Ariel Ekblaw

We're lucky that the current administration does care about space.

So I think as an area where we can expect some additional government attention, it's going to be able to be funded.

But we do worry about groups like NASA having their funding cut and how that could change, you know, where other groups like us are able to apply to do some of this scientific and engineering precursor work.

I also think it's important to think about the ways in which we can democratize access to space.

So for some of this infrastructure we're building, we want people to know that you could commute to space, or maybe your kids could commute to space for a job.

We do see this kind of self-sustaining, burgeoning space economy, and there's enough investment and enough excitement about this that we think it'll no longer be purely dependent on government funding, which is really important for it to mature as an industry.

So keep that in mind if people are listening.

You might be able to commute to a job in space in the future.

Yeah.

So one of the biggest challenges we have in the space industry right now is the current carbon footprint of rocket launches is not significant at all compared to aviation.

But if we succeed in increasing the frequency of launches, which is what everybody wants to do, then it does really become a serious issue.

So one of the things that we think about to be able to achieve this infrastructural level building in space, we need to be able to do cleaner mass to orbit.

It needs to have a lower carbon footprint than it does right now.

So there's really interesting new rocket engines, liquid oxygen hydrogen engines that are cleaner than hydrazine, cleaner than some of the old types of rocket fuel.

There's also really cool new companies where it doesn't work for humans because we're a little fragile.

Our biology is very gentle.

But for things that are just mass, like cargo that you need to get to orbit, you might be able to do it with a mass driver or a slingshot.

Get it off the Earth without a rocket.

And so then there's less chemical propulsion burden on the planet.

So definitely a huge area of focus for the space industry.