Finnish expertise, branding, and especially reliability are a perfect fit for the space industry

Share X LinkedIn Facebook

We are publishing writings on our website from the essay collection Vision 2040 – When Finland Acted Boldly and Without Prejudice. Perttu Yli-Opas, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, envisions that by 2040, Finland will be a leading nation in the space industry.

In 2040, Finland has an excellent opportunity to be a key global player in the space sector. Finnish companies are expanding their offerings beyond SAR radar data into various other downstream applications—not only in remote sensing (Earth Observation) but also by integrating space technology with other Finnish expertise. By the 2020s, nearly every industrial sector would already be benefiting from space technology, and its role would only grow more centrally in the coming decades. For instance, in the field of cybersecurity, space will play an irreplaceable role in quantum key cryptography.

Additionally, Finland has much to contribute on the upstream side: Finnish companies are already capable of building all satellite subsystems, and this expertise is rapidly advancing. The so-called New Space industry requires agility that traditional large space players cannot match, and new companies will capture the majority of the market. Finland will play a significant role in this thanks to Finnish expertise and reliability. This capability will be a major export for Finland, as all satellite subsystems will be produced domestically by 2024.

The space sector has already been instrumental in solving several global challenges. Aurora’s role in the space industry is to enable broader use of space without increasing space debris, which could eventually block access to space. Global regulators have become aware of these challenges, but technological solutions are not yet advanced enough to enable large-scale operations. Aurora’s products provide the capabilities needed for sustainable use of space, offering scalable and affordable solutions that allow even small satellites to be used in the future.
Moreover, Aurora’s technologies enable all movement in space: one notable Finnish innovation, the electric sail powered by solar wind, allows small spacecraft to move within the solar system, supporting manned Mars missions and asteroid mining prospecting. It enables the measurement of an asteroid’s chemical composition with much smaller spacecraft.

The space sector has evolved significantly by 2040. Strict sustainability regulations have been implemented: space debris can no longer be created. Not only is debris generation mitigated, but it is actively removed. The entire space industry has grown about fivefold, to just over €2 trillion, with the small satellite segment expanding to €75 billion—a more than 20-fold increase compared to 2024. Most of the value comes from downstream applications, but the upstream market is growing at the same pace, especially in the small satellite propulsion market, which is expanding more rapidly due to regulations mandating propulsion systems on every satellite.

Finland succeeded in making the right decisions to realize Vision 2040. Public funding instruments supported the long development cycles of deep tech, attracting the interest of global private investors in Finnish space technology. Although some technologies did not reach the market, those that did brought in exponentially more foreign investment and revenue. Finnish expertise grew, partly due to new academic programs at universities and partly due to foreign experts moving to Finland. The government not only facilitated the immigration process for experts but also promoted Finland’s space sector globally, attracting talent to follow Finnish companies’ recruitment efforts.

Potential threats to the 2040 vision include the depletion of public funding and a catastrophic increase in space debris, for example, through missile destruction of satellites, which could multiply orbital debris and cause a regression in the entire space sector.

We must believe that Finnish expertise, branding, and especially reliability are a perfect fit for the space industry. Let’s make Finland one of the biggest players in the new space era!

Perttu Yli-Opas, Aurora Propulsion Technologies

(Picture: Vision 2040 launch event 19.8.2024.)