Kari A. Bingen, David Gauthier, and Madeleine Chang
Introduction
While the United States has long been the global leader in space, that lead is being challenged as nations vie for the same economic, security, and industrial benefits from space capabilities that the United States has long enjoyed. The proliferation of space technologies, decreasing launch costs, diffusion of capital, and stimulating government policies are affording more nations the opportunity to compete in space, with some countries—in recent years— taking surprising new leadership roles in space-based remote sensing.5 Further, the expanding privatization of the space-based remote sensing sector is creating increasing supply and competition in the international marketplace. Should any one country dominate the commercial remote sensing market, not only could it gain economic and security advantages, but it would also control the information narrative about the entire planet, from the environment to natural resources to human conflict.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) sought to understand trends in the global remote sensing marketplace. In 2021, it produced a ranking of commercial remote sensing systems across various categories of performance: a “satellite Olympics” that coincided with the 2021 Summer Olympics.6 The NGA product was informative and well received by the government, industry, and academia. It challenged assumptions by policymakers, many of whom “assumed that U.S. companies would be industry leaders across the board.”7 Yet, U.S. systems won “gold” in only three of the nine categories.
No comments:
Post a Comment