The demand for a space exploration investment includes supporting companies and their missions to unexplored planets and has been a theme that many have tried and few can execute.
Case in point: Deep Space Industries was focusing on asteroid mining but ultimately had to solve an engineering dilemma of how to get out there and back, and to do that they started building their own unique propulsion technology; a water-based electrothermal propulsion system ideal for refuelling itself from icy asteroids. Investment fervour for space exploration was high, but they ultimately faced financial difficulties and their only real asset was the propulsion they were developing, which was sold to Bradford Space systems.
Admittedly space exploration investing represents a toxic mix of enthralment at the future and the unknown, the building of new technology to deliver it, and the reality of market forces and cycles. Remarkably, and also not surprisingly, there are a plethora of space exploration investors who understand the difficulties, the forward thinking business models (e.g. be it mining the moon, space based solar power, on-orbit data centres).
The best way to invest in space exploration is through a portfolio approach including some of the large space companies that pay dividends, through to some other junior space exploration companies that are exquisitely focused on high tech missions to hard to reach orbits and lunar locations.
All things considered, buyer beware: a well branded space exploration fund actually doesn’t have to invest in what it says it does. It is the new breed of space exploration startups that have secured funding that seem to be making inroads. Not all of them are listed space stocks but some of them are edging towards a pre IPO status. We will endeavour to add them to our growing list of space investments and keep a careful eye on how everyone can invest in sustainable space exploration. Back to prospective investors of space exploration companies, proprietary research has shown that they are aware and have the acumen to understand that these are long term projects but the payoff can be outsized even to the point of delivering an inter-generational change of wealth. Hundreds of years ago the exploration of new continents and the trade of precious resources created wealth for some families that is still evident today. As space exploration missions become more viable and tiered to real objectives and sustainable business models, the time has come where investing in exploration can deliver profits that are, pardon the pun, out of this world.