Investors in the deep tech space are becoming more aware of the eclipsing realities of opportunity innovation and industrialization of the Lunar economy.
A Long-Running Pursuit Amid a Sleeping Village
In the tiny village of Golden, Colorado. year after year, industrialists meet with space economists on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines to discuss the future of resources in Space.
While the meeting has continued faithfully for decades, with the visionaries of the classic Apollo Age of NASA Space exploration dutifully meeting on the prospects of a real and easy-to-navigate space, recent years note a change. A shift in the Lunar economy has happened. What once was only visionary is becoming material. And with the material realm of this economy comes competition.
The Space Resources Roundtable is an annual event in the sleepy township within the Rockies. The village shares a home with Coors Beer Brewery, an isolated site that stands resolute in the sun, and an artistic community of stroll-friendly shops, restaurants, an ice cream parlor, and an Action Role Play comic book shop. While overlooked, in a place that has an almost unlikeliness about its air, the meeting sees recurring feats of groupthink with the brightest minds of the future of space exploration for the wealth benefits of humankind.
A Growing Society of Interest
The tucked-away, near-to-underheard meeting in Colorado is one effort among a growing field of investor relations in the Lunar economy. Earlier this year, Space Resources Week was held in Luxembourg, a European nation with a burgeoning economic demographic for the space industry. An assessment by Euroconsult released in late 2023 found data that projects that investment in the lunar economy will grow to $33 billion by 2032. Numbers project feats that are no longer the 40 to 50 to century-forecast pipedreams of the space economies' pioneering forebears.
Space Resources Week in Luxembourg took place in March and was moderated by Daniel Bierdmann of NewSpace Capital. Panelists at the Luxembourg meetup note that the Lunar economy undergoes constant development, and, as such, still has great challenges as innovation has yet to master the harsh environment fully. Infrastructure and interface building is the essential market for this region, as creating a “new ecosystem and new world” will be required.
As Options Increase, So Do Funding Methods
Investors take note of the new wave of different components a tech VC firm can finance when it comes to the makings of the Industrial Age of Space. Everything from robotics (a market that was forecast to reach $3.5bn by 2025 as long ago as 2019, and is continuously growing) to space tourism now has a market to back, as many court the idea of sipping Mai Tai’s within the safety of a Lunar Village ( already in the works courtesy of companies such as SOM.)
Investors look to a variety of funding options to stake their claim in the celestial gold rush. Online casinos participate by pushing options for virtual reality engagement with the realm of all things space and pioneering Cosmic financial opportunities. Lunar Strategy published a roadmap for crypto and de-fi to take their funding from pre-seed to the top.
As the doors to space open wider, so too the pipeline for bankrollers is expected to expand, with the financial system of space and the policies governing interstellar economies are being discussed.
Frontsight is developing stories on the Lunar economy, and what the financial policy of the heavens will look like. See more here or subscribe to Burn After Reading, your weekday daily brief at 5 am New York.
