Stellar Singularity! What? And how?

Last week someone asked me – “Stellar Singularity! What? And, how?” 

I explained why leaders need to recognize that we are moving towards Stellar Singularity - one of the most exciting journeys in human history. We are entering the age of the robust spacefaring economy — where technology, life and business operate together across the cosmic landscape. 

My recent article "Is NASA’s $34 Billion Budget Worth It?", discusses how the democratization of technology is also democratizing access to space. Outer space will soon serve as a medium to provide access to content and services. Space will transform how businesses will operate. Companies are testing how materials react in microgravity in their development of novel drugs. Insurance companies will begin using real-time satellite data to measure risk around the globe and will be able to expedite natural disaster claims based on satellite sensors. Insurtech companies provide free data sets for insurance companies to base quotes. Biotech companies plan to leverage micro gravity to execute precise layering in an artificial retina designed to heal blindness.  

 Space technology can create a more equitable world by reducing global poverty (more on this, another time). 

“Stellar Singularity” is the book title that came to mind as I sat in Amma’s house in Vengoor, a tiny, remote, rural village in Kerala, India. Acha and she had returned to live there after decades of life and travel in other places. Vengoor is a big contrast to Mumbai, London, Jerusalem, Cairo, Chicago, New York, Detroit and other latitudes. Even resident Keralites complain that the village is difficult to get to, hard to find, an “ugramam”. My parents left, and decades later they had returned home.

This was late August. The monsoons had fled, leaving behind a few petulant, storms. Rain thundered like a waterfall over the roof of the “nedumittam” (internal courtyard). The internet was cutting in and out, thanks to the location, architecture and walls of the house. I had given up working on the shared drive, and just edited the downloaded copy, making sure my laptop was unplugged and protected from the lightening. I was still noodling on the book title and needed to lock it down. 

We were in Vengoor to celebrate Amma’s 80th birthday. It was just the five of us - Amma, Acha, Chechi, Dalla and me.  Attire was mostly PJs. No big celebrations, gatherings, baptisms, or weddings. We just stayed home. Spouses and kids didn't join. This week, we shed all our other roles. We were just Amma’s children, three siblings and sisters together.

 We ate around the dining table – the same ancient table from the Bombay flat, in great condition , and with the new tablecloth! As I used my fingers to separate the bones of the karimeen, I reflected on our travels. We had all seen and grown so much - no squabbles over clothes, the speed of the fan, or Pink Floyd music volume (all topics of epic arguments while growing up).

We had learned to love each other more and love more people.

We partnered across staggering distances, protecting relationships and keeping them sacred across time and place. Yet, we expected acceleration in the pace of our lives, travel, ambiguity, and unknowns. More challenge. But, also, more goodness. 

The global economy will transform with commercial space exploration on the horizon. Based on available data from mostly the United States and Europe, Bank of America expects the space economy to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6 percent, growing 230 percent, to about $1.1 trillion in 2030 from $424 billion in 2019. This does not include the unseen, uncounted value and potential in India, China, KSA and other spacefaring nations.

Global collaboration and competition will affect the space (and global) economy in ways we cannot fully calculate. 

Stellar Singularity signals Unity. Progress. Optimism.