Germany wants to be in the race for emerging space market and is preparing draft new laws and measures to attract private investment. The space market is expected to be worth about $1 trillion a year by the 2040s and countries like the United States and China and even tiny Luxembourg are making their mark in the industry.

Business opportunities in space market includes contracts for everything from exploration to mining of outer-space resources and European, Asian and US companies is gaining tracti9on and making themselves stand out in this evolving segment.

Companies like Airbus, which co-owns the maker of Europe’s Ariane space rockets, and Bremen-based OHB, are among those that are most likely to benefit from any future rise in investments in Germany.

According to the German economy ministry’s communication with the media, the new regulations that Germany is planning to introduce seek to limit the financial and legal liabilities for private companies in case of any accident in orbit, setting of standards for space operations and providing incentives to companies for new projects.

The new draft laws could be submitted to the parliament this year by Germany’s aerospace and space commissioner, Thomas Jarzombek. The German government has been urged by companies and trade groups for creation of a regulatory framework so that it provides encouragement for private investment in this industry segment.

“We are sounding the alarm that Germany and Europe are falling behind in space vis-a-vis China and the United States,” Dirk Hoke, defence and space chief at Franco-German-led aerospace group Airbus, told the media. “We’re at a critical juncture to ensure we stay in the top league.”

Germany is the fourth largest economy of the world and amongst the powerful in Europe. However, according to preliminary data from Paris-based research firm Euroconsult, as of 2018, the national space budget of the country was only the seventh largest in the world at an estimated $1.1 billion.

That space budget of Germany is miniscule if US budget of almost $40 billion is considered. That budget figure however does not include the contribution that Germany makes to pan-European space programmes.

Germany is however looking to get a lifeline to its own space program from the American space ambitions. European countries including Germany could claim a key stake in the market by being part of a  new lunar Gateway programme backed by US space agency NASA, Hoke said.

“In my view, it is hugely important that we participate as equal partners so that we are primed to develop and build technologies for such a gateway,” he said.

That program comprises of the designing and development of a small spaceship which would keep on orbiting the Moon and act as a temporary home for astronauts as well as a base for exploratory work carried out on the Moon’s surface for now and later could be a launch pad for missions to Mars. Finishing of the Gateway is intended to be done by 2026 by NASA. However the American space agency has set its aim of putting humans on the Moon by 2024, which could hasten the process of the program.

“It’s a global market. We have our customers and we will keep them, even if we have to run the company from somewhere else,” said Walter Ballheimer, CEO of German Orbital Systems, a Berlin-based start-up that builds small satellites.

“Germany was overtaken a long time ago,” he said. “But it’s not too late. If they are courageous enough and adopt a clear space policy … then we can still have a piece of the cake that we should have as a leading export nation.”

(Adapted from TheAsianAge.com)