Experts encourage to create a productive chain in the country for the new aerospace era

Mexico observes humanity’s return to the Moon from an ambiguous position: although it has active scientific communities and growing technical capabilities, it lacks a comprehensive strategy to enter the new aerospace era.

In separate interviews, experts Gustavo Medina Tanco and Gustavo Cabrera Rodríguez propose that if the country aspires to participate in this stage of expansion beyond Earth’s orbit, it must strengthen at least three pillars: infrastructure, technological development and a legal framework capable of responding to the new dynamics of space.

“Where does the capital investment go? To those countries that have a more appropriate legal framework to carry out the activity. Countries like the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and even small countries like Luxembourg, have created innovative legislation for the space sector,” says Medina Tanco.

The case of Luxembourg stands out, which has sought a niche in the space economy, specializing in legislating on the Moon. “Many startups (recently created companies that are based on information and communication technologies) focused on the Moon have gone to base themselves there,” the expert points out.

Mexico has taken some steps in this direction, although intermittently. In March 2023, it approved a reform to articles 28 and 73 of the Constitution to establish that space activities, including the Moon and celestial bodies, are priority areas for national development, in addition to empowering the Congress of the Union to legislate on the matter.

However, the legislation was stopped in the Senate of the Republic. “Now a new effort is being made, we are trying to move it and from there work with the real actors in the space sector in the country,” says Cabrera Rodríguez.

Both experts agreed on the importance of Congress developing appropriate secondary laws, not copying legislation from another country, but rather making disruptive and innovative legislation to allow and promote the development of the space sector.

The country also has a historical gap in terms of aerospace infrastructure.

One of the few milestones in this area dates back to the middle of the last century: the telecommunications tower of the then SCOP Center, located on the Central Axis, and built in 1966 to broadcast live the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Another fact that illustrates the lag is that the country only has six satellites: two that belong to the Army and four civilians, of which three are dedicated to telecommunications and one is in disuse due to having exhausted its useful life.

Opportunity niches

Medina Tanco considers it a good sign that the federal government talks about putting a Mexican satellite into orbit and recognizes the relevance of space sovereignty. But it advocates going further and designing a public policy that guides the efforts made in the sector.

He agreed on the need to develop a medium and long-term strategy to identify opportunity niches and from there develop launch platforms, satellite manufacturing, technical training of personnel and construction of ground stations.

Mexico, due to its geographical location, has advantageous places to build launch platforms. One of these sites with potential is located in the south of Yucatán and north of Campeche. Even South Korea’s KARI space agency has expressed its intention to build a low-atmosphere rocket launch pad in Baja California.

“Infrastructure is essential, investments should be large and tuned based on the needs of the country and development objectives,” says the UNAM academic.

For the development of technology, experts emphasize the importance of discovering opportunity niches: “We cannot get into everything. We have to detect where we can be competitive and innovative.”

They mention that in the case of economic expansion to the Moon, one of these niches to develop in Mexico is mining. So far the most solid example in this area is the Colmena project, Mexico’s first space mission to the Moon led by Medina Tanco.

In the country there are at least 10 universities that have careers linked to aerospace engineering, in addition to half a dozen relevant companies in the space world based in states such as Querétaro, as well as industrial headquarters that manufacture parts for SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company.

In this scenario, Cabrera Rodríguez spoke out in favor of creating an industrial economy policy: “let’s go from being manufacturers to entrepreneurs. If the workforce is recognized, if the certifications are given to us, then let’s grow, let’s create a productive chain.”

For both specialists, the challenge for Mexico in the new aerospace era is not only to define if it wants to participate, but to establish how, for what and with what development model it wants to do so.