While Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk send people into orbit, real-time mapping of the Earth has much broader applications, writes Ray Jayawardhana, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of astronomy, in Wall Street Journal commentary.
“One may be tempted to dismiss the surge of private space activity as much ado about billionaires’ bragging rights,” Jayawardhana writes in the piece. “But the new space era has more to do with big data than big egos.”