Exploring the impact of technology on humanity and the planet by Stuart Buchanan
Attending my first Farnborough International Airshow put a lot of things in perspective for me. While I don’t think, to paraphrase the US Vice President Kamala Harris, that I just fell out of a coconut tree, it was a useful reminder to see the space sector as it exists in the context of everything around it.
And there was a lot to take in. There are four massive exhibition halls, tons of stalls and pop-up spaces, and an extensive outdoor area running the length of the runway to explore. I’m not entirely sure I even saw all the areas of the show. My focus was to support AstroAgency and their clients, so naturally I spent most of my time in the Space Zone, which is usually a film studio for the rest of the year (which also meant we had slightly better soundproofing every time a noisy aeroplane flew directly overhead). AstroAgency offers communications and marketing expertise, as well as market guidance, to the space sector, working with government agencies, private companies, and academia. I was mainly there to do videography, something I have plenty of experience with, and hope to see more of being used in the sector.
This wasn’t my first rodeo… but it was my second, so yes, a lot of what I heard and saw was new to me. There were plenty of interesting and innovative companies to learn about there, from those improving how satellites are built, to others finding new ways to launch, and even those creating better interfaces for managing satellite data.
This is a small but growing sector in the UK, and somehow you can feel that. People are well connected and seem to know each other, and while some companies may be in direct competition, the atmosphere feels more collaborative than anything else. I’m still getting to know people, but everyone I met was friendly and welcoming. I even came across a few others who, like me, had only recently joined the sector.
It was great to see how popular the Space Scotland stand was throughout the event. Sure, it may have had something to do with the free-flowing Irn-Bru, Tunnock’s Teacakes and whisky that was on offer, but it was also a real hive of discussion, networking and activity. Scotland plays an outsized role in the UK space sector, and with lots of promising developments in the field of launch, and elsewhere, it will likely continue to punch above its weight, bringing jobs and investment to the country.
From my (albeit new-ish) perspective, this sector is finding ways of solving real problems here on Earth. We are already completely reliant on satellites for our modern world, whether we think about that in our daily lives or not. We do need more of them up there, but we also need to address issues around the satellites already there, old and defunct ones, and the way we build and launch new ones. The applications for satellite technology are vast, and can help improve industries ranging from agriculture to aviation, cybersecurity to search and rescue. They will be essential for addressing the climate emergency, largely created by the fossil fuel industry (of which Scotland and indeed the UK have also contributed to).
So, on the whole, I enjoyed the Space Zone and believe that the work on display within it is creating a net positive impact on the world. I wish I could say the same about the rest of what I saw at Farnborough.
It was mainly an arms fair, with weapons, missiles, bombers and fighters all proudly on display. It was where the cliched men in blue suits and dark shades were making million-dollar purchases of technology designed to kill. I don’t think I’ve ever attended the same event as actual arms dealers before, and it was eye-opening how much of the event was geared to that audience. The biggest names in the arms industry were there, taking up huge stands and displays, sponsoring billboards and meeting spaces and conference freebies. These are the companies fuelling war and conflict around the world right now.
That realisation carried through to the aerial displays I got to see, obviously a major part of the Farnborough Airshow. I probably haven’t seen an air show since I was a child, and I remember the exhilarating thrill of watching some powerful, roaring jet swooping by, doing loops and other tricks. This time around, it was hard to square that feeling with the realisation that the same sight is being visited upon other parts of the world and inducing pure terror. The jets being flown at Farnborough are, for example, also dropping bombs on Gaza.
I should say that there was also a large civilian section to the show, and I was excited to see some cutting edge examples of upcoming eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. Others are innovating in the area of sustainability. There was a lot to take in, and I’m quite sure that out in the real world, the lines between what a new technology is used for are blurred. I’m not naïve to the fact that many of the products we take for granted were developed by the military, including the satellites I was extolling the virtues of earlier. If you really start down that slippery slope, you’d have to include duct tape, super glue and canned food on the list. Everything from GPS to microwave ovens started as military hardware.
I know that this is the reality of our world — R&D budgets for defence are absolutely massive compared to elsewhere, and so this is the natural ‘flow’ of technological innovation towards other applications. While I recognise that, I don’t have to agree with it, or stop imagining it could be another way.
I definitely feel like I learned a lot at Farnborough. I’ll still be thinking about the net benefit of the technologies on display, and the role the space sector can play in imagining a better world. Personally, I think that space has always been aspirational. It has piqued our curiosity as a species ever since we had the ability to look up at the night sky. Sure, sometimes it also terrified us, before we had a better understanding of strange and unusual phenomena, but there was still a sense of reverence about it. And then delight, as we applied our minds and began to understand the nature of our universe. The space sector can distinguish itself — and indeed must do if it continues to be surrounded by the adjacent sectors I saw at Farnborough — as a positive, aspirational force for good, that will bring benefit to humanity, and the planet as a whole, as it continues to grow.
Stuart Buchanan
Comments