By Chris Forrester
The Silicon Valley Space Week (SVSW) kicked off October 21st with its Satellite Innovation 2-days of top-flight panels and keynotes. The agenda was set by the first session (‘Crafting Innovative Satellite Solutions for Customers’) when moderator Katherine Gizinski (CEO at River Advisors) said her session was very much focussed on the ‘customers’ portion of the title and the knock-on effects for the industry as a whole as a result of that effort.
Asked what was driving the most interest, and Brian Miske (a partner in KMPG) said that 18 months ago there were plenty of forecasts about the growth in value but few that were detailed. Now, he said, the market needs innovation and the industry needed to think differently in how it shares that knowledge. “It is a requirement if we want to build a wider space economy”. He also praised the progress made by Elon Musk’s Starship, for example.
Stuart Marsh, Head of Aerospace at Cambridge Consultants (part of CapGemini). “As a company we are 90% engineers and transformation needed speedier decision making.” As far as customer needs were concerned, his clients recognise that there is so much happening almost at the same time. “Look at User Terminals, which today are being driven down by lower power consumption and size. It is the same with Antennas. We also have the potential to have Data Centers in space, for example.”
However, Marsh stressed that with technology moving so rapidly it was essential to be aware at what AI might deliver, and machine learning could not be ignored. AI is seen as a force for good but frameworks and regulation might emerge but at the moment we do not see limits. “AI is all good so far.”
Dr Annalisa Weigel (Director, Fairmont Consulting) added that customer connection was key. “What does the customer really need?” She also praised the reduction in launch costs, having fallen dramatically over the past 30 years. Also helping impact innovation were elements such as 3D printing and the miniaturisation of electronics. However, she cautioned that market domination of some services in some cases was likely to be a worry.
Dr Clair Martin (EVP/Astroscale US) said that some customer needs were being addressed, but on-orbit servicing needed a different mind-set. “There is a trend in terms of budgets. Everyone wants to do more but with less money. We cannot enter into a 10-year design cycle these days if we want to make real progress.”
Curt Blake (Senior Counsel, Wilson Sonsini) told delegates that progress could be made by looking freshly at the established patterns, and he was especially keen on the progress being made at SpaceX’s Starship which he said was definitely going to do so much more and altering beneficially what is put into space. However, Mr Blake was extremely concerned about debris removal. “We are going to have to come up with a method of paying for debris removal.” He also suggested that innovation might flow from M&A activity.
A question from a delegate asked what difference competition from China might make. Dr Weigel said that China is inevitably going to rise, and Starlink would not be allowed to compete in some markets. “I think we will see a “western” versus “eastern” segmentation take place,” she stated.