Space Rovers Market Expected to Reach $998.3 Million by 2030

According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “space rovers’ market by type and application: opportunity analysis and industry forecast, 2020–2030,” the global space rovers market was valued at $431.3 million in 2019, and is projected to reach $998.3 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 9.2%.

North America dominates the market in terms of revenue, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific and LAMEA. U.S. dominated the global space rovers market share in 2019, and is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period, owing to large investments in the national space agency, NASA and favorable space regulations for commercial missions. Space rovers are special vehicles designed to traverse over rough, mountainous terrain of extraterrestrial bodies such as planets, moons, and asteroids. A rover is equipped with cameras, sensors, robotic arms, and other equipment to map surroundings and collect rocks, soil, and water samples. They help to examine atmosphere of outer space entities before planning a human space exploration mission. Several space rovers have been sent on Mars, Moon, and even asteroids over past few decades to find traces of water and/or past life. In recent years, the market for space mining has gained traction and several space agencies are planning to launch rovers and orbiters to distinct celestial bodies to explore presence of different materials such as gold, platinum, silver, titanium, iron, aluminum, cobalt, and nickel.

By type, the market is categorized into lunar surface exploration, mars surface exploration, and asteroids surface exploration. The mars surface exploration segment accounted for the highest revenue in 2019, owing to rise in investments for mars exploration missions by several space agencies such as NASA, JAXA, and ISRO.  In addition, continuous developments in improving efficiency of rover missions has allowed scientists to equip rovers with modern technologies such as its robust design, fully autonomous maneuverability, superior entry, descent, and landing technologies. Such technologies enhance success rate of space missions. Moreover, the lunar surface exploration segment is anticipated to show a significant CAGR during the forecast period, owing to various moon exploration missions, such as NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Chandrayaan-3, and Emirates Lunar Mission, planned in the upcoming years.

On the basis of application, the space rovers market is segregated into commercial/mining and research. The research segment dominated the space rovers segment in 2019, owing to the launch of space rover missions for research purposes i.e., to find traces of water and past lives on extraterrestrial bodies. However, commercial/mining applications are becoming immensely popular, owing to prospects of mining precious metals such as gold, platinum, and silver; and increase in participation of private players in the space mining segment. 

Rise in investments for space explorations across the globe and surge in investments in space mining are expected to drive growth of the global space rovers market. However, factors such as the high costs involved in space exploration missions and high chances of failure of space exploration projects are expected to restrain growth of the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, supportive government regulations are expected to offer potential opportunities for the global space rovers market during the forecast period.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis 

• The COVID impact on the space rovers market is unpredictable and it is expected to remain in force till the second quarter of 2021. 
• The COVID-19 outbreak forced governments across the globe to divert their investments from space programs to strengthen healthcare services to manage spread of the virus. This led to significant delays in space missions in several nations. 
• Moreover, nationwide lockdowns disrupted supply-chain as several space technology part manufacturers had to partially or fully shut down their operations.
• The adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in delays in activities and initiatives regarding development of innovative space rovers technologies. 

Key Findings Of The Study

• By type, the lunar surface exploration segment is expected to register a significant growth during the forecast period.
• By application, the commercial/mining segment is anticipated to exhibit significant growth in the near future.
• By region, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Key players operating in the global space rovers market include Space Applications Services NV/SA, Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH, ispace, inc., Maxar Technologies, Motiv Space Systems, Inc., Honeybee Robotics, Northrop Grumman, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Airbus S.A.S.

The report also includes space agencies such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), UAE Space Agency, State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS (ROSCOSMOS), European Space Agency (ESA), and China National Space Administration (CNSA).