Small Packages

It’s the holiday season.  The time of year when Hershey Kisses are wrapped in green and red in addition to their traditional plain foil packaging.  Years ago, they ran an add reading, “Big things come in small packages.”  You can see an example here.  In short, they didn’t want consumers to miss the big chocolate flavor stuffed into such a small wrapper.

Thinking about space can conjure up feelings of relative smallness.  Our sun is relatively small compared to other stars, and even our planet is dwarfed by the gaseous giants in our solar system.  Visionaries here on earth have dreams of various sizes when it comes to space.  One of the most cavalier dreamers envisions occupying Mars as an alternative to the blue marble if such a move becomes necessary.  “Tiny” space firms have dreams which might be considered smaller, even though their efforts are large, and their outcomes would be monumental if realized.

Los Angeles is going through a bit of a space renaissance.  Yes, SpaceX moved their headquarters, but other start-ups forge ahead, chasing a different sort of stardom than that of the usual Hollywood crowd.  According to this article from the Economist, a few of these firms are launching projectiles capable of transporting much smaller payloads than those ferried by a Falcon 9 rocket.  They are working on putting crafts into space weighing just hundreds of pounds.

From a cost perspective, nothing space-related comes with small price tags.  However, on a relative basis, these firms are attempting to lower the cost for putting things like satellites and supplies into space.  America’s news cycle has some distracting headlines these days, but there are some real newsworthy developments happening in relatively small packages that shouldn’t be missed.