{"id":17561,"date":"2021-05-01T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-commercial-space-stations-could-become-the-final-frontier-for-data-and-cybersecurity\/"},"modified":"2021-05-01T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T09:43:09","slug":"how-commercial-space-stations-could-become-the-final-frontier-for-data-and-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-commercial-space-stations-could-become-the-final-frontier-for-data-and-cybersecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"How commercial space stations could become the final frontier for data and cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Axiom
An artist\u2019s conception shows Axiom Space\u2019s proposed space station. (Axiom Space Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What will commercial space stations be good for? The application that typically comes up would be their use as space hotels, or maybe zero-gravity research labs and factories.<\/p>\n

But space industry veteran Rob Meyerson has a different idea in mind \u2014 and in his role as operating partner at C5 Capital USA, he\u2019s able to put some money behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking for new markets is something we\u2019re highly motivated to do,\u201d Meyerson told GeekWire. \u201cData storage and compute is one market. Cybersecurity is another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The possibilities for providing data and security services on the final frontier played a big role in C5 Capital\u2019s decision to lead a $130 million funding round for Texas-based Axiom Space, which is due to send citizen astronauts to the International Space Station next year and could start laying the groundwork for its own space station in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of data that\u2019s created in space, but how valuable would it be to actually do compute and storage in space?\u201d Meyerson asked. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking with Axiom about that and helping them to form partnerships. How do we use the C5 portfolio in cybersecurity and threat protection to assist Axiom with their supply chain and their partners, to bring the most advanced technologies to that critically important area?\u201d<\/p>\n

In connection with the funding deal, Meyerson has joined Axiom Space\u2019s board of directors. It\u2019s the latest big move for Meyerson, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., and served as the president of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture from 2003 to 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Rob
Blue Origin\u2019s Rob Meyerson speaks at the 2016 International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico. (ISPCS via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meyerson\u2019s experience in the space industry goes even further back than Blue Origin, taking in a six-year stint as senior program manager for Kistler Aerospace\u2019s K-1 reusable launch vehicle (which never got off the ground) and 12 years as an aerospace engineer at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n

Related: How Starlink, Project Kuiper and other satellite broadband providers could change society<\/h4>\n

But it\u2019s only been in the past few years that people have been talking seriously about creating privately owned outposts in Earth orbit. Space tourism and in-space manufacturing no longer seem as far out as they once did, and Meyerson believes Axiom Space is well-placed to capitalize on the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of opportunity that we wouldn\u2019t have been betting on to come if we had done this in 2019,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in 2020, it was perfectly aligned, and we said, \u2018OK, well, here are all these services, and let\u2019s invest in the destination.\u2019 There\u2019s only one company out there that has this exclusive contract with NASA to access the node on the ISS, and that\u2019s Axiom Space.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Axiom Space will have the space station market all to itself. Other companies \u2014 including Sierra Nevada Corp., Bigelow Aerospace, Nanoracks and Meyerson\u2019s old teammates at Blue Origin \u2014 also have plans on the drawing boards.<\/p>\n

At the same time, heavyweights ranging from Amazon and Microsoft to Lockheed Martin are looking into ways to extend cloud computing to the space frontier. Satellite constellations such as SpaceX\u2019s Starlink and Amazon\u2019s yet-to-be-launched Project Kuiper could play a big role in those efforts.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so attractive about moving data processing off the planet?<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, there is a lot of data that is generated in space,\u201d Meyerson explained. \u201cWe can envision a number of use cases where that data is generated in space, transmitted back to Earth in one part of the world, and there are compute operations done on that data to process it and turn it into actionable data, and then it is transmitted to another part of the world to have action taken on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Space-based processing could dramatically streamline that data flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that doing those computer operations in space is going to reduce the decision timeline by fractions of a second, if not seconds,\u201d Meyerson said.<\/p>\n