Addressable Market
CANEUS BIOASTRONAUTICS will follow a project-based business model with each product development being essentially funded by the end-use customers, i.e. space agencies involved in human spaceflight. Rough estimates for space-qualified system-level development costs for each product range between USD 10-15 million. In addition to the proposed LOC, we envision the following future projects for the company.
Biomedical Systems for Astronauts
Our single most significant market, our health monitoring technologies, can be used by all astronauts and cosmonauts on short and long-term missions as well as during training and simulation exercises on Earth. With U.S.A, Europe, Russia and China involved in manned space activities and over 200 active astronauts and astronauts in training, the market is quite significant. Products of interest to space agencies within these countries would be the blood test kits, neuromuscular stimulators and artificial muscles.
Bed Rest Studies and Terrestrial Analogues
In the run-up to a potential mission to Mars would be a series of analogue and bed-rest studies carried out in Russia, the United States and Europe with volunteers to assess the effects of long-term confinement during such missions. CANEUS Bioastronautics Technologies could develop and supply products such as neuromuscular stimulators, blood test kits and artificial muscles for these studies.
Upcoming Robotics Missions to Moon and Mars
NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will, over the next few years, be announcing low-cost mission and mission concepts for Moon and Mars Exploration. NASA has a series of such missions called Scout Missions, with several missions expected to be announced over the coming years.
We envision that a “phantom torso” product could be flown as part of a low-cost Scout Mission. The phantom torso is a unique technology concept designed to evaluate the extent of human health hazards on long-term interplanetary missions. So far, none of the projects selected or even short-listed on future NASA Scout Missions deal with human factors. We hope the development of such products would enable the agency to obtain valuable human-specific data during these unmanned spaceflights.
From Space to Earth: The Market
Commercializing technologies made for space applications have always enjoyed the high-profile and prestige of space exploration. Additionally, technology ruggedization developed during the space qualification process will be of great benefit for terrestrial applications.
Our estimates for the terrestrial market in CMOS-based SOCs are based on the following projections:
- The global market for biosensors and other bioelectronics is projected to grow from $6.1 billion in 2004 to $8.2 billion in 2009, at an AAGR (average annual growth rate) of about 6.3%.
- Biosensors, particularly glucose sensors, accounted for nearly all of the market in 2003. Sales of other bioelectronic devices are projected to increase significantly over the next five years.
- Biomedical and life sciences applications dominate the market, accounting for 99%, with environmental monitoring and remediation applications a distant second.
