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Morgan Stanley projects the space economy will hit $1.8 trillion by 2035. Yet most companies still dont have a strategy for it. Last quarter alone, multiple space startups secured seven-figure funding rounds. NASAs Artemis program also hit a major milestone. This is a very real, trillion-dollar economy forming in real time, and the window to get in early is closing fast. Critically, space is the first truly infinite domain of commerce. Unlike Earth-based markets, it offers endless potential for new infrastructure, new services, and new economies to emerge. And while many are distracted by AI or supply chain chaos, the next massive growth platform is quietly taking shape above our heads. Its not just rockets and rich guys. Its agriculture, R&D, and your next competitor When most people think of space, they picture billionaires in zero gravity or cinematic sci-fi. But the reality is that its becoming a critical infrastructure layer for future business, just as the internet did 30 years ago. The parallels are striking. In the early 1990s, many leaders saw the internet as a novelty. Today, its the backbone of the global economy. Space is on the same path, but with even broader implications. From biotech to agriculture to cybersecurity, space is already critically transforming industries. Biotech companies like Redwire and Varda Space Industries are leveraging microgravity for drug development and bioprinting, enabling breakthroughs not possible in Earth-bound labs. Agriculture firms are using real-time satellite imagery to optimize water use, detect crop stress, and improve yield forecasting. Platforms like Planet Labs and Descartes Labs are making precision agriculture scalable and climate-resilient. Cybersecurity providers have also been looking beyond Earth for years, as satellite networks become part of critical infrastructure. Companies like SpiderOak are pioneering zero-trust security models for space assets. The market is heating up and capital is flowing in In 2023 investors poured $12.5 billion into space startups globally, despite broader tech market pullbacks. Startups focused on in-space manufacturing, small satellite constellations, and launch technologies are leading the charge. The Artemis program is unlocking new lunar and deep space opportunities, while commercial players like SpaceX and Rocket Lab are slashing launch costs. Public-private partnerships are expanding rapidly. The Department of Defense is investing in space-based logistics and mobility. NASA is funding space-based solar power and commercial space stations. Private equity firms are acquiring ground infrastructure and launch supply chains. The smart money is building and pivoting, quickly. Four ways to make space part of your growth strategy Meanwhile, too many companies and policymakers remain tethered to earthbound thinking. The point of tapping into this market isnt to become a space company. Most companies wont build satellites or spacecraft. Instead, theyll find new ways to leverage the unique conditions and infrastructure of space to improve their products, services, and operations on Earth. Or theyll take existing products and services and fid ways to adapt them for space. Heres how to ensure youre positioned to lead in this rapidly expanding trillion-dollar market: Start thinking like a space vertical. You dont have to build rockets to benefit from space, but you do need to understand how the industry works. Study space value chains and learn where your products, services, or capabilities might fit in. Even surprising players can break into the market. For example, a small watchmaker in Albuquerque was tapped to build components for space-bound hardware. This wasnt because they were in aerospace, but because they solved a unique precision problem. Tap into satellite-enabled insights to optimize operations. If youre not already, look into ways your business can uniquely leverage satellite data for actionable insights, whether its tracking supply chain bottlenecks, improving precision in agriculture, or identifying untapped markets with geospatial analysis. Codevelop with space startups tackling niche challenges. Consider partnering with startups innovating in microgravity manufacturing, on-orbit servicing, or space-based energy solutions. Explore shared R&D that aligns with your industrys specific needs, like 3D-printed components or novel materials. Train your teams on space-driven opportunities. Upskill your workforce by collaborating with universities or space-focused research institutions. Equip your employees to identify how advancements like quantum communications or hypersonic transport could create revenue streams in your sector. The cost of waiting? Irrelevance. Its time to adapt, innovate, and lead. The companies that embrace space as a critical business opportunity will not only future-proof themselves but also define the next chapter of economic history. Every major technological revolution has created winners and losers. Space will be no different.
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E-Commerce
On a hot, oppressively muggy summer day in a city like New York or Atlanta, when you crank up the AC, it might not feel like its working well. Thats because conventional air conditioners arent optimized to deal with humidity. Your AC will run longer as it tries to deal with both heat and moisture in the airand if the humidity stays too high, your home can feel clammy or sticky even if the temperature is dropping. Because humidity makes the air feel hotter, you might not feel much cooler even as your electric bill climbs. But what if you could save 90% of the cost of your air-conditioning electric billsand actually be cool during a sweltering summer? That’s the promise of a new kind of AC technology that deals with humidity more effectively; its just coming out of testing and into commercial development. Though the technology exists, you’re going to have to wait (but not too long) before you can have it in your home. The innovations, from a handful of startups and larger companies, can save huge amounts of energy and provide more effective temperature control. As the planet gets both hotter and more humid, new tech can help more people afford to stay cool. It also can help the grid so blackouts are less likely in a heat wave. And with less energy use, it can help tackle the cooling paradox: the fact that the growth of conventional air-conditioning is a major source of emissions, forcing us to rely on ACs even more. The problem with legacy AC New technologies take different approaches to solving the same challenge. The air-conditioning problem really is a humidity control problem, says Russ Wilcox, CEO of Trellis Air, an air-conditioning startup spinning out tech that was originally developed by Harvard researchers. Standard air conditioners remove humidity and cool the air at the same time. When hot, wet air passes over cold coils inside the machine, it condenses, like beads of water on a cold drink. But because the system’s main goal is to cool, on a very humid day, you need to turn the temperature way down to remove enough humidity to try to feel comfortable. The AC has to run longer, guzzling more energy. Rooms can end up either cool and clammy or too cold. In some large spaces, like a movie theater, overcooling sometimes means that the heat comes back on, despite the fact that its sweltering outside. There are more than a billion air conditioners in use now, responsible for a carbon footprint thats around twice as large as that of aviation, and around a third of the electricity they use is for dehumidification. Emissions are also quickly growing as more people buy air conditioners. By 2050, the number of units in use around the world is expected to triple, causing emissions from air-conditioning to potentially double to 2 billion tons of CO2 per year. How the new tech works Cutting-edge AC tech deals with humidity separately from temperature. Trellis, for example, uses a membrane to filter water vapor out of the air before cooling it, an approach that is far more efficient than a typical air conditioner that expends energy cooling both the air and the water inside it. That gives us a huge edge in energy for dehumidification, Wilcox says. And we do it with an engineered plastic film, which means its a pretty passive, simple, reliable, potentially very cost-effective way of dehumidifying. Blue Frontier, a startup that has raised more than $36 million from investors including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, uses a salt-based desiccant to store energy that can later be used when electricity prices are high. During peak hours, the system uses the desiccant to remove humidity. (It’s like a battery, but instead of storing electricity it stores drying power.) The technology can reduce electricity use by 50% to 90%. Transaera, which raised an $8.2 million round of seed funding in November 2024, uses a type of material called a metal-organic framework (or MOF) with a microscopic tinker-toy-like shape. MOFs are “really powerful because they allow us to target a specific moleculeyou make the pores just the right size for that molecule to go in, says Ross Bonner, cofounder and CTO of the Massachusetts-based startup. In our case, we have tuned them for water. Transaera uses the material to coat a substrate, and then can add it to a standard air conditioner. Depending on the climate, it can cut energy use by around 40%. AirJoule, another startup, uses metal-organic frameworks along with waste heat to efficiently dehumidify and cool the air (and to produce pure water that can be used elsewhere). Data centers are target customers. Industry veteran Carrier has partnered with the startup to incorporate the tech into its own equipment. Two large AC manufacturers, Chinas Gree and Japans Daikin, have developed super-efficient air conditioners that use different sensors and controls for humidity and temperature. Its really smart design and smart controls, and the ability to sense and respond to real-time conditions, that enables them, says Ankit Kalanki, who works on the carbon-free buildings program at the nonprofit RMI. The designs from Gree and Daikin also use the most efficient components possible, from heat exchangers to compressors. Both companies won the Global Cooling Prize, a contest that launched in 2018 to encourage innovation in air conditioner design. Proven tech Over the past few years, the companies have been proving that the technology works. RMI recently partnered with Gree and Daikin to test their units in real-world conditions in India. They rented seven apartments in a city outside Mumbai and pitted the new designs against the most efficient ACs and mini-splits currently on the Indian market, looking at how much power it took to stay below 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 60% humidity. Earlier this year, after nine months of testing under different weather conditions, they published the results: The new tech cut energy use by 60%. Transaera began testing a prototype of its tech on a large commercial building in Houston last year. Our approach was, okay, we have this technology, weve proven it out in the lab, we want to put it through its paces and really see if it can perform and do what we say it can do, says Bonner. So we found the most punishing climate that weve been in. Last summer, when they went on the roof of the building for the installation, they measured the surface temperature: 140 degrees. It was so hot that the installers had to wear knee pads so they didnt burn themselves. After months of testing in Houstons ultra-humid weather, where a typical summer day might have a heat index of 110 degrees, the AC has been saving even more energy than projected. Now Transaera is working with a manufacturer to make a full-size prototype for testing. The path to market If you need a new window air conditioner, you can’t yet go to the store and buy one of the new designs. So far, the first product to come to market is a commercial one. Blue Frontier launched a 15-ton “dedicated outdoor air system” (or DOAS) unit earlier this year. Selling first to commercial customersfrom medical centers to schools to restaurantsmans that the company can have the biggest climate benefit with each unit it sells. “The conventional technology DOAS are the ‘gas guzzlers’ of the industry,” says Daniel Betts, founder and CEO of Blue Frontier. The standard tech of this type is very inefficient and energy-intensive. Blue Frontier’s version also offers energy storage so the units can run for four to six hours with little electricity use; that lets building owners make better use of renewable electricity and lower electric rates at certain times of day. The technology can also be used in smaller residential units, but that will come later. “It’s just a matter of picking a market entry strategy that makes sense to us and that helps our community the most,” Betts says. Gree and Daikin, the Global Cooling Prize winners, initially aimed to bring products to market in 2025. Their technology is ready, says RMIs Kalanki, who is working with the companies on commercialization. But it isnt likely that the ACs will be in stores this year. From a technical feasibility standpoint, I think that has been proven through the testing, he says. So its more about commercial viability now. One challenge, Kalanki says, is that international standards for residential air conditioners dont yet measure the energy used to remove humidity. Were working very closely with the international standards organization to really bring dehumidification into the conversation, he says. This needs to get reflected so we can reward the products in the right way and industry has the right target to design for. Though customers will be able to save money over time on electric bills, the up-front cost of the units will be higher, making them a little more challenging to sell. Institutional buyers, who purchase in bulk, could help jump-start the market, Kalanki says, noting, “That demand signal is going to be very critical for manufacturers to make those early investments. More commercial options are likely to be available sooner. AirJoule plans to be on the market next year. Transaera is now working with a manufacturer that will be able to produce its commercial units at scale after the current pilots end, and is already in conversations with customers. The technology has the biggest advantage against conventional products in a commercial application, Bonner says, but the company also plans to later make residential ACs. (It’s already made a viable prototype.) Trellis, which launched last year, is at an earlier stage and hasn’t yet started testing prototypes. The process will take time. “I think we have a lot of ambition of how we can manufacture this cost-effectively in the supply chain and make a robust product,” says Wilcox, noting that the team previously worked together on the development of the screen for the Amazon Kindle. “But we also appreciate that it takes some years to really make something robust enough to ship all around the world.” The startups recognize the urgency of their work, as the need for ACs and their impact continues to grow. “I’m always impatient,” says Bonner. “We can go faster, and we need to go faster. And we have a responsibility to future generations to make the difference that we know we need to.”
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When it comes to designing a safer football helmet, Jason Neubauer knows what he’s up against. “You can make a very safe helmet that ranks No. 1 for performance,” he says. “But if the players don’t like the way they look in it, it really doesn’t matter. You’re not going to protect anyone.” What Neubauer and his team at Schutt Sports have built with the F7 Pro could be one of the safest helmets ever produced. It’s certainly one that players are gravitating toward. Since the F7 Pro launched this spring, it has become the fastest-adopted helmet in NFL history. While Aaron Rodgers may not be a fan, an All-Pro roster that includes Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Travis Hunter (the two-way star taken No. 2 overall in this year’s draft) will kick off the 2025 season donning the sleek F7 Pro, which earned a top-5 ranking in the NFL and NFL Players Associations rigorous 2025 helmet performance testing. New helmet models don’t really peak in their adoption rate until about the third year, Neubauer says. It takes a while for players to get comfortable with a new look. Neubauer has spent more than 25 years developing sporting goods, focusing on extreme sports before shifting to football helmet design in 2016. Hes one of the masterminds behind the F7 Pro, whose innovations fundamentally reimagine how helmets protect against the defining threats of modern footballthe high-speed collisions that make highlight reels, and the thousands of smaller impacts that accumulate over a career. [Photo: Schutt Sports] What the NFL does right The NFL has caught plenty of flak forwell, almost everything. But its historical approach to player safety is high on the list. Over the past decade, however, the league has done what any smart company does in the digital age: dive into data. To better understand how and when head and neck injuries occur, the NFL compiles detailed reports on every head and neck injury sustained in practice or games. The league tracks actual on-field impacts using sensors and cameras, documenting the speed, location, and type of every hit. This information is then shared with helmet manufacturers so engineers can discern what they’re building to protect against. This data-driven approach is working. Preseason concussions dropped by more than half from 2017 to 2024, from 91 to just 44. This granular data informed the F7 Pro’s overall design philosophy. The information showed not just where and how hits occur, but also the timing, force distribution, and frequency patterns that traditional helmet design hadnt accounted for. Armed with this data, Neubauer’s team could optimize protection at a fundamental levelrethinking everything from materials to architecture rather than just adding more padding. [Photo: Schutt Sports] F7 Pro innovation: 3D-printed lattice Traditional football helmets work like old-school steel car bumperssolid structures that conduct the full force of impact, transferring it to the passenger. The F7 Pro works more like a modern car bumper. Its outer shell uses a custom material blend designed to flex under impact, while a layer of 3D-printed lattice beneath the shell does the real work. Research from Tulane University’s physics department found that a large defensive lineman hitting a quarterback generates impact forces equivalent to a car hitting a brick wall at 18 to 20 mph. You’ve got two guys who are 220 pounds running at a very fast rate and hitting each other, Neubauer says. You can’t get rid of that energy, so you need to slow it down to the slowest rate you can to minimize the forces on the brain. The F7 Pros lattice does exactly that with a network of microscopic shock absorbers, each smaller than a pencil tip, all working together to distribute an impact across thousands of tiny columns that buckle and bend in controlled sequences. “The physical nature of buckling and bending is what’s slowing the impact down, so you don’t feel all the force at once, but you feel it over that offset distance, Neubauer explains. Instead of each hit unfolding as one blunt force, the impact is more like a controlled demolition. [Photo: Schutt Sports] F7 Pro appeal: Lighter, sleeker, safer By using 3D printing to integrate various functional elements into a unified design, the lattice eliminated eight separate plastic components that traditional helmets required. The result is a seamless design that is lighter on players’ necks while enhancing protection, something traditional manufacturing couldn’t achieve. Schutt developed its lattice technology in-house rather than licensing existing solutions. Out there in the world right now, there are quite a few different lattice technologies that companies could choose from, Neubauer says. It’s literally like a drop-down menu. That would have been a lot easier for us to do. But we found that we were able to get a better-performing, lighter-weight result by doing it ourselves. Weight reduction is critical because players’ heads and necks endure thousands of impacts over a season, and every ounce of helmet weight adds to fatigue and long-term neck strain. But it also allows for a sleeker profile, addressing something equally important: The helmet looks damn good. Players have to want to wear it, and when stars like Jefferson and Chase sport the low-profile design in prime time, other players notice. It’s functional vanity at its finestsafety technology that doesn’t make you look like you’re wearing a fishbowl. [Photo: Schutt Sports] A new era of customization In 2021, helmet manufacturer Viciswhich had been acquired by Certor Sports, Schutt’s parent companyintroduced the first position-specific helmet, the Trench model, designed for linemen. It focuses on protecting against the thousands of smaller hits that accumulate from play after play in the trenches. Schutt followed up with quarterback models that prioritize back-of-head protection because quarterbacks are frequently slammed to the turf when sacked and can’t brace themselves. The F7 Pro’s variants optimize protection based on real impact data. And as the data gets more intuitive, new position-specific helmets will likely enter the market, with Schutt and Vicis leading the way. Its OctoFit system lets players customize foam pod combinations based on their unique head shapes. So a process that once required custom ordering and waiting for delivery now occurs in the locker room in real time. Its AiR-Lock system is activated by a small push button located on the back of the helmet. Remember the old Reebok Pumps? The AiR-Lock is similar. Players can pump their helmets up for a tighter game fit, then release pressure to be more comfortable in practice or during walk-throughs, adjusting helmet security without using tools or having to leave the field. This combination of position-specific protection with real-time fit adjustment represents where helmet design is heading: equipment that adapts to how players get hit based on how they experience the game, while catering to their individual comfort preferences. The future of protection Virginia Tech has an independent helmet testing lab that serves as the industry’s safety standard, evaluating helmets and assigning star ratings that guide consumers. When the university updated its protocols in July 2025, 77% of helmets that previously received five-star ratings were downgraded (from 26 to just 6), signaling that safety standards are evolving at every level. And as the NFL helmets evolve, high school and youth gear will follow. Schutt is partnering with national youth and varsity organizations to gather impact data similar to what the NFL provides, studying how younger players get hit and what protection works best for developing bodies. “The types of impacts that kids aged 8 take are very different from an NFL athlete,” Jeremy Erspamer, CEO of Certor Sports, says. “And we as helmet manufacturers need to understand that and develop technologies that specifically keep players at each level safe.” Schutt is set to launch a new youth helmet this fall, according to Erspamer, which will also be five-star rated. The number of concussions in the NFL decreased 17% from 2023 to 2024, reaching a historic low last season, while preseason concussions fell more than 50% from 2017 to 2024. The F7 promises to continue that momentum in 2025 toward a safer game for players at all levels. We believe it’s the best helmet out there at the elite level, Erspamer says. But what we also know is that in three years, we’re going to have even better technology. So we’re excited about where we are, but we’re even more excited about where we continue to go.
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