How to invest in space: UBS boards on how to take advantage of the space economy

The list of companies that embark on the space race is as long as the text at the beginning of a Star Wars movie.

Amazon recently confirmed to Business Insider that it plans to launch 3,236 satellites into orbit, transmitting high-speed broadband signals to regions that do not have access to the Internet. SpaceX also has huge plans. These companies and others believe that satellites can help billions of people access the Internet.

An analyst at UBS believes that the transfer of high-speed broadband from space remains a major cost and technology hurdle, but will dissipate over time. This makes satellite Internet technology the bulk of Carl Berrisford's prediction that "the space economy" will triple to about $ 1 trillion in 20 years.

He writes that in ten years' time, the cost of launching a satellite will only account for 10% of what it is today, thanks in part to improving reusable rockets. Meanwhile, technological improvements will reduce the latency – or the time it takes a signal to go from Earth to a satellite, and vice versa.

This will make satellite technology attractive to Internet providers, he wrote, and it will also affect other areas, including data centers and the Internet of Things.

This, combined with companies like space business tourism, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, as well as other applications such as asteroid mining and space manufacturing, explain why he believes that the space economy will rapidly grow in value. $ 340 billion today.