|
 Using the expertise of a defense industry that created technology
such as the "Iron Dome" missile interceptor, Israel plans to move
beyond its current focus on spy and military communications
satellites into producing civilian devices, some small enough to fit
in your hand.
"The idea was that we have a well-developed space infrastructure for
our defense needs, and without a big financial investment, we can
use it to grab a few percentage points of the commercial market as
well," said Issac Ben-Israel, chairman of the Israel Space Agency.
Ben-Israel hopes the country will capture at least a three percent
market share, but it faces competition from global technology giants
looking for new markets and industries. Some firms are already
pushing the boundaries of technology, such as Virgin Galactic
founder Richard Branson's project to take tourists into space for
$250,000 a ticket.
China plans to build its own space station by 2022, and Google
co-founder Larry Page is backing an asteroid mining company.
As with phones and computers, the space race is moving into making
things smaller, lighter and more efficient - something Israel has
excelled at over decades of designing satellites that keep an eye on
unfriendly neighbors.
 One project, Adelis-SAMSON, is designing three miniature, or nano,
satellites for the first controlled formation flight in space.
On a low-friction tabletop at the Technion institute in the port
city of Haifa, the navigation system is being tested in a cluster of
round robots, the size of dinner plates, that weave in and out of
formation like autonomous air hockey pucks.
The launch is scheduled next year. While in orbit, digital receivers
developed by a co-creator of the Iron Dome system will locate
distress signals on earth, with the three satellites using
triangulation to achieve pinpoint accuracy.
"We call it maximizing performance per kilo," said project head Pini
Gurfil, holding one of the satellites, about the size of a shoe box.
"The new propulsion system, the application for search and rescue on
demand, the software and algorithms, they will be really significant
for the commercial market."
For decades Israel's space industry was driven by security needs.
Since the 1980s, it has launched a series of spy and communications
satellites and is considered one of the top 10 leading space-faring
nations.
But its civilian program lagged behind.
That changed three years ago when the government for the first time
earmarked a modest sum of about 90 million shekels ($22.5 million)
to the civilian space agency, which then supported start-ups and
projects such as SAMSON.
Industry sales have since doubled to over $1 billion. And trends
favor Israel's market strengths, like miniaturization, digitization
and making lightweight systems, said Ben-Israel.
[to top of second column] |
INVESTMENT
The global commercial space economy in 2013 was estimated by the
OECD to be more than $250 billion.
In the past decade, commercial space ventures received more than $13
billion of non-government equity investment, said Amir Blachman,
managing director of U.S.-based Space Angels Network.
About 20 percent of that came from angel investors - wealthy
individuals who fund start-ups in return for a stake - and venture
capitalists. That number is rising and Blachman expects to see the
same growth in Israel.
"Because it has a broad spectrum of proven expertise and knowledge,
Israel is ripe to have a lot of start-ups and those start-ups will
have a lot of amazing technologies for export," he said.
One company, SpacePharma, developed a laboratory that fits in the
palm of your hand and will orbit in a nano-satellite, allowing
scientists to conduct experiments and watch them happen on their
smart phones.
Drug companies, food makers and others spend about $3 billion a year
to access the microgravity of space, but only those with big enough
budgets and political connections can send their research to
astronauts on the International Space Station for testing, said
SpacePharma CEO Yossi Yamin.
"We're expanding bandwidth that is very tight to allow more end
users," he said. "This is an endless market."
Rather than paying millions of dollars for an experiment, it will
cost a few hundred thousand dollars, he said. Their first satellite
will launch in the third quarter of this year.
($1 = 3.9957 shekels)
(Editing by Jeffrey Heller and David Stamp)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
