Although the Space Coast was prepared for the end of the shuttle program, the sudden cancellation of its replacement, the Constellation program, left us scrambling for direction. What next?
Maintaining — or increasing — Florida’s role in space exploration and keeping our space workers from looking elsewhere for jobs will require government, academia and business working together to diversify Florida’s role.
Economic development leaders, brought together by the UCF Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies in an April 16 public forum, agree that Florida’s present focus on launch operations will not suffice as more of the space program is transferred to private industry.
Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, said business has always had a large part in the space program. Her organization has been working with “the usual suspects” for many years, including Orbital Science, Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance. She said growth in the industry will be bolstered by asking such companies “what is it that you need that this state can deliver in the next two years?” Some of those needs will be filled by companies already in the market.
Brevard Workforce is recruiting businesses to help place shuttle workers in new positions. Among the workers that will be seeking new positions are data management specialists, machine operators, project managers, electrical engineers, and quality control managers. To see whether your company can benefit from the organization’s efforts, visit the Aerospace Workforce Transition Program website.
In addition to three areas in which Florida already has expertise — launch operations, payload processing and ground support — Space Florida identified seven market sectors in which Florida’s space industry has room for expansion:
- Environmental monitoring, which includes applications for weather observation and agriculture
- Emergency management
- Life sciences
- Communications and robotics, which is a large part of defense as well as spaceflight
- Adventure tourism
- Clean energy, including photovoltaics and alternative fuels
- Development of new materials
With the International Space Station nearing completion, it will be available to universities and companies for microgravity experiments. Such work will need to be coordinated Earthside, and Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, believes Central Florida is the perfect place for that.
He said Lake Nona’s Medical City is an ideal site for the ISS ground node. Space Florida is reaching out to pharmaceutical companies around the world to educate them about the possibilities in this area.
M.J. Soileau, vice president for research & commercialization at the University of Central Florida, attended NASA’s Conference on the American Space Program for the 21st Century, held at Kennedy Space Center April 15. There, he learned that reaching Mars will be impractical, if not impossible, with current materials. The mass of such a ship would be ten times that of the ISS, as it would need to carry, said Soileau, “A year and a half of life support.”
He said entities in the Florida High Tech Corridor, which includes UCF, University of Florida and University of South Florida, are “working technologies that will be critical to the next phase of our space program.” Those technologies include not only structures but new materials: Lighter-weight materials and more efficient fuels will be needed to reach Mars.
Soileau said it’s likely that companies that will dominate in the development of these new resources “don’t exist yet,” but UCF’s Business Incubation Program can help entrepreneurs with new ideas be successful.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy set a goal of “helping make the I-4 corridor the Silicon Valley of space.” Soileau said this goal is achievable, given the “intellectual infrastructure” of the High Tech Corridor.
For companies and entrepreneurs looking to break into the space business, Soileau said UCF is prepared to help with research and development. “Give us a call,” he said. “We’re ready to play.”
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