Ran Livne is the Secretary Ramon Foundation (Opens in a new tab) Head with Rakia mission (Opens in a new tab)..He contributed this article to Space.com Expert Voice: Editorial and Insight..
from now on Ax-1 mission This is probably the beginning of a new era of manned spaceflight. Not because of the identity of civilian astronauts, but because of the ecosystems that are emerging around them.
From the beginning of humanity, our species have dreamed of reaching the universe. To date, about 600 people have done so.But that number is ready to increase dramatically as follows: Manned space flight commercializedSome claim that more than 200 individuals will reach their final frontier in the next decade.
Related: First space traveler (photo)
But the real revolution lies not in the number of individuals reaching the universe, but in the future infrastructure that enables them to live and work there.
SpaceX, Axiom Space and Space Adventures are already flying astronauts into low earth orbit. Companies such as Axiom, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman are also planning to build a private space station in the near future. To fly individuals into space rather than skilled astronauts, new stations will need to use a variety of air and water purification systems, food systems, and more convenient living infrastructure. This need will lead to the tremendous development of new life support systems.
These business models Future private space station Consists of developing a global ecosystem of scientists, researchers and engineers implementing science and technology on these new off-earth platforms, as well as “selling space tickets” for civilian astronauts. It has been. Competition between different stations leads to aggressive marketing efforts that bring more potential customers to the global space industry. And these customers (from academia to pharmaceutical companies to space manufacturing start-ups) need advanced scientific infrastructure and high-level high-speed services to benefit humanity.
As an Israeli space expert, I see the benefits of this next era of commercialization as astounding. Today, only about 60 Israeli startups are developing space products. This contradicts the fact that Israel has a powerful and accomplished space program and is a world leader in per capita start-ups and scientific papers. However, Israeli start-ups generally do not take space seriously as an option.Our country is not part of International Space Station The (ISS) partnership, the commercial space platform, opens new horizons in Israeli space.
The seeds of change are already here.Israel is participating Of Axiom Space The first all-civilian crew mission to the Ax-1, ISS. The 10-day Ax-1 will be launched by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday (April 8) with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Israeli component of Ax-1, Rakia mission (Opens in a new tab)Is being promoted by the Ramon Foundation, a private non-profit organization, with the support of the Israeli government. Rakia is headed by Eitan Stive, one of the four Ax-1 crew members who will be the second Israeli in the universe. (The first was Ilan Ramon. He was one of the seven astronauts killed in. The 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy.. The Ramon Foundation is named after him. )
Rakia offered Israeli companies the opportunity to participate in missions and send experiments to the ISS, and the reaction was enthusiastic. More than 1,500 start-ups and research institutes have participated in space webins and meetups to explore new possibilities. Rakia allowed 35 people to experiment on the ISS in 2022. These groups have increased Israel’s presence on the ISS by 3,000%. Most of these experiments were designed by skilled start-ups, hospitals and renowned professors and will lead to new space products and hundreds of scientific articles.
If this could be done in a year, imagine the future of science away from Earth when a private space station goes online.
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