Arab women can chase their space entrepreneurship dreams with “Spacehackers”

Spacehackers, an initiative to build one million Arab women space entrepreneurs, has been launched by International Space City, a virtual commercial city based in the UK, dedicated to advancing the space industry.

Under its ‘Inspire Generations’ initiative, the project aims to provide online training and guidance to help a million Arab women in three key areas – trade and business, law & ethics as well as social impact, to launch their own space-related and responsible business.

Spacehackers

Spacehackers is an online, six-week leadership and mini-MBA training program that will provide the tools, entrepreneurial attitude and community encouragement required for participants to turn an idea into a business concept and become future leaders of the global space industry.

The word ‘Spacehackers’ is a concept coined by Space City to describe someone who uses innovative, low-cost techniques to speed up the space industry’s commercialization.

Space Industry

For smaller businesses, cheaper and faster technology has paved the way for them to develop and disrupt the space industry. According to Morgan Stanley, the multinational investment bank, the global space economy is expected to produce revenue of $1 trillion or more in 2040, up from $350 billion this year.

According to the American investment bank, the most critical short and medium term opportunities can come from satellite broadband internet access. It would account for 50 percent of the global space economy’s expected growth by 2040 and as much as 70 percent in the most bullish scenario.

Launching broadband internet access satellites would help push down bandwidth costs, just as data demand explodes, says Morgan Stanley analysts.

“Spacehackers are the new generation of space entrepreneurs,” said Ms Helen Rankin, the executive director of International Space City, adding that there are many similarities between the internet boom of the 1990s and the current state of the space industry. We can repeat our mistakes or learn from them we need entrepreneurs to lead the way, to set the agenda now on outer space law and ethics, off-planet social impact and interplanetary trade,” she added.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program, which was initially scheduled to be launched in March, was postponed. The first batch will start classes from 17 November onwards. Graduates, non-graduates and adult women of all backgrounds and ages in the GCC are encouraged to send applications. Applicants who are interested can register by paying $150.