Jeff Bezos wants to colonize space by building a permanent outpost on the moon. Richard Branson wants to make space travel as commonplace as air travel. Elon Musk wants to settle Mars to make humanity multiplanetary.
IBX’s Kam Ghaffarian is aiming for even more stars.
“There’s a commonality between altruism, doing good with a purpose, and combining that with capitalism to have a positive impact,” he told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Ta. “The vision of IBX is to protect our home, our Earth, and to find a new home, a star, and everything involved for that. So, on the space side, the ultimate destiny of humanity. is interstellar travel, to go there.”For stars, this requires many intermediary steps. ”
That might sound far-fetched without his track record. Mr. Ghaffarian has co-founded and invested in commercial space venture executives and helped usher in a new space economy.
Listed intuitive machineThe company, of which Ghaffarian is co-founder and executive chairman, recently made history when its Odysseus spacecraft successfully landed on the moon, becoming the first commercial lander.
Mr. Ghaffarian is also co-founder and chairman of Axiom Space. The company now regularly sends private astronauts to the International Space Station on commercial missions (the first company authorized to connect modules and provide full-service missions to the ISS). your own space station.
Quantum Universe, of which he is executive chairman, focuses on deep space commerce and communications through a superhighway of satellites stretching from Earth’s orbit to the moon and beyond. The company he founded, X-Energy, has developed operating nuclear reactors and nuclear propulsion capabilities that the company claims are “designed to be inherently safe.”
His family’s office, IBX (short for “Imagine, Believe, Do”), is at the heart of this space exploration.
“We have to do all the intermediate steps. I’m with Elon.” [Musk] and jeff [Bezos]The first thing, dear friends, is to be able to do LEO. [low earth orbit]We will be able to go to the moon and Mars. Because you have to do those things before you can do interstellar travel,” Ghaffarian explained on CNBC’s Manifest Space Podcast.
Follow and listen on CNBC Podcast “Manifest Space”Get the podcast wherever you are, hosted by Morgan Brennan.
Unlike other prominent billionaires who have founded commercial space companies, Mr. Ghaffarian made his fortune in the space industry and, rather than focusing on access to space, took advantage of falling costs to build infrastructure in space. building structures and business activities.
The Iranian-born entrepreneur, who immigrated to the United States about 45 years ago, co-founded a government services company called Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies and became NASA’s top contractor before KBR acquired the agency in 2018.
“You can build a great company and develop an incredible technology, but if no one wants to buy it or there’s no business case for it, you haven’t really made any difference.” Ghaffarian said. “How do you build a business model that can deliver significant returns to investors while creating change with purpose?”
Ghaffarian believes the space economy is worth trillions of dollars, and it will happen sooner than many think. He believes technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and quantum computing are essential to unlocking the full potential of the universe.
He said microgravity-based pharmaceutical research and industrial production, sustainable propulsion and energy sources, and building lunar infrastructure will be some of the functions and services that will become more in demand in the coming years. Ta.
“It’s normal that people don’t appreciate the AI revolution enough. …When was the last time people valued the AI revolution? 10 years ago? Not really, right? And suddenly, now everyone There was a herd mentality of jumping in,” Ghaffarian said.He also mentioned his early days alphabet, Amazon, apple, tesla And SpaceX is even using air travel as a template for its space world. “I think we’re at the beginning of it in this space exploration and space ecosystem, space economy, and it’s not there yet, but my belief is that it’s taking off and it’s growing rapidly. I believe that they are underestimating the size of the market. ”
The space billionaire’s ventures will continue to shoot for the stars as investors take notice.