Space Economy: Money Flies in Orbit

In the first half of 2024, Amazon’s satellites will join the colony of satellites in low Earth orbit. This major global technology company plans to launch a total of 3,236 satellites into space by the end of 2026 as part of its project called ‘Kuiper Belt’ to provide internet services. It is no secret that tech giants are making money in space. In fact, SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are already there. Those who have amassed billions of dollars on Earth are now measuring their entrepreneurial strength in space.

It is difficult to predict who will be the more successful space entrepreneur, as both companies have large investment budgets, and in the corporate space race, where they are not alone, commercial impact and market share will determine the outcome. According to Morgan Stanley’s forecasts, the value of the space economy, which was 355 billion euros in 2020, will grow to over one trillion euros by 2030, meaning that the battle for every euro and every inch of space will be fierce.

Of course, these companies will not be threatened by the USA, the global superpower in space whose satellites dominate it, nor by other major players like China, with the European Union lagging behind. This is not about large satellites – business in low Earth orbit (LEO) is increasingly attracting investors and entrepreneurs who own small satellites floating in space. Few countries do not have them, and among them is Croatia, although the first Croatian satellite, Perun Ip, was supposed to be launched into orbit back in 2020.

The First Croatian Satellite

One of the creators of Perun, physicist Slobodan Danko Bosanac, a scientist at the ‘Ruđer Bošković’ Institute representing the Adriatic Aerospace Association (A3), claims that the development of Perun Ip has gone through several phases and that there were quite a few difficulties in some of them, but that is now in the past and the project should be brought to completion.

– There is no reason why Perun Ip should not be completed this year. Previous experiences with promises in the media have taught me caution, so I would not make final judgments about the completion of this project, which includes launching into orbit. We can say that two-thirds are in the final phase of readiness, and teams are working on the remaining components to bring them to completion. However, it is important to emphasize that Perun Ip is indeed the first Croatian satellite because it was entirely designed, constructed, and manufactured by Croatian experts and young geniuses, and that in Croatia. The component we need to purchase is solar cells, which are top-notch nanotechnology and are produced in only a few places in the world. Our problem is securing that funding because we do not have a source of financing. There is also the launch, but we have some ideas on how to solve that problem – says Bosanac.

He emphasizes that they do not want to rush the launch, following the Latin saying: Festina lente – make haste slowly. According to him, although all EU countries, except Croatia, have satellites in orbit, this should be taken with skepticism as it is questionable whether these satellites are the work of local experts or were purchased as finished products. Some satellites were made as part of international cooperation, and they are larger satellites. Bosanac emphasizes that international cooperation on more demanding satellites is also in A3’s plans for the future, and the independent production of Perun is a learning experience in satellite technology so that they can participate in that cooperation as equal partners.

Above Light Pollution

However, Croatian satellite science and industry is not based solely on Perun Ip. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB) at the University of Zagreb are also very active and agile in this sector. According to Prof. Dr. Sc. Dubravko Babić from the Department of Communication and Space Technologies at FER, this faculty is working on a space program and the development of nanosatellites either independently or in collaboration with other institutions and companies, and the results are excellent. They have also filed patents, but FER does not want to share details with the public yet.

– FER is conducting a series of activities related to space technologies. For now, we have a project funded by the European Space Agency. Its goal is to demonstrate an original module for measuring light pollution, integrate it into a nanosatellite, and launch it into orbit around 2025. We have built the first prototype and started measurements in the laboratory; a patent has been filed. The faculty is also developing improvements for devices for testing satellite orientation subsystems, Attitude Determination and Control System. The prototype is in development, and a patent has been filed. FER is also exploring several ideas for future payloads, which may find themselves in orbit this decade. It is also involved in the space segment of the project ‘Croatian Quantum Communication Infrastructure – CroQCI’ – says Babić.

Fatal Funding

This project was approved by the European Commission last year and began implementation at the beginning of this year. It involves the construction of the first Croatian experimental quantum communication infrastructure, which will serve as a cornerstone for the next phase, connecting CroQCI with EuroQCI through terrestrial and satellite communication links.

Although the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB) at the University of Zagreb does not have direct active projects related to the construction of nanosatellites, it participated in the project for the development of the dynamics of a robotic mechanism and control algorithms for a satellite tracking antenna (part of the ground station drive). This was conducted in collaboration with Zagreb’s FER, but the part of the project related to the ground station has been temporarily suspended due to a lack of funding.

Drones Above Venus and Mars

FSB has intense and extensive international cooperation in the field of space technologies, achieving significant scientific results.

– We are conducting a scientific research project ‘Flapping Flight on Mars and Venus’, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), which develops mathematical algorithms and computer models of the flight physics of autonomous vehicles in the atmospheric conditions of Mars and Venus. The project will also propose fundamental conceptual solutions for the construction of targeted vehicles. In simpler terms, specialized drones for atmospheric flight above the surfaces of Mars and Venus are being designed, with the aim of scientific and potentially commercial exploitation of these planets in the future, which ESA is interested in as part of missions planned independently and in collaboration with other agencies, such as NASA – explains Prof. Dr. Sc. Zdravko Terze, head of the Department of Aircraft Dynamics at FSB’s Institute of Aeronautical Engineering.

Terze is the head of FSB’s scientific research group and the principal investigator on the aforementioned project, with partner institutions in a subcontracting relationship being TU Delft in the Netherlands and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. It is important to emphasize that, although both universities are ranked among the top twenty in the world in engineering and technology according to QS 2021, FSB leads this scientific project, and Terze’s group has primary authorship in the achieved results, some of which have already been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Acta Astronautica and Aerospace Science & Technology.

Since the project develops modern technology for flight and propulsion in very demanding atmospheric conditions on Mars and Venus, which should achieve better performance than NASA’s Ingenuity robotic helicopter for operations on Mars in terms of energy efficiency, a continuation of the project is planned in collaboration with ESA through the construction of a prototype and experimental verification, together with selected universities and companies from the European Union.

International Cooperation

In addition to ESA, FSB has established contacts in the field related to space and space technologies with the Israeli Technion (Israel Institute of Technology, Asher Space Research Institute), the Slovenian Centre of Excellence for Space Sciences and Technologies, and the prestigious Chinese Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).

There is a cooperation agreement with HIT that has resulted in joint publications on the development of planetary rover dynamics. China has two of them, on the Moon and Mars, both designed at HIT. Prof. Terze has been invited to give lectures at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), with which he maintains ongoing contacts and participates in joint activities.

– We also collaborate with the University of Wisconsin-Madison on research topics and the preparation of joint doctoral schools, specifically with a research group developing a new American lunar rover. We are also involved in the implementation of projects under the ‘European Union Agency for Space Programme – EUSPA’, specifically within the ‘EU Governmental Satellite Communications’ program that also uses LEO satellites – says Terze, who is a consultant for an Italian company engaged in that program.

In addition to all this, this year FSB enrolled the first generation of students in the new study of Aeronautical Engineering and Space Technology, the first of its kind in this part of the European Union, educating modern engineers for space technologies.