Technology Vision 2023 | When Atoms meet Bits #TechVision Earth and space 254 Moving over to Earth and space innovation—since cheaper—and getting cheaper still. Relatedly, the the International Space Station (ISS) began to house cost of satellites has also decreased drastically. Now, its 昀椀rst astronauts, nearly 3,000 science experiments rather than cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to have been conducted in space, taking advantage get into orbit, it can take only a couple thousand— of its unique conditions like microgravity to better also thanks to their smaller size.255, 256 understand how things work, or of its vantage point to look down at Earth or out into the depths All these lowered costs are fueling the space 251 257 of space. Now, advances in rocket and satellite industry. In 2021, space infrastructure companies technologies are making space more accessible saw record high private investments at $14.5 billion and useful for scientists—accelerating what we can (up 50% from 2020), and the industry overall is learn about 昀氀uid physics, diseases, materials, climate expected to generate over $1 trillion in annual sales change, and more, to improve life on Earth. by 2040.258, 259 Space programs were historically very expensive, With this level of growth and investment, there limiting access to only a few nations and their will only be cheaper and more frequent 昀氀ights to governments. Recently however, due to cheaper space, leading to more people and more scienti昀椀c 260 components and growth in the private sector, research there as well. Already, the startup Titan 252 costs have fallen precipitously. According to a Space Technologies is sending “both code and 2022 Citi report, between 1970 to 2010, the average crew” on space missions to conduct experiments in launch cost remained relatively steady at $16,000/ their digital space labs, essentially enabling “space- kg for heavy payloads and $30,000/kg for light as-a-service” for companies that want to perform 253 261 payloads. Then in 2010, SpaceX launched Falcon 9 their own experiments in space. This is exciting with a payload cost of $2,500/kg, roughly ten times for those who might want to take advantage of the