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Predictions for this year’s space economy and last year’s record-breaking climate data

These artist’s concepts show SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) on the Moon. NASA is working with SpaceX to develop Starship HLS to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back for Artemis III and Artemis IV as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign. At about 165 feet (50 m), Starship HLS will be about the same height as a 15-story building. An elevator on Starship HLS will be used to transport crew and cargo between the lander and the Moon’s surface.
Photo courtesy SpaceX
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NASA
These artist’s concepts show SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) on the Moon. NASA is working with SpaceX to develop Starship HLS to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back for Artemis III and Artemis IV as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign. At about 165 feet (50 m), Starship HLS will be about the same height as a 15-story building. An elevator on Starship HLS will be used to transport crew and cargo between the lander and the Moon’s surface.

Could 2025 change the space economy?

This year, SpaceX plans to launch its massive Starship rocket once again and Blue Origin is launching its first mission of New Glenn.

These two missions and several other planned launches could potentially change the space industry completely and lay the groundwork to send humans and critical hardware to the moon and mars.

But that’s not all. Space Capital, a seed venture capital firm, released its predictions for the year—saying that 2025 could very well be one of the most transformative years for space exploration and the economy.

The release called The Space IQ, detailed how things like AI, commercial space companies and missions to moon and Mars will change the industry. Chad Anderson the founder and managing partner at Space Capital and an investor in SpaceX said space technology powers the global economy.

“We expect to see greater focus on promoting the space economy and on commercial space integration into government programs,” Anderson said. “I think SpaceX is probably going to be, obviously, the biggest beneficiary here… because SpaceX has the market leading solution. So, enterprises and governments around the world are looking for enhanced capability, investing in space infrastructure to enable greater capability.”

One critical mission for SpaceX this year is to launch its massive Starship rocket once again. SpaceX hopes to use Starship for missions to the moon and eventually missions to Mars. With this moon to Mars plan, Anderson said the launch of this vehicle will help accelerate SpaceX’s goals to make the mission to Mars more of a reality.

Anderson said another key player in this economic transformation is AI technology. With new satellite technology, so much data about our planet and space has been collected that scientists need help to parse through it all

“This is one of the greatest opportunities, we think, for AI is to set it loose on this really valuable data and to start driving useful insights and information from it to enable us to address an infinite number of markets,” Anderson said. “Namely, top of mind is getting our arms around wildfires and being able to do something about it. Everything from getting the data down and actually being able to take action and do something about it in a time frame to make a difference.”

Our planet broke climate data records last year

Scientists at NASA and NOAA have been tracking Earth’s climate for decades. But in recent findings, 2024 was the hottest year on record going back to the mid 19th century.

From heatwaves in Mexico and Phoenix to rising ocean temperatures, extreme weather was observed across the planet. Gavin Schmidt, the director of the NASA Goddard institute for space studies, said there are several causes for this extreme weather like the cycle of El Nino and La Nina: the natural cycles of warm and cool climate patterns on Earth. However, the main catalyst comes from humans.

“The trends that we've seen since the 19th century are driven almost entirely by power emissions of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs,” Schmidt said. “Now, exactly what happens on a year-to-year basis. There are more things involved… Then there's the greenhouse gases, which we still keep on adding to year after year. So, we effectively have our foot on the greenhouse gas, if you like, and that's driving continued warming as well.”

NOAA's GOES-EAST satellite captured this image of Hurricane Milton from space.
NOAA
NOAA's GOES-EAST satellite captured this image of Hurricane Milton from space.

While ocean temperatures increased, global tropical cyclone activity was at an average. While things like El Nino and La Nina have a role to play in cyclones, Schmidt said activity will probably remain the same. However, as the temperature increases, the severity of cyclones, like hurricanes, will become more intense.

“We do expect an increase in intensity if a storm forms,” Schmidt said. “Some of the rapid intensification that we've been seeing seems to be associated with higher levels of water vapor and temperature in the atmosphere, and then the rainfall amounts associated with any particular storm. Those have been going up roughly 5 percent per degree Fahrenheit in the global temperatures.”

Schmidt said aside from NASA and NOAA scientists, it is up to decisions in the future to slow down the warming of our planet. While 2025 is in the cooler La Nina phase and Schmidt expects that to help moderate temperatures, this year could potentially be warmer than previous years.

“We’re keeping track of what's happening, we’re understanding what's happening, we're predicting how things are going to change in the future under various scenarios,” Schmidt said. “But those scenarios, what happens in the future, are very much up to regulatory authorities, governments, individuals, institutions, to decide on whether they want this to continue or not.”

Marian is a multimedia journalist at Central Florida Public Media working as a reporter and producer for the 'Are We There Yet?' space podcast.
Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."
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