the source of some of the materials about the technology advancements mentioned in this post.

Related Articles
  Rule 10 Indent Paragraphs
  Leasing Office Space – Part 15 of 23 Lease Negotiations
  A Home Business Plan
  The Simple Steps to Make Money Online
  Business Communication With PowerPoint Slides
  Working From Home
  What It Takes To Work From Home Online
  Convert an Asteroid into a Think Tank
  Backup Your Computer: Insure It Against Disaster
  TIPS FOR MAKING MONEY WITH REAL ESTATE YOU DON'T OWN
  Lesson #2: Build A Powerful Brand
  How To Design Your Email Messages For Mobile Devices
  How Should I Grow My Business? By Avoiding Overwork
  Your Limitations - Are they a Black Swan?
  The nine fundamentals to thought leadership
  Leasing Retail Space - Preparing Your Space
  Smart Women Know How to Make Music
  Cost of office fit out
  Legal Marketing: White space can be your best friend
  Using Social Media to Build Your Brand

Article Tags: B2B B2C eCommerce, Breakthrough Technology, Deloitte Big 4, Digital Entrepreneur, Financial Education, General Dynamcis, Innovation, Mike Farrell aspenIbiz, Space Program, Tradeum VerticalNet



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can Anything Stop The Facebook Juggernaut? - Hi Yinka, I agree that is a hell of a carrot to dangle in front of someone. I was also interested to read the comments following the article. What started as a reasonable discussion on the merits of FB in relation to My Space and others descended into bickering regarding the potential lifespan of FB and its global influence? regards, Mal.
My Space - My Space is another promotional tool, but it takes time, effort and tact. I like the fact that it helps me find people who have specific interests and it offers private messenging options, web page comment options, a blog, and a bulletin board posting option. Lots of interesting ways to get in touch with people - but that doesn't mean its all right to send spam messages. There are too many other effective ways to use the space. Chris
Storage online - In the future, everything will be online because everything will be connected. There will be no need to storage mediums as far as business and personal data is related. For music CDs, there is a drop in sales because of the ability to get the same music for free online... they still make a ton of money, the musicians still only get a fraction of the profit from CD sales, and their product is over-priced so I don't see this as a bad thing. Bands can start a My Space, get popular that way, sell their music in online stores while getting a decent cut, or sell their own CDs directly!
Re: How can I promote my site? - This might be good promotion for your type of website: Start building a fan base ('list') by getting involved on websites where your target market is already hanging out. Post comments and give valuable advice. (I think My Space used to be big for creatives & musicians.) Every time you interact, include a link to a landing page on your website. Try this - don't post links that go to your home page. Rather, link to specific simple pages on your site which offer free information that is very valuable to your customers. On that page, have an 'opt-in' form (asking for name and email). Keep the design of this page as simple as possible. This method still works very well, so you should try it.
Help from a computer guru needed, please - At the beginning of August, I installed a new navbar on all the pages of my webzine, a shockwave navbar. I thought I'd be getting "stand alone" buttons - buttons that would work regardless of whether the viewer had shockwave loaded on their computer. But my hits have been down for the last two weeks or so. I had assumed that this was because people were running around on vacation and trying to do stuff before school started again, but now I'm beginning to have second thoughts. Does anyone here NOT have shockwave loaded on their computer, and if so, will you go to thethunderchild.com and tell me if you see the navbar. It should be a bar at the top of the page with Home, Contact Us, Daily Space and various other animated buttons. I did ask this question on a usegroup for webmasters, and one person has confirmed my fears, and pointed out that search engines also don't follow shockwave links - but I'd like to confirm that's true from other people as well. Thanks for any help.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Join Conversations Politely, Part 1

How to Conduct a B2B Marketing Content Audit

Executive Blind Spots

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.