By Chris Forrester
Torsten Kriening (CEO and Publisher, SpaceWatch.Global) moderated the Optical Communications for the Next Generation of Space Networks session at the SmallSat Europe event held in Amsterdam on May 27. He heard from his panel that laser-based direct-to-ground was likely to be solved within the next 5 years.
Daniel Troendle (Head of Sales EMEA, Tesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co.) told delegates that connectivity was key, and this was not possible currently from a single vendor. “If I use my Android phone to call my son and his iPhone there will not be a problem in connecting. We need the same in our segment.” Tesat-Spacecom is targeting producing up to 1000 terminal annually.
Dr. Jean-François Morizur (CEO, Cailabs). Once it was getting the data through the atmosphere was the critical part. That has now been solved thanks to years of effort. As Cailabs’ CEO, he is responsible for driving the company’s vision and strategic direction. Under his leadership, Cailabs has emerged as a leading company in its field, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in the world of optical products with groundbreaking applications in space, defence, energy and other major industries. Currently the build rate for his company is about 10 units annually but a recent decision to build a new factory would raise that target to nearer 50 units a year.
Hirokazu Mori (Group Chief Strategy Officer / CEO of USA, Warpspace) said his company is solving communications between different operators and technologies. “We looked at communicating from MEO to LEO. Higher orbits means more data.”
Gregg Burgess (VP/Space Systems Division, General Atomics Electromagnetics) said “Interoperability is the greatest challenge we have today. We have had huge successes but solving the other challenges is down to wider adoption of common standards.” The US Space Development Agency is focussed on LEO to LEO and the next stages will be more complex in terms of the terminals as we move to MEO and GEO. He explained that there was still work to be done on interoperability, although he felt that within the next year he expected to see connectivity solutions emerge.
Dr. Jordan Vannitsen (Co-Founder and CEO, Odysseus Space): “The problem we are solving is using laser connectivity from satellite to Earth. What we want is not to be delivering thousands of terminals but to handle data as efficiently as possible, and that’s where the revenue comes in.”