Space Glossary & Investing 101
A reference hub for the space-industry and investing terms used across the Martian Alpha terminal.
The CANSLIM method
- C — Current Quarterly Earnings
- Look for accelerating EPS growth quarter-over-quarter, ideally 25%+ year-over-year. The bigger the acceleration, the stronger the signal.
- A — Annual Earnings Growth
- Seek 25%+ annual EPS growth over the last 3-5 years. Consistent, compounding earnings growth separates leaders from laggards.
- N — New Products, New Management, New Highs
- A catalyst — a new product, new CEO, new market, or a stock breaking to new highs — drives institutional buying.
- S — Supply & Demand
- Stock price is driven by supply and demand. Watch for heavy volume on up days, light volume on pullbacks, and share buybacks reducing float.
- L — Leader or Laggard
- Buy the #1 or #2 stock in a leading industry group. Relative Strength Rating (RS) measures price performance vs. the market.
- I — Institutional Sponsorship
- Stocks need buying from mutual funds, banks, and pension funds to move. Look for increasing institutional ownership, not selling.
- M — Market Direction
- 3 out of 4 stocks follow the market. Invest in uptrends (confirmed rally), raise cash in corrections. The market trend is the single biggest factor.
Space industry terms
- LEO
- Low Earth Orbit — 200–2,000 km altitude. Where Starlink, Kuiper, and most satellites operate. Low latency, short orbital period (~90 min).
- GEO
- Geostationary Orbit — ~35,786 km. Satellite matches Earth's rotation, appearing fixed. Used for telecom, weather, and satellite TV.
- GTO
- Geostationary Transfer Orbit — an elliptical orbit used to reach GEO. Requires the satellite to circularize with onboard propulsion.
- SSO
- Sun-Synchronous Orbit — a near-polar LEO where the satellite crosses each latitude at the same local solar time. Used for Earth observation.
- Payload
- The cargo a launch vehicle carries — satellites, cargo, crew, or probes. Payload mass and fairing size constrain what each rocket can deliver.
- Fairing
- The nose cone protecting the payload during ascent. Reusable fairings (SpaceX) reduce launch costs.
- Delta-V
- Change in velocity — the budget a spacecraft needs for a maneuver. Higher delta-V = more fuel = more capability.
- Constellation
- A network of satellites working together — e.g., Starlink (thousands of LEO sats) for global broadband.
- Launch Vehicle
- A rocket designed to carry payloads from Earth's surface to space. Also called a "launcher."
- Spaceport
- A facility for launching and receiving spacecraft. Location matters for orbital inclination and payload capacity.
- Isp (Specific Impulse)
- How efficiently a rocket engine uses propellant, measured in seconds. Higher Isp means more thrust from each kilogram of propellant — roughly 300–350 s for kerosene engines and ~450 s for hydrogen engines in vacuum.
- SmallSat
- A satellite under 500 kg. Includes CubeSats (1–10 kg) and microsats (10–100 kg). Lower launch costs, higher volume.
- Cubesat
- A standardized small satellite format in 10 cm³ units. Popular for research, education, and increasingly commercial use.
- Rendezvous
- Two spacecraft meeting in orbit — for docking, refueling, inspection, or debris removal.
- TRL
- Technology Readiness Level — NASA's 1–9 scale measuring a technology's maturity. TRL 9 = flight-proven.
Investing terms
- Market Cap
- Share price × shares outstanding. Classifies companies as large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, or micro-cap.
- P/E Ratio
- Price-to-Earnings — share price / EPS. How much investors pay per $1 of annual earnings. High P/E = high growth expectations.
- EPS
- Earnings Per Share — net income / shares outstanding. The bottom-line profit attributable to each share.
- Beta
- Volatility vs. the market. Beta > 1 = more volatile than S&P 500; Beta < 1 = less volatile. Space stocks tend to be high-beta.
- Revenue Growth
- Year-over-year change in total sales. The top-line growth rate — a key indicator of demand and scaling.
- Profit Margin
- Net income / revenue. How much profit a company keeps per dollar of sales. High-growth space companies often have negative margins.
- Cash Runway
- How long a company can operate at its current burn rate before running out of cash. Critical for pre-profit space companies.
- PEG Ratio
- P/E divided by earnings growth rate. A PEG < 1 suggests a stock may be undervalued relative to its growth.
- Short Interest
- Shares sold short / total shares. High short interest signals bearish bets — and potential short squeezes.
- 52-Week Range
- The highest and lowest prices over the past year. Shows where the stock sits in its recent range.