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Value to Market Opportunities for XPRIZE Teams in Billions
Google Lunar XPRIZE Competitors Looking at $2 Billion in Revenue Over Ten-Years
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — An independent study predicts that teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE will be able to access market opportunities worth $1.9 billion during the decade following the conclusion of the prize and worth $6.4 billion over a 25-year timescale. The study was performed by London Economics, a leading independent economic consultancy based in the UK.
Currently, more than twenty teams from around the world are competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a global competition to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon. The Google Lunar XPRIZE is the largest incentivized competition to date and aims to foster innovation and entrepreneurship leading to low-cost access to the moon and new commercial opportunities on Earth. The deadline for claiming the prize is December 31, 2015.
London Economics assessed the capabilities that the competing teams are expected to acquire, including knowledge, experience, facilities, space infrastructure, mission services and innovative technologies. Based on these capabilities, monetary values were estimated for established market opportunities, such as scientific and technical data, payload hosting, hardware and proprietary technologies; emergent market technologies such as lander systems, planetary rovers and lunar or asteroid orbiters; and opportunities for technology transfers to non-space markets. Future market opportunities, such as support for extended duration crew missions, in-situ lunar resource utilization and lunar or asteroid mining, were identified but considered non-quantifiable at this time from a potential market point of view.
“With the competition underway, many of these capabilities are in development or expected. Nonetheless, given that the Google Lunar XPRIZE teams are – by their very nature – characterized by strong innovation and enterprise, it is reasonable to assume that these capabilities will be established and not improbable that further market opportunities could be developed,” said Greg Sadlier, who led the study. “Notably, many of the opportunities we have identified could be served without actually winning the Google Lunar XPRIZE, or even achieving orbit.”
The study identified and quantified opportunities related to potential customers, including major established space agencies, emerging space agencies and the growing and increasingly numerous commercial operators. Sponsorship, entertainment and media markets were excluded.
“The breadth and the size of these projected markets are attributes of a new era of lunar exploration quite different from the Apollo era,” said Alexandra Hall, Senior Director of the Google Lunar XPRIZE. “Our teams and their investors are seeing future opportunities and taking the steps now to ensure that they will be among the first companies to leverage them.”
The global space economy was valued at over $304 billion in 2012 and is growing, with a 7% increase occurring in 2011. The commercial sector accounts for almost three-quarters of the revenue and the vast majority of the growth.
Source: http://moonandback.com/2013/11/21/value-to-market-opportunities-for-xprize-teams-in-billions/
