SpaceX’s Starship — the world’s most powerful rocket — roared into the skies last week on a flawless 60-minute test flight, drawing applause well beyond Texas, where it blasted off from. After a string of high-profile failures, the successful launch was celebrated worldwide as a turning point for space exploration.
For NASA, it was more than a spectacle: Starship is central to once again landing astronauts on the Moon in 2027 under the Artemis programme and, ultimately, to realising its bolder ambition — establishing a sustainable human presence on Mars.
But as one of NASA’s top leaders made clear at the TechBBQ conference in Copenhagen last Thursday, rockets alone will not decide the outcome. The future of space will be shaped by technologies far more familiar to enterprise innovators: artificial intelligence, digital twins, robotics and immersive reality.
“AI, VR, gaming, medical devices — these all have roles to play in space,” Dr Christyl C. Johnson, deputy associate administrator at NASA, told delegates: “We need every great innovation from every country so that we can move fast and keep humans safe.”
Why Mars, why now?
NASA’s argument for urgency is both scientific and existential. Mars once looked like Earth, with rivers and volcanoes, before becoming barren. Understanding why could provide vital clues about the fragility of our own planet. “Earth is an analogue to Mars,” Johnson explained. “If we see this happening here, we can make plans to move elsewhere.”
The Moon is the stepping stone — close enough to support but harsh enough to test the systems required for survival further afield. “It’s our objective to get to Mars by 2040,” Johnson explained.
The scientific mission is also layered with geopolitics. NASA has rallied 56 nations behind the Artemis Accords, which set out shared principles for exploration. China, however, has not signed — and is pressing ahead rapidly.
“Other nations who have not signed the accords are moving so fast that they want dominion in space — and it will not be democratic,” Johnson warned.
At the heart of the race is water. Ice at the lunar poles and beneath the Martian surface could be transformed into oxygen, drinking water and rocket fuel. In the 1960s space race, prestige was the prize. Today, the resource base of the solar system is at stake.
The legal landscape is contested. The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty prevents national ownership of celestial bodies, but the US has since passed laws allowing private industry to extract and sell resources. With commercial enterprises now in the mix, the “who owns the Moon” question has become unavoidable
What NASA needs from Tech
NASA’s needs will sound strikingly familiar to anyone in enterprise technology. Reading out her shopping list of requirements to the TechBBQ audience, Johnson said that AI was needed to manage energy distribution and predict system failures; Digital twins could create full physiological models of astronauts, enabling Earth-based teams to test treatments virtually before applying them in space.
She added that extended reality and gaming systems will help crews to endure nine-month journeys to Mars, countering isolation and even vitamin deficiencies. Autonomous robotics will be essential for 3D-printing habitats and performing surgery without human intervention. Food technology must reinvent nutrition for space — appealing, sustainable, and oven-free.
Navigation meanwhile will require pulsar-based alternatives to GPS, while advanced analytics must track and mitigate dangerous solar flares.
Johnson stressed that none of this is science fiction. “Some of the technologies you are working with — AR/VR, gaming, medical devices — we need help,” she said. “Innovation for space always brings benefits back home.
NASA’s history of cross-industry innovation is long. Algorithms built for the James Webb Space Telescope now underpin Johnson & Johnson’s eye-mapping systems. Shuttle fuel pumps became life-saving micro-pumps for children awaiting heart transplants. Even Speedo’s record-breaking swimsuits drew on NASA’s expertise.
“With impossible goals you come up with tech that improves quality of life back on Earth,” argues Johnson.
Commercial opportunities
The European Space Agency (ESA) is equally bullish on enterprise involvement. The space economy is estimated at $500 billion according to fellow TechBBQ panellist Stefan Gustafsson, ESA’s commercialisation officer. “More than 80% is downstream — satellite navigation, communications, Earth observation,” he adds.
The space expert argues that AI is transforming access to this data. “In the past, observation data was too complex. Now AI lowers the barriers so many more companies can use it for valuable purposes.”
For deep-tech firms, microgravity environments open opportunities in pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
Filip Stern Cedell, CEO of Sweden’s Pythom Space, went further: “All revolutions are driven by reducing costs. The only reason SpaceX dominates is because they lowered the cost of launch.”
Lower costs could enable industries as diverse as off-planet data centres, using abundant solar power and vacuum cooling to slash energy use and emissions. “Operating costs could be 97% lower in space than on Earth,” Cedell claimed.
Who pays?
Budget pressures in Washington are perhaps forcing NASA to lean harder on industry. The Trump administration has proposed slashing NASA’s 2026 budget by nearly 25%, the steepest reduction in its history, with science missions facing cancellation.
Johnson insisted NASA’s core goals remain intact. “NASA is fortunately apolitical — we’ve enjoyed support of both parties. But it is truly a space race now. It’s about getting there first.”
To accelerate innovation, NASA is launching Nexplore 2040, publishing 187 unsolved technological “shortfalls” and offering up to $2m for promising solutions.
According to Johnson, the pilot for this initiative is due to launch on 11 September this year, and universities and start-ups alike are being invited to collaborate across disciplines — from engineering and medicine to design and business — and to attract private capital alongside public funding.
“We’ve got to move fast,” Johnson said. “If you have ideas for those 187 technologies, let’s have a conversation and get investors on the table.”
However, Gustafsson and Cedell warn that Europe risks lagging. While China can issue a launch licence in three months, approvals in Europe take 18. “That’s why China has 17 companies that have launched into space, and Europe has none,” Cedell added.
For Gustafsson, the challenge is to foster competition: “It cannot just be SpaceX. Monopoly is never good for innovation. Europe is strong in machine tools — we export globally. Why not use those capabilities to build satellites and launchers?”
Downstream dividend
Ultimately, the greatest rewards may not be in space itself. From climate monitoring to AI-powered navigation, from cancer therapies to micro heart pumps, the dividends are already reaching Earth. For Johnson, that is the point:
“We need every great innovation to make sure we can survive in space. And every time we solve an impossible problem there, we improve life here.”
The race to Mars may be geopolitical. But for enterprise technologists, the message is commercial: the Moon and Mars are not just new frontiers of exploration — they are new markets waiting to be built.
Skills NASA Wants Now:
- AI & Predictive Analytics – managing energy, logistics, maintenance
- Digital Twins – modelling astronaut health at cellular level
- Extended Reality (XR/VR) – immersive environments for long-duration missions
- Autonomous Robotics – surgery, maintenance, 3D-printed habitats
- Food Tech – sustainable nutrition beyond Earth
- Navigation – pulsar-based alternatives to GPS
- Radiation Analytics – monitoring solar flares in real time