Build like a Space Architect

If you haven’t already, subscribe and join our community in receiving weekly tech insights, updates, and interviews with industry experts straight to your inbox.

Be inspired and expand your perspective with weekly insights and interviews from the global LEAP community. 

This week we’re quoting…

5 different LEAP speakers. All of them work in space tech. 

Why? 

Because every system on a spacecraft has to talk to every other system. Every kilogram counts. Every test is done twice.

In space, there’s no ‘we’ll fix it later.’ 

And that same discipline runs through the work of LEAP speakers who live and breathe space. Some of them are building connectivity for moving cars, while others are designing habitats for Mars; but they all share a toolkit of principles that apply perfectly to building tech on Earth. 

Here are five you can steal. 

1. Design for extremes first

“Explorers will embark on a six-hour journey in the world’s first Space Lounge – complete with Wi-Fi, a lavatory that we are calling the Space Spa, and the largest windows ever flown to space.”

– Jane Poynter (Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Space Perspective)

Space Perspective’s capsule will ascend 100,000 feet, where pressure drops and temperatures plummet. Yet on board, passengers will sip cocktails and browse Wi-Fi.

You might not be building something to send into space. But when you design for extreme conditions, everything else becomes easier. Test your product in environments where failure would be serious. 

It’ll push you to focus on reliability. And that’s really important – because when your tech is reliable, customers will trust it. 

2. Make inclusion part of your operating system

“There’s a new way of leading…inclusive and complementary. That’s why we are all here. That’s why we see the diversity in this room. It’s about being inclusive on this journey of Starship and beyond.”

– Dr. Sian Proctor (Geoscientist, Astronaut, Artist, Space2inspire)

In spaceflight, inclusive leadership is a necessity; because a team that doesn’t listen to every member won’t survive a crisis.

And we believe the same is true for any team building complex tech. Inclusion should be at the heart of it all, right from the beginning. 

3. Prototype the future to unlock the present

“When you don’t think about the future, you tend to answer the same questions with the same solutions.”

– Phnam Bagley (Space Architect, Nonfiction Design)

Bagley and her team design speculative technologies – a space kitchen, a brain implant system, wearables that improve sleep. Some of those ideas sound like science fiction…until they’re real.

Future-thinking is about finding tomorrow’s answers to today’s problems. And you can try it whenever you like: imagine your product 50 years from now. What would still matter? What would break? 

Use that thought exercise as you work on your next iteration. 

4. Treat connectivity as a shifting landscape

“I’ll tell you what I am convinced of: Connectivity is as important as electricity or water.”

– Damien Garot (Co-Founder and CEO, Stellar)

Garot’s firm makes software that blends satellite, Wi-Fi, and mobile networks into seamless connectivity for vehicles.

The notion of connectivity as a new human right is critical for anyone working in tech right now; especially if you want to contribute to better access to tech for under-served communities. 

And Garot’s focus on building systems that can work even during instability (for example, connectivity that is stabilised via space, so won’t be disrupted by environmental fluctuations on Earth) can help users everywhere experience calm and reliability. 

5. Think orchestras, not solos

“Writing symphonic classical music is a process that is not philosophically too different from building a satellite. You need a bold idea, musical or spatial, and then thorough implementation.”

– Francesco Bongiovanni (CEO, Orbital Solutions)

For Bongiovanni, composing music and engineering are both acts of harmony. Each part (whether it’s an oboe or an antenna) has to serve the whole.

That’s what great product teams do. Every contributor plays their line, and listens to the rest. Instead of competing for space, they all create it together. 

Finding space 

The more we talk to LEAP speakers about their work in space tech, the more we see space as a test case for human ingenuity. It’s a kind of proving ground for leadership and imagination. 

If we build like space architects, we’ll make technology that’s robust and beautiful, and inclusive too; tech that works in the harshest conditions and still leaves room for wonder.

We want to hear your perspective: does space inspire you in your tech career – and if so, how?

We’ll see you back in your inbox next week.

Have an idea for a topic you'd like us to cover? We're eager to hear it. Drop us a message and share your thoughts.

Catch you next week,
The LEAP Team