8 September 2023
Under the Radar: Rovers, Landers, Moon, Soil and Water – ispace on designing and building lunar landers and rovers; Market for lunar missions valued at over US$100b; Positioning against bigger boys; Navigating relationships with Governments; Role of Singapore in the emerging lunar economy
Can you imagine that the Moon may support a population of 1,000 with over 10,000 people visiting each year by 2040?
How about having the moon support industries such as construction, energy, steel procurement, communications, transportation, and even tourism and medicine?
It may seem a little out of reach at this point in time, but that is the belief of our guest for today ispace.
Founded in 2010, ispace is a global lunar resource development company that specialises in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. It was also the first space startup to go public via an IPO in Japan this year.
The firm aims to extend the sphere of human life into space by providing high-frequency, low-costs transportation services to the moon.
In particular, ispace US was part of a team awarded a contract to land on the far side of the Moon by 2025.
Aside from transportation, ispace was also tasked by various space agencies to collect lunar regolith and extract water on the Moon.
So far, the firm has more than 200 employees worldwide, with offices in Japan, Luxembourg and the US. But what is the value of space exploration, and to what extent does Singapore have a role in this emerging lunar economy?
On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian sat down with Jenna Tiwana, Senior Business Development and Strategy Advisor, ispace inc for more.

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