By: Dawn Zoldi
Experts predict the global space industry will become a $1.8 trillion economy by 2035. Driven by satellite technology, resource extraction and international collaboration, this growth will also rely on solving three critical challenges: closing the technician gap, rethinking space infrastructure and establishing legal frameworks for extraterrestrial mining activities. In Full Crew Episode 68: Space, moderator Mike Pehel and experts Dave Barnhart (CEO of Arkisys and USC professor), Tracy Reynolds (U.S. Navy Judge Advocate*), and Tom Coakley (Executive Director of the Colorado Space Institute at Arapahoe Community College) provided their perspectives on these pivotal issues. Here’s the breakdown.
Launch the Space Workforce By Building Technicians
U.S. space-sector jobs grew 27% over the past decade and outpaced overall private sector growth. And long-term space industry hiring projections remain strong. In fact, 84% of companies expect to hire in the next 3–5 years. But this projected growth hinges on resolving a key paradox: the surging demand for skilled technicians clashes with outdated hiring practices and systemic educational gaps.
While headlines often focus on astronauts and engineers, 72% of open roles at Buckley Space Force Base, for example, simply require certifications or apprenticeships – not advanced degrees. Yet HR departments continue to overprioritize academic credentials. As a result, employers struggle to fill key space industry roles in satellite data analysis, composite manufacturing and cybersecurity.
“The biggest gap is in space data technicians,” Coakley explained. “A four-year degree isn’t mandatory for most of this work, but HR departments still prioritize it.” He believes that undervalued community colleges and vocational programs can help solve the talent crisis. “Employers need technicians who can operate ground stations or interpret telemetry – skills often learned hands-on – not in lecture halls,” he said.
Barnhart, a CEO and educator, agreed. “The term ‘technician’ carries outdated baggage,” he said. “In space labs, these roles demand higher precision than typical electronics work – yet society still equates value with academic pedigrees.”
Some space companies, like Blue Origin and Firefly Aerospace, value skilled trades and personal grit as much as formal degrees. Reynolds tied this to the need for systemic educational reform to emphasize “problem-solving grit” over rigid academic pathways.
The Colorado Space Institute at Arapahoe Community College (ACC), for example, is designed as a “work-tank,” according to Coakley. It offers competency-based programs in space data analytics, operations, manufacturing and business all while focusing on practical, stackable micro-credentials and certificates that align with real aerospace jobs. Students learn from credentialed faculty and industry mentors to gain both technical skills and critical thinking abilities that make them valuable employees in aerospace work.
What further sets ACC apart is its ambitious initiative to help students gain access to security clearances – a major barrier for entry into national security-related space jobs. ACC is collaborating with Colorado’s federal delegation, state government and industry partners to create apprenticeship pathways that could lead community college students toward jobs requiring security clearances. The “stretch goal,” as Coakley called it, is to get students access to top secret security clearances so they can do national security-related data analysis and operations work.
This model has already yielded results. Companies like Bedrock Research in Denver have bypassed tradition by hiring 18-year-old interns for AI-driven satellite imagery analysis.
In short, the technician shortage isn’t just a staffing issue – it’s a $1.8 trillion economic risk. Without addressing degree inflation and rethinking vocational education, the space industry risks delays in satellite deployments and lost global competitiveness. As Reynolds aptly noted, “It’s about rewiring how we think. Human innovators – whether interns or professors – will drive this frontier, not bureaucracies.”
Rethinking Space Infrastructure: Satellite Towing and On-Orbit Services
The number of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) continues to rapidly increase, with hundreds more new satellites planned for launch. Traditionally, these satellites have been designed as single use expendable assets. Once their mission ends or they malfunction, they become space debris and contribute to growing congestion in Earth’s orbits.
“Space is the only domain where you design and build something on the ground for one mission and one life. After it’s done, you throw it away. It’s the only domain that we do that,” Barnhart noted. Barnhart, his industry colleagues, the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) and others are all rethinking this paradigm.
Currently, no commercial service for satellite disposal exists. But the SDA has leaned forward, in lockstep with industry, to head this off at the pass. The SDA asked industry to propose commercial options for satellite servicing – not just towing defunct satellites out of orbit. The idea would be to provide a range of on-orbit services.
Barnhart’s company, Arkisys, as well as Impulse Space, Quantum Space, Sierra Space, SpaceWorks Enterprises and Starfish Space, answered the call to explore a range of innovative solutions. For its part, Arkisys plans building modular Orbital Ports designed to host, service, assemble and even manufacture in space. These “Ports” would function much like harbors on Earth, supporting a diverse array of commercial and governmental arrivals/services/departures and enabling a more flexible, resilient, and sustainable space economy.
Technology has finally matured to the point where industry can actually implement-servicing missions in space. Here, for example, is Arkisys’ Port Module building block testbed with robotics. Attribution: Arkisys
If successful, these services could fundamentally change how satellites are designed. This could eliminate the need for costly backup systems and make it easier to refresh space infrastructure as technology evolves.
Barnhart pointed to the SDA initiative as a pivotal moment as an inflection point for the next era of space development. It will be defined not just by exploration, but also by flexible, serviceable and sustainable infrastructure.
International players are also moving quickly in this arena. Japan, for one, is working with Swiss firm to deorbit dead satellites.
Coakley likened this to the dawn of a “space salvage” industry. “it’s not just about ‘recycle and reuse’ – it’s about thinking about extendability from the get-go.”
And that’s exactly what Barnhart and his colleagues intend to do – reimagine how to design and operate in space. “Typically, we integrate and build things on the ground and then launch them, and that’s it,” he said. “What we’re talking about doing now is completely shifting that to be able to modify things and do things differently on orbit.”
Technology has finally matured to the point where industry can actually implement-servicing missions in space. These missions, which could maintain, refuel, repair or even upgrade satellites and other orbital assets, will fundamentally change the economics and sustainability of space operations.
While there has historically been little perceived need for such services, increasingly both military and commercial operators recognize the value of extending satellite lifespans, adding new sensors or even reconfiguring missions on the fly – literally. For the military, this could mean refueling or upgrading satellites to adapt to new threats or requirements; for commercial operators, it opens up new revenue streams and market possibilities.
This shift, Barnhart explained, will demand new ways of thinking from both engineers and policymakers. It will also require anchor customers – like the SDA – to help catalyze the commercial market for space services.
The bottom line: space services are not just about cleaning up debris; they are about unlocking a fundamentally new approach to space operations.
The New Frontier of Space Mining: The Fight for Cosmic Governance
As private companies like AstroForge and TransAstra prepare to mine asteroids for platinum, water-ice and rare earth metals, these activities beg a pressing question: Who owns the solar system? The answer to that question could determine whether humanity’s next chapter in space becomes a collaborative endeavor or a corporate free-for-all.
Existing legal frameworks don’t cut it. For example, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 addresses the prevention of nuclear weapons in orbit – not space mining. Regardless, according to the Treaty, space is supposed to be the “province of all humankind.” The Treaty also contains a “non-appropriation principle.”
Today, only a handful of nations and corporations possess the technical and financial means to exploit space’s vast resources. This parallels the “gold rushes” of the 19th century, where powerful corporations were able to claim rights to resources. In fact, the 1872 U.S. Mining Law enabled this. It allowed for a “rule of capture,” where prospectors could claim mineral rights simply by extracting resources. Applied to space, this would also likely result in a “cosmic land grab.”
So, if a company extracts water from a lunar crater, do they own it? This would be akin to letting oil drillers claim entire oceans because they tapped an underwater well. Sticking with this maritime analogy, Reynolds, a Navy Judge Advocate, proposed a maritime solution. “Seabed mining laws under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) balance exploitation with shared benefits. Space needs similar regimes, before corporations write the rules themselves,” she said.
Barnhart recalled concern at a UN Committee meeting when salvage law principles were proposed to apply in space. “They scoffed ‘Space isn’t the ocean!’” he said. “But without adaptive frameworks, we’ll have chaos. Imagine a future where companies hire private militias to defend mining claims.” (Think: Avatar!)
“The answer isn’t deregulation,” Coakley added. “It’s crafting rules that allow growth while preventing a ‘Wild West 2.0.’”
Meaningful reform will require buy-in from the major spacefaring nations – the U.S., China, Russia and the European Union (EU). In today’s geopolitical climate, progress on this and many other issues will likely be stymied by competing interests.
Will we see corporate “States” like Wayland-Yutani from the Aliens movies? Entities with private armies and asteroid fiefdoms. Space mining may carve the way for that, or an alternative, future. Space mining is not just about technology – it’s about “defining humanity’s relationship with the cosmos” (according to the article). And stakes are cosmic.
“The next decade isn’t just about rockets – it’s about rewiring how we think,” Pehel aptly concluded. “From classrooms to courtrooms, space is everyone’s business.”
*Disclaimer: The views expressed here by Tracy Reynolds are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Navy or the DoD.
The articles discussed in this show included:
Space Industry Leaders Want Action to Fill Workforce Gaps
Space Development Agency Studying Options for Satellite Tow Services
EENR Scholar Monika Ehrman Explores Legal Issues in Space Exploration and Extraction of Resources