Space R&D blasting off in 5. . .

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SCOTT JAGOW: Space could be the next frontier for investors. A conference in New York today hopes to get Wall Street types interested in space commerce. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Tourism and satellite-based communications aren’t the sum of space’s economic potential.

So says Paul Eckert of Boeing’s space exploration unit. He says the low-gravity environment in space is a boon to pharmaceutical makers. They can learn things about biological and chemical processes that they can’t on Earth. They could even make the drugs up there.

PAUL ECKERT: Some people have said that space manufacturing will always be impossible economically, because it costs too much to get up there and get down there.

But, he says, they’re thinking of heavy materials like steel.

ECKERT: What we’re talking about with pharmaceuticals, and biotech in some cases, are very small amounts of manufactured material which have an extremely high value.

He says space-based R&D could get off the ground in the next five years or so, backed by many millions of dollars in investments.

In New York, I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.