Ariel Ekblaw

But space exploration does so much more than just inspire.

Our space program has routinely delivered breakthrough innovations.

The Apollo program gave us the foundation of modern computing.

The International Space Station gave us LASIK eye surgery, contributed to that amazing technology.

And now, new technologies are coming online to enable lifesaving biotech in orbit and even deliver energy from space.

What makes all of this possible?

In the last 15 years, the cost to get to space has dropped dramatically, from over $50,000 a kilogram in the NASA shuttle era to now under $200 a kilogram with SpaceX's Starship coming online.

This is remarkable.

This is like FedEx.

If you can ship something around the world, you can ship it to space.

But the precursor space station, where so much of this amazing work has been taking place, the International Space Station, it's getting old, it's very cramped, and worse, it's about to be shut down.

It's going to be decommissioned in 2030, 2031.

We need new infrastructure, and we need it fast.

Unfortunately, current in-space construction is quite slow, difficult and dangerous.

All of the pieces of the International Space Station were assembled over 15 years by astronauts doing incredibly courageous and risky maneuvers in bulky spacesuits, basically building some of the most advanced technology known to humankind by hand.

This hand-built method doesn't scale.

Even if the cost to go to space dropped even more dramatically tomorrow, we only have room for about 14 humans in orbit, period.

The bottleneck isn't rockets anymore, it's real estate.

And we need a new solution for how to build in orbit and scale up space infrastructure for the public good.

Nine years ago, I started working on this problem.