Japan is one such country with an increasingly active space technology startup community. There are companies working on faster satellite communications through antennae matching and sharing, creating autonomous rovers ((a robot that performs behaviors or tasks with a high degree of autonomy), collecting space debris so it doesn’t smash into your high-tech and very expensive space shuttles and other parts of space exploration most of us probably haven’t thought about.
In 2017, the Japanese government published its Space Industry Vision 2030, which stated that Japan will work towards doubling the market size of its space industry to 2.4 trillion Japanese Yen (US$21 billion) by the year 2030.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA for short) has begun to work more on applications rather than focusing mainly on Research & Development, as the agency has traditionally done.
However, the pandemic has impacted the spacetech sector more than expected. The coronavirus is likely to focus investors’ attention on keeping their existing portfolio companies afloat and investing in less risky companies, particularly those demonstrating revenue generation, a sustainable business model, and having less capital-intensive requirements.
These startups are at a critical juncture of whether they will be able to transition from an experimental program to a real business or not.
ISPACE, is a famous Japanese spacetech startup. The company has it’s attention on the Moon. By taking advantage of lunar water resources, the company develops space infrastructure needed to enrich our daily lives on earth—as well as expand our living sphere into space. Also, by making the Earth and Moon one system, a new economy with space infrastructure at its core will support human life, making sustainability a reality. This result is the ultimate goal, and their search for water on the Moon is the first step to achieving that goal.
Recently, the company raised US $28M to bankroll it’s moon mission. Click here to know more.
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