Students and startups are creating the next generation of space exploration technology.

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Hong Kong
CNN
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The launch of ventures like Blue Origin and SpaceX more than 20 years ago sparked a wave of innovation in the space industry and drove down costs. Today, private companies dominate space launches and tourism, but entrepreneurs around the world are working on technology that will make space exploration cheaper, more sustainable, and more efficient.

Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin now work closely with federal agencies that are more focused on performance than cost, Phil McAlister, then director of NASA’s commercial space division, said in 2022. He added that an obsessive focus on cost and business opportunity will be needed to keep the industry moving forward.

On campuses and in classrooms around the world, students are working on ideas that could spark the next generation of startups.

That includes the students CNN met at this year’s Tech for Good, including students from ETH Zurich in Switzerland who are developing a three-legged jumping robot to explore microgravity environments and an algorithm-controlled parachute to return reusable rockets to Earth that could save fuel.

In Japan, 40 students from two universities have built a lightweight rover with a robotic arm. They hope it will one day be used on Mars to repair spacecraft or conduct research. And in Canada, scientists from Polytechnique Montrmeal is testing backpacks that can be attached to robots to enable them to work as an efficient terrain-mapping swarm.

Innovations like this could be key to continuing the revolution that has gripped the space industry in recent decades. According to McAlister, the possibilities are endless.

“We need a Starship competitor, maybe two. We need an inexpensive spacesuit, we need an inexpensive docking adapter, we need a quick and easy way to get stuff back to Earth, and we need a better toilet!” he said. “They’re just waiting for some disruptor to come along and blow them away.”