Second Seminar on Building an In-Space Circular Economy

Opening Plenary Session

How NASA Will Deorbit the ISS and Roundtable on Hubs and Consortia

Moderated Panels

Technical Presentation and Closing Keynote

About the Event

This event was the second seminar in a series of events on building the in-space circular economy.  The seminar was an opportunity to hear from leading experts, practitioners, and representatives from government and academic bodies to learn about the nature of technology applications to grow the in-space circular economy.  

Key topics included commercialization, investment and financing, and insurance for on-orbit servicing, in-situ resource utilization, advanced robotics for manufacturing and repair, and space situational awareness.   In addition, technology-agnostic approaches for developing, testing, and deploying applications were discussed to better understand the future of space-based infrastructure and its interoperability needs.  

The objectives were to:

1. Connect emerging space companies to build relationships between the public and private sectors;
2. Explore the role of government in fostering commercialization and the future of space-based infrastructure; and
3. Build an understanding of the in-space circular economy and the opportunities and challenges in commercialization, investment, standards and SSA.  

Key Takeaways

Session topics covered a range of issues on how businesses, academia, and technology can increase access and build the in-space circular economy, including:

1. foundational technologies to support on-orbit efforts such as servicing with robotics, manufacturing techniques and fabrication, and in-situ resource use or recycling of materials;
2. tools for material management and in-space utilization, such as utilizing resources found in space, like lunar regolith or asteroid materials for construction;
3. improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of orbit access with new materials or fuels;
4. encouragement and support for public-private partnerships to support collaborative efforts internationally; and
5. tactics for finance and investment strategies to support current efforts and enable new ones.

Who should attend? 

This seminar supports commercial space professionals, government agencies,  academicians, policy experts, and space engineering and technology solution providers involved in developing new capabilities, platforms, and procedures for building an in-space circular economy and transforming the on-orbit industrial base.  In addition, this seminar would be of interest to terrestrial organizations on both the supply side (biopharma, semiconductor, and advanced materials) or demand side (buyers in these domains) for materials that will be manufactured in space.

Learn about our inaugural event on "Building the In-Space Circular Economy" that took place February 13, 2025 on the event webpage here.