Space in 2029

alternative futures

The space industry is rapidly evolving, with the era of small satellites and megaconstellations bringing a change in the dynamics. Where will it lead, and what might make the difference?

As a part of the exploratory thinking informing my work on future opportunities and threats for the UK from space, I sought to understand where current trends might lead.

Need

For the purpose of my programme of analysis, I needed to define potential future scenarios and understand influences on the likelihood of each of them. Additionally, I recognised that a narrative approach describing different futures would be illuminating for my audience, both in terms of setting out a range of possibilities and of identifying inflection points.

Solution

I developed a set of scenarios describing more or less desirable futures. I described these three scenarios in linked narratives, offering readers an easy way to compare different outcomes for trends apparent in the space sector today. A version of these narratives is given below.