Page 25 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

From Emerging Application to Mature Capabilities:
Retrospective Benefits

Although the lion’s share of economic benefits derived from the International Space Station (ISS) are
still to come, several examples of existing economic impacts have been uncovered. The examples that
follow not only illustrate the breadth of these impacts, but also the variety of ways in which economic
value both originates and emerges.

Air Filtration
Sometimes it’s not the research itself that leads to Sometimes it’s not the research
an immediate benefit, but rather the challenges that
must be overcome to conduct the experiment. The itself that leads to an immediate
Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) chamber hosted benefit, but rather the challenges
plant research investigations during the first five
crew rotations aboard the ISS. As a by-product of that must be overcome to conduct
their growth process, plants produce ethylene—a the experiment.
gas that accelerates decay. Therefore, a method of
removing ethylene from the chamber was required for
ADVASC to work. University of Wisconsin at Madison,
Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics,
designers of ADVASC, licensed their ethylene- The next example shows how space-based
scrubbing technology. This resulted in Airocide, a technology can give rise to new sets of goods and
residential and commercial air purifier capable of
removing not only ethylene, but also allergens, bacteria services, expanding both the value and number of
active participants in the emerging space economy.
and even viruses. With production capacity for up to
100,000 units in the United States, residential Airocide
purifiers can be currently purchased (May, 2018) for Earth Imaging
$600. Additionally, AiroCide technology has been
applied across a spectrum of commercial applications Started by three NASA engineers in 2010, Planet
where removing ethylene can improve the shelf life of (Planet Labs, Inc.) provides Earth observation
food products, including more than 100 Napa Valley photography from low-Earth orbit (LEO) by using
vineyards, as well as hospitals, commercial markets hundreds of small, relatively inexpensive satellites.
such as Whole Foods, and food manufacturers such Beginning in 2013, Planet used the space station
as Kraft Foods and the Coca-Cola Company. as a technology development testbed deploying
110 Earth-imaging satellites, affectionately referred
Airocide is an example of a spin-off technology finding to as “Doves,” using the NanoRacks CubeSat
beneficial use in multiple markets on Earth. However, Deployer (NRCSD). Their first “flock” of Doves was
it is not the only example of how the technical released in February 2014. The 28 satellites making
challenges of conducting research aboard the ISS up this flock were mounted on the JAXA Multi-Purpose
lead to the development of commercial products. Experiment Platform and placed on the Japanese
Such technologies have emerged across several fields, Experimental Module (JEM) airlock slide table for
including radiation-hardened computer processing and transfer outside the ISS, thus making this effort
noninvasive temperature monitoring. Xiphos’s Q-card a truly international collaboration.
processors, which have been demonstrated in multiple
uses aboard the ISS since 2004, are used today in Since 2013, Planet has garnered $183.1 million
industries where equipment takes a beating, whereas of private funding and secured two contracts with
Draper’s Double-sensor technology is used for National Geospatial Intelligence Agency worth a
noninvasive monitoring of newborn’s body temperature combined $34 million. In 2015, Planet acquired
in neonatal care products (see the Summaries of BlackBridge, a German company that possessed
Valuation Findings table below for more information). a five-satellite Earth-imaging constellation called

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