MIT’s Paul McDonagh-Smith and NASA Chief Scientist Jim Garvin show how space exploration technologies can be leveraged for competitive advantage
As a prelude to their upcoming program Business Applications of Space Exploration, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer, Paul McDonagh-Smith, and NASA Goddard Chief Scientist Jim Garvin provide a lay person’s guide to the methodologies behind the cutting-edge innovation driving space exploration. Their insights offer an accessible starting point for industry and business to approach this promising sector.
McDonagh-Smith opens by introducing the concept of Algorithmic Business Thinking (ABT)—a toolkit he has developed at MIT for reframing complex business problems and encouraging innovative exploration.
Algorithmic Business Thinking has four stages:
The value of Algorithmic Business Thinking in space exploration is that it enables innovators to address infinite possibilities. Garvin frames this as opening ‘Forever Frontiers’ and contemplates the idea of digital exploration revealing billions of galaxies, and our brains containing billions of neurons, which if multiplied together suggest unending and apparently unfathomable combinations—and for combinations read potential opportunities.
It is perhaps not surprising then that NASA, sitting at the interface of infinite possibilities for humankind, are using ABT as a tool to find and explore navigable pathways. Allied to this is the concept of competitive selection. The DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) mission, to explore the surface of Venus, was chosen out of many potential undertakings through a process of competitive selection where opportunities were measured according to affordability, ROI, speed of delivery, knowledge commodity return, and the size of the mission’s likely impact.
The need for this approach is escalated by the AI dimension. “Artificial intelligence punctuates the equilibrium of where we have been,” says McDonagh-Smith, “it’s a turning point.” We are at an intersection of Garvin’s ‘Forever Frontiers’ with a radical advance in our ability to trace and exploit opportunities. The next decade will witness a paradigm shift in science. The task for business leaders will be to translate this into opportunities for growth.
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Join Paul McDonagh-Smith’s new Business Applications of Space Exploration program
Dates: Sept 22-26, 2025 | Format: In Person | Location: Cambridge, MA
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Applying the Scientific Method to business and innovation
Central to space exploration at NASA is the ‘Scientific Method,’ a procedure that has driven scientific discovery since the 17th century, which consists of systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses through criticism and revision. In the business context, in a period of uncertainty, this exploration-led approach is critical.
A dilemma that often arises, in both space exploration and business, is the need to connect long-term projects, such as the overall Apollo Mission, with manageable short-term actions and deliverables. The NASA way is to establish a set of milestones—advanced engineering broken down into bite-sized steps—each with associated timeframes, ROI goals and spin-off opportunities. The mantra is to advance with purpose, with measurable milestones, that enable ROI. This is how space exploration has evolved and will continue to evolve into the future.
This may all appear to be plain sailing, but, as in business, every prospective innovation has its nay sayers and sceptics. Managing these barriers, risks and fears is part of the process. For this, courage is the essential ingredient. At NASA the individual courage of astronauts facing danger could not be clearer, but courage across the organization is also required to break through barriers into new frontiers, to champion new actions and units of value. Courage can’t be blind. It depends on first the team being convinced it has the people, infrastructure and resources to do the job, and secondly the courage to dare to explore, to create new algorithms, and consider radical possibilities.
McDonagh-Smith and Garvin also consider the specific technologies that might be exploited by other industries. The global space economy is projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035, driven by advancements in space-based technologies and applications. From agriculture leveraging satellite data to improve efficiency and productivity, to pharmaceutical companies exploring microgravity environments aboard the International Space Station to develop new drugs and materials, many applications are already in play.
As digital exploration, powered by AI, continues to evolve, technology applications across many industries will also expand, becoming a major source of economic growth. Current and potential technologies and how they might be applied in business will be the focus of the new MIT Sloan program: Business Applications of Space Exploration.
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Join Paul McDonagh-Smith’s new Business Applications of Space Exploration program
Dates: Sept 22-26, 2025 | Format: In Person | Location: Cambridge, MA
OR for those interested in applying ABT principles in their organization:
Join Paul McDonagh-Smith’s Accelerating Digital Transformation with Algorithmic Business Thinking
Format: Self-paced online, available through the year
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MIT Sloan is uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology and business practice, and participants in our programs gain access to MIT’s distinctive blend of intellectual capital and practical, hands-on learning.
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