{"id":53887,"date":"2023-03-13T19:28:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T11:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/industry-ctos-highlight-laser-communications-artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-challenges\/"},"modified":"2023-03-13T19:28:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T11:28:37","slug":"industry-ctos-highlight-laser-communications-artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/industry-ctos-highlight-laser-communications-artificial-intelligence-and-emerging-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry CTOs Highlight Laser Communications, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Monday morning CTO roundtable at SATELLITE 2023 brought together leaders from innovative space companies to convene on buzzworthy developments in laser communications, AI, and system architecture and design.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the enthusiasm was tempered with some humility over tech limitations, and market realities, best summarized by speaker Al Tadros, CTO of Redwire, who noted that space is only about 3 percent of the global telecom market. The message: Industry leaders can\u2019t take anything for granted, even with recent successes in commercial space. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Gjr7nPwiSm6rjZRSIJLB_VS_ShowDaily20202320Day20220DGTL20Cover-300x225.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" style=\"width: 120px; height: auto;\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Gjr7nPwiSm6rjZRSIJLB_VS_ShowDaily20202320Day20220DGTL20Cover-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Gjr7nPwiSm6rjZRSIJLB_VS_ShowDaily20202320Day20220DGTL20Cover-800x599.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Gjr7nPwiSm6rjZRSIJLB_VS_ShowDaily20202320Day20220DGTL20Cover-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Gjr7nPwiSm6rjZRSIJLB_VS_ShowDaily20202320Day20220DGTL20Cover.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\t\t\t<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"fs-5 mt-0\">Explore the Show Daily 2023 Day 2 Issue<\/h3>\n<p class=\"mb-0 fs-smaller text-balance\">Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<button class=\"btn btn-primary\" type=\"button\" data-bs-toggle=\"offcanvas\" data-bs-target=\"#offcanvasMENU\" aria-controls=\"offcanvasExample\" aria-label=\"button\" style=\"white-space: nowrap;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tView More <i class=\"bi bi-arrow-right-circle\"><\/i><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/button><\/p>\n<p>Moderator David Phillips, senior systems engineer for Satcom Connectivity at Boeing, kicked off the panel by asking speakers about the significance of the Viasat-Inmarsat merger, which was announced in 2021 but faces recent scrutiny by the European Commission and other regulators around whether the acquisition will negatively affect quality and pricing of inflight connectivity services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of the nature of the work we do, reliability is key,\u201d said session speaker Peter Hadinger, CTO of Inmarsat. \u201cI think that [Inmarsat] provides an interesting counterpoint to Viasat \u2026 a company that came up from the hardware side as opposed to the services side and therefore brings a considerable amount of technology expertise. They also bring a consumer dimension that we have not had. We believe the two companies are very similar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many of the speakers spoke about the evolving role of software in the space and satellite industry.<\/p>\n<p><script>var AIAD_fcd45f981d570e35cee941b23edc69c7_6a67777a05215;googletag.cmd.push(function(){var AIMAP_29b58f13885ebf8ea6b032f958eb0748 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([992, 100], [[970, 90], [970, 250]]).addSize([768, 100], [728, 90]).addSize([320, 100], [320, 50]).build();var AIMAP_737ce075cc05dd766c8f8ea08f3faa73 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([768, 100], [728, 90]).addSize([320, 100], [320, 50]).build();var AIMAP_21fe3bcfb86a8660aba4e721ee9338f3 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([1200, 100], [970, 250]).addSize([768, 100], [600, 300]).addSize([320, 100], [300, 250]).build();AIAD_fcd45f981d570e35cee941b23edc69c7_6a67777a05215 = googletag.defineSlot('\/987\/satellitetoday.com\/via-satellite-digital-issue-ads', [ [600, 300], [300, 250], [970, 250] ], 'div-gpt-ad-1774631144891- 0-6a67777a05216').defineSizeMapping(AIMAP_21fe3bcfb86a8660aba4e721ee9338f3).setCollapseEmptyDiv(true).addService(googletag.pubads());   });<\/script><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1774631144891- 0-6a67777a05216'); });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSoftware is integral in more and more space missions and more and more you hear about software-enabled systems, software-defined payloads, and software-defined satellites,\u201d said Tadros, also noting that AI is being leveraged more frequently for complex systems, and applications like cybersecurity.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker Brad Bode, CTO and co-founder of Atlas Space Operations, also touched on the emerging role of software and AI to enhance space services.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018If you look at the way that the future is headed, where you\u2019re going to have a lot of links to space \u2013 it might be optical, it might be RF [radio frequency], it might be Ka, might be X-band \u2013 all of those need to converge behind something,\u201d said Bode. \u201cWe need software to enable that space. Once you have that \u2026 you can do amazing things with the data as it flows through to enable customers to get what they want when they want it. That\u2019s where AI comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But you can\u2019t talk about software without talking about hardware, which moderator Phillips admitted is less buzzworthy, and less about \u201csparkly headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving digital interfaces on your equipment is not something you\u2019re seeing in sparkly text but is an enabler to be able to use the software and interact,\u201d said Dr. Jim Rosenberg, integrated solutions architect for Wavestream. \u201cThe digital interfaces are very important. One of the other things that we see with the emergence of non-GEO [Geostationary Orbit] satellites and the improved signal to noise ratio you are seeing people moving to more complex modulation. This is requiring the amplifiers to have better signal integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the most animated discussions was on the topic of laser communications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLasercom, it\u2019s fun to talk about \u2014 but there\u2019s definitely challenges,\u201d said Phillips.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Hadinger of Inmarsat recalled his first exposure to laser communications was back in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a very, very young engineer at the time, and I was told laser comms is the technology of the future and always will be,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in the industry long enough at this point that I think the future is now. I don\u2019t think laser comms is a future technology, it\u2019s a practical technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script>var AIAD_fcd45f981d570e35cee941b23edc69c7_6a67777a056e2;googletag.cmd.push(function(){var AIMAP_29b58f13885ebf8ea6b032f958eb0748 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([992, 100], [[970, 90], [970, 250]]).addSize([768, 100], [728, 90]).addSize([320, 100], [320, 50]).build();var AIMAP_737ce075cc05dd766c8f8ea08f3faa73 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([768, 100], [728, 90]).addSize([320, 100], [320, 50]).build();var AIMAP_21fe3bcfb86a8660aba4e721ee9338f3 = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([1200, 100], [970, 250]).addSize([768, 100], [600, 300]).addSize([320, 100], [300, 250]).build();AIAD_fcd45f981d570e35cee941b23edc69c7_6a67777a056e2 = googletag.defineSlot('\/987\/satellitetoday.com\/via-satellite-digital-issue-ads', [ [600, 300], [300, 250], [970, 250] ], 'div-gpt-ad-1774631144891- 0-6a67777a056e3').defineSizeMapping(AIMAP_21fe3bcfb86a8660aba4e721ee9338f3).setCollapseEmptyDiv(true).addService(googletag.pubads());   });<\/script><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1774631144891- 0-6a67777a056e3'); });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Wen Cheng Chong, CTO and co-founder of Kepler Communications, echoed these sentiments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously there are challenges,\u201d said Chong. \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard many, many stories about getting launched with this dream of establishing an inter-satellite link or satellite to the ground that [didn\u2019t work] because the spacecraft wasn\u2019t able to point very well. It\u2019s a tough problem. In addition to putting lasers in space you also have to make sure they\u2019re open standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The engineers all highlighted one problem in common that isn\u2019t technical \u2014 staffing. Finding engineers and other skilled technology workers is hard, and the market for the best and brightest is competitive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have people who do microwave engineering, system engineering \u2026 our last four systems engineers came up internally through the company because we couldn\u2019t find people that had the breadth of training,\u201d said Rosenberg.<\/p>\n<p>Tadros said that recruiting from outside the industry has helped with some of these challenges. \u201cI\u2019ve had an opportunity to talk to different universities where they don\u2019t even have an aerospace program, where [students] are coming from finance, physics, and other areas,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have locations across the country and giving people diversity of where they work is going to be important. Quality of life has to be one of the attractions of the space industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hadinger agreed that the scarcity of talent has proven challenging. \u201cAt Inmarsat \u2026 it\u2019s difficult to find some of these specialties,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest challenge for me within my team is to get more women in the field. This is a place where we\u2019ve been sort of underrepresented \u2026 and a lot of work we\u2019re trying to do at much younger ages is to get women to choose STEM careers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chong emphasized the importance of embracing a hybrid work environment as much as possible, although doing so can present its challenges. \u201cWe\u2019re still building,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t have engineers working from home all the time. I fully agree with what Peter is saying. Finding these unicorns is very, very difficult.\u201d <strong>VS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"widget-title\">In This Issue<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- post id 464:  \/code\/wp-content\/themes\/ai-beehive\/template-parts\/content\/post-snippet.php --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"overflow-hidden w-100 me-3\">\n<p>\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kRHM63bgR2sbMRYbbbEA_Satellite-2022-14542028129-300x199.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kRHM63bgR2sbMRYbbbEA_Satellite-2022-14542028129-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kRHM63bgR2sbMRYbbbEA_Satellite-2022-14542028129-800x532.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kRHM63bgR2sbMRYbbbEA_Satellite-2022-14542028129-640x426.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/kRHM63bgR2sbMRYbbbEA_Satellite-2022-14542028129.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"fs-4 w-100 line-clamp-3\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tMeet the 2023 Startup Space Pitch Contest Competitors<br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<p><!-- .post-snippet --><\/p>\n<hr class=\"my-3 d-block d-md-none\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- post id 465:  \/code\/wp-content\/themes\/ai-beehive\/template-parts\/content\/post-snippet.php --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"overflow-hidden w-100 me-3\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/uax6rbuiQ227jrw4VNpg_VS_030123_DGTL_2-300x225.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/uax6rbuiQ227jrw4VNpg_VS_030123_DGTL_2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/uax6rbuiQ227jrw4VNpg_VS_030123_DGTL_2-800x599.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/uax6rbuiQ227jrw4VNpg_VS_030123_DGTL_2-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/uax6rbuiQ227jrw4VNpg_VS_030123_DGTL_2.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"fs-4 w-100 line-clamp-3\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tSatellite Executive of the Year Nominees for 2022<br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<p><!-- .post-snippet --><\/p>\n<hr class=\"my-3\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- post id 466:  \/code\/wp-content\/themes\/ai-beehive\/template-parts\/content\/post-snippet.php --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"overflow-hidden w-100 me-3\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/4PjBiWm0Rmm9WI15NSr0_VS_030123_DGTL_3-300x225.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/4PjBiWm0Rmm9WI15NSr0_VS_030123_DGTL_3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/4PjBiWm0Rmm9WI15NSr0_VS_030123_DGTL_3-800x599.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/4PjBiWm0Rmm9WI15NSr0_VS_030123_DGTL_3-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/4PjBiWm0Rmm9WI15NSr0_VS_030123_DGTL_3.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"fs-4 w-100 line-clamp-3\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tSatellite Technology of the Year Nominees for 2022<br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<p><!-- .post-snippet --><\/p>\n<hr class=\"my-3 d-block d-md-none\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- post id 462:  \/code\/wp-content\/themes\/ai-beehive\/template-parts\/content\/post-snippet.php --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"overflow-hidden w-100 me-3\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/zhnpoxxJQLe5kzL0A7Hx_Z6C_8223-300x199.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/zhnpoxxJQLe5kzL0A7Hx_Z6C_8223-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/zhnpoxxJQLe5kzL0A7Hx_Z6C_8223-800x532.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/zhnpoxxJQLe5kzL0A7Hx_Z6C_8223-640x426.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.satellitetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/zhnpoxxJQLe5kzL0A7Hx_Z6C_8223.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"fs-4 w-100 line-clamp-3\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tTop Operators Forecast Opportunity with Satellite-to-Cell, Telcos, and Governments<br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<p><!-- .post-snippet --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Monday morning CTO roundtable at SATELLITE 2023 brought together leaders from innovative space companies to convene on buzzworthy developments in laser communications, AI, and system architecture and design. Yet the enthusiasm was tempered with some humility over tech limitations, and market realities, best summarized by speaker Al Tadros, CTO of Redwire, who noted that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}