Space Technology and Tourism - Hawaii's New Industry

Space is Hawaii’s new business and technology frontier

Economists who have studied Hawaii’s past have commented that every fifty years there is a dramatic change that propels the islands and its peoples into a totally different direction. It may be that we are on the cusp of a new era that will replace tourism: space technology; Hundreds of launches may take place from Hawaii or in Hawaiian waters over the next few years as Privateer Space and other space companies begin using Hawaii’s strategic location as a commercial and administrative hub for future flights.

According to Privateer Space president and CEO Alex Fielding, whose first launch PONO 1 is scheduled for later this year, his company’s goal is to send several hundred flights containing satellites into space; these satellites would be mapping the space debris that is now so extensive in space that it is damaging expensive space satellites and even threatening the very existence of the international space station - which was damaged and had a mechanical arm disabled by a .5 mm hole from a collision with a random space object.

Fielding (co-founder of Privateer Space) who started his first space business in 2001 described the urgency of the situation this way: “When we started... half of the stuff in space… was trash,” Fielding said. The situation has only gotten more dire since. “You’re in a world with many, many, many more things [in orbit], of which those many more things are far more dangerous, they’re almost all in low orbits, they’re moving very, very fast, and they’re not well tracked or understood for the most part.” If things are not changed soon he warns there may be human space fatalities due to collisions with space debris in lower orbits.

 Privateer Space, which is based on Maui, has as its goal becoming “The Google Maps of space”. It plans to supplement the work of the US Space Force Space Surveillance Network, and is contracting with them, to monitor objects from debris to satellites in space. This is becoming important because current Space Force technology is not precise enough to pick up the small objects drifting in orbit and there are numerous collisions - such as which happened to the International Space Station which was struck by a small particle in low earth orbit that nearly ruined a mechanical arm.

Privateer plans to map the debris like nautical charts and sell it to governments and private space companies. Due to the increasing demand for satellites, it has been estimated that the Space Industry is now valued at 447 billion dollars world wide. The big players in the US are Elon Musk of Space X and Steve Bezos of Blue Origin, a space tourism company.

Fielding cofounded Privateer Space with his friend and fellow visionary, Steve Wozniak who is well known as co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs. 20 years ago they became aware of the extent of the space debris problem and founded ‘Wheels of Zeus’ as a company to chart loose space hardware. After numerous trips to Maui to attend and participate in the Advanced Maui Optical And Space Surveillance Technology (AMOS) conference Fielding decided to start Privateer Space a means of taking space surveillance to another level by actively tracking the debris with satellites. The AMOS conference grew from the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Hawaii Haleakala Observatory, one of the worlds premier observatories. One of the tenants there is the Air Force Maui Optical and Super Computing Observatory.

It was the confluence of the observatory and the Air Force space research that led to the AMOS conferences and then to the idea for developing a company based on Maui that would help scientists track space debris the way that the first maps were made to help sailing boat captains avoid coral reefs.

Fielding sees Maui “as a hub for launches related to ADR missions as well as on-orbit servicing such as refueling, tug/tow, ADR, etc where Privateer assists on orbit optimization, maneuver planning, and essentially helping our customers get on target using our Pono class satellites.” He already has a number of customers.

The first satellite PONO 1 will stay up for four months and will soon be followed by PONO 2 in April. The satellites will vaporize on re-entering the earths atmosphere. To make sure that their own satellites don’t cause a problem Privateer has contracted with Astroscale - a space company that has produced a space debris removal satellite.

The fact that Fielding is here, has the technology for launch and is starting its next launch in February indicates that the space age transformation of Hawaii’s economy is no longer a dream. It is happening now.