By Chris Forrester
Moderator: Jorge Ciccorossi, Head, Space Strategy and Sustainability Division, ITU – International Telecommunication Union. He invited his panel to comment on the challenges of handling communications with satellites, antennas, locations and tracking these orbiting objects while at the same time coping with interference, whether deliberate or intentional.
Mr Ciccorossi’s team is team at the ITU is dedicated to monitoring and ensuring the effective and precise deployment of satellites in geostationary and non-geostationary orbits in conformity with the Radio Regulations, as well as the treatment of cases of harmful interference affecting space services.
Dr. Mekhi Dhesi (Account Executive, Slingshot Aerospace) told delegates that as well as more than 11,000 working satellites in orbit, there is also the major problem of tracking debris. She said that mixing ground-based observation and mixing RF and radar is helping, and progress is being made but the debris problem is a worry. She added that Slingshot captured the light from a target satellite and created what she described as a ‘fingerprint’ which helped minimise incorrect identification. Slingshot was gathering more than 1 million observations daily and is now using AI (‘Agatha’) to help ingest and use machine learning with identification and in particular identify a potential ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’.
Radim Badsi (CEO & Co-founder, Groundspace) said one of the key problems was the number of different satellites that shared the same frequencies. This shared spectrum, especially when one considers humidity and other weather-related problems, needs specific handling. “Think of the problem as if we were all working in a crowded room, but everyone was shouting. Nobody would be understood. One method is to ask everyone to speak softly. This, I believe, is the ITU’s role where frequency sharing is in use. But it is a challenge.”
Badsi also said that it was no longer possible to rely on operators to self-regulate. Some players no longer ‘play nice’. The authorities should ensure compliance.
Bruno Dupas (VP/Business Development and Sales, Kratos Space) said there is even interference between some Non-GEO constellations themselves. Mr Dupas said there was a huge difference between Geo and LEO, not least the altitude of a LEO craft and its speed passing over a region of country. “But the magnitude of the [identification] problem for LEO is much, much greater than with Geo.”