Satellites... Around Mars? SSPI looks at the winners of a student competition to develop plans for putting satellites into orbit around Mars
Submit your nominations now for the 2016 Promise and Mentor Awards!
Better Satellite World: Taking Medicine to the Ends of the Earth
Important satellite industry events that you don’t want to miss!
The Orbiter April 2016
APRIL 2016
CONTENTS
6 Feature: Student Teams
Compete to Put Satellites Around Mars - and Learn About the Satellite Business
Advertising Opportunities are available! As you know, SSPI has transformed its monthly news vehicle, The Orbiter, into a beautiful, page-turning digital magazine you can read from your desktop, tablet or phone, or as a handy print-out to carry with you on travel trips. The Orbiter brings Society news, coverage of the Better Satellite World campaign, and the annual Workforce Study to more than 6,000 members and industry contacts. Advertise With Us We invite companies to advertise in the new Orbiter. Full-page and half-page ads are available Some SSPI sponsorships include one or more ads with the sponsorship – but now you can purchase an ad directly! Download the media kit or email Tamara Bond-Williams for more information.
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Nominations are open for the 2016 Promise and Mentor Awards
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A Q&A with Minoo Rathnasabapathy, Executive Director at Space Generation Advisory Council
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Better Satellite World: Taking Medicine to the Ends of the Earth
Upcoming Events Highlights of the 2016 Workforce Report Webinar 1, May 17, Online Webinar. Click here for more information. Highlights of the 2016 Workforce Report Webinar 2, May 19, Online Webinar. Click here for more information. The 2016 SSPI Northeast Chapter Golf Outing, June 6 - 1323 King Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. Click here for more information. VSAT 2016, September 12-16, Royal Garden Hotel 2-24 Kensington High Street, London, United Kingdom. Click here for more information. Learn more about upcoming events at www.SSPI.org
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SSPI Opens Nominations for the 11th Annual Promise and Mentor Awards Recognizing young satellite industry employees with leadership potential and the mentors who guide them
SSPI has opened nominations for its eleventh annual Promise and Mentor Awards, which will be presented on Novemeber 9 at SSPI’s Future Leaders Dinner in New York City. Every year, SSPI presents three young satellite professionals with its Promise Award in recognition of their potential to play a leadership role in the industry. SSPI also presents a Mentor Award to an executive who is recognized for fostering young talent, both within his or her own organization and throughout the industry, and also for volunteering time and energy in support of the industry. “The Promise and Mentor Awards are part of what SSPI calls the Leaders Quest.” said executive director Robert Bell. “We identify proven and potential leaders and learn from their experience how to innovate and grow this industry in the exciting and disruptive days ahead. We are a technology business, but the innovation that makes it work is the product of the people we hire. Our mission is to make satellite one of the world’s best industries at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation.” Nomination criteria and forms can be downloaded from the SSPI Website. Nominations close July 31, 2016. Nominees for the Promise Award must demonstrate initiative, innovation, creativity and problem-solving skills that positively impact their company’s financial performance, marketing effectiveness, technical advancement or research capabilities. Past winners of Promise Awards have included young employees of SES, Intelsat, SpaceX, Hughes Network Systems, the Space & Missile Systems Center of the United States Air Force, RR Media, Space Systems/Loral, CNN, Boeing Satellite Systems, CapRock Government Solutions, Willis Inspace, Wiley Rein LLP, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, and Futron. Mentor Award nominees are distinguished by their voluntary contributions to industry causes and track record of coaching, motivating and fostering young 4
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professionals to elevate their professional capabilities and leadership potential. Past Mentor Award winners have included Chris Stott of ManSat, Clayton Mowry of Arianespace Inc., Richard Wolf of ABC Television, Tom Eaton of Harris CapRock, Satellite Hall of Fame member Dick Tauber of CNN, Dom Stasi of Avail/TVN, Francesco Frenza of the Cisneros Group, and Andrew Werth of Hughes Network Systems. The SSPI Future Leaders Dinner, sponsored by Ericsson, AvL Technologies and Walton De-Ice, will be held on Wednesday, November 9 during NAB Show New York 2016 featuring SATCON. NAB Show New York 2016 is a proud supporter of the Future Leaders Dinner. Contact Tamara Bond-Williams (tbond-williams@sspi.org) for sponsorship opportunities.
(Photos from the 2015 Future Leaders Dinner) The Orbiter April 2016
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Student Teams Compete to Put
Satellites Around Mars and Learn About the Satellite Business
By Robert Bell
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In movies like The Martian, the brave explorers descending on Mars are always people. But the real first Martian explorers have been robots in orbit and on the surface. Even when we finally get to the point of human flights to Mars, one thing is certain: satellite technology will play a critical role in observation and providing dependable communications with Earth. Earlier this year, SSPI launched a joint project with the Students for the Education and Development of Space (SEDS). It was a competition for student teams to develop detailed technical and cost plans for putting communications satellites into orbit around Mars to support exploration and colonization. Eleven Teams Learn the Satellite Trade We were looking for new ideas – but more importantly, we were looking to use the hot-and-heavy interest in Mars these days to excite students about the satellite business. Even the most space-crazed young people hardly know that our robust, profitable business exists or that they can start a career in it. Student competitions are a good way to change that reality. Eleven student teams from US universities signed up for the competition. SSPI assembled its own team of Mentors to advise each student team; you can follow this link to see the complete list. Five teams made it to the finish line with completed reports, which our team of Mentors reviewed and rated. And on Saturday, November 14 at SpaceVision 2015, I had the privilege of presenting cash awards to three student teams. Those teams are University of Michigan team, the University of Central Florida team, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In coming pages, I will share the highlights of their proposed missions to Mars, share video interviews with the teams, and provide a link to download the full reports. The Orbiter April 2016
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M-CONeCT 2.0: The U Michigan Te SSPI presented the third-place cash award to students from the SEDS Chapter at the University of Michigan for their detailed plan to put communications satellites around Mars to support exploration and colonization.
3rd Place
The winners of our third-place prize were team leader Rob Gitten and teammates Joshua Aviles, John Behrendt and Jason Wallace. Their industry Mentor was Turner Noel of Space Systems Loral. In the exploration phase, we asked the mission planners to put satellites into Mars orbit that provide a minimum of 6 hours of connectivity per robotic lander or about 25% of the sidereal day. By the time the first colonists land, the communications network would need to provide connectivity between Mars and Earth for 98% of the sidereal day. We asked for the exploration network to be in place within 10 years, and the colonization network within 20 years. Mixing It Up The U Michigan plan stood out for its use of leading-edge technologies, including some that are still in the experimental stage. Their architecture, called M-CONeCT 2.0, called for 32 cubesats to communicate with the Martian surface and 4 carriers, which place the cubesats into orbit and then provide data relay to Earth using optical communications. The cubesat design called for a 6-cube unit with extensible solar panels and antennas for both ground and relay communications. The constellation will launch in 3 phases of 8 satellites each to meet the separate robotic and human requirements. The optical communications links are based on NASA’s Lunar Lasercom Space Terminal that first flew in 2013 and its matching ground segment. Higher Standards Pushing beyond the mission parameters, the team decided that the system should interface with the existing Electra communication protocol used by NASA for Mars robotic missions. They expected that some of NASA’s missions, which have long outlasted their design lifetimes, will still be operating 10 years from now and will benefit from the mission’s greater connectivity. The team also picked 2 Mbps as 8
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eam Plans Satellites Around Mars the minimum continuous bandwidth for the link to support the dozens of flight controllers and engineers needed to monitor human flight. Learn More You can read the full report of the U Michigan team here, or you can click the image below as see an interview with team leader Rob Gitten.
Spacevision 2015 The Orbiter April 2016
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The U. of Central Florida Creates an SSPI presented a second-place cash award to students from the SEDS Chapter at the University of Central Florida for planning a mission called IRIS: putting communications satellites around Mars to support exploration and colonization. The winners of our second prize were team leader Diego Ospina and teammates Daniel Garcia, Jon Bell and Michael Hopper. Their industry Mentor was Ed Ashford, an enormously experienced satellite engineer and president of Ashford Consulting.
2nd Place
Specifying the Mission The competition asked student teams to plan two phases of Mars exploration. In the first, the communications network would provide a minimum of 6 hours of connectivity per sidereal day to support robotic landers within 10 years. In the second, the network would need to provide connectivity between Mars and Earth for 98% of the sidereal day to support human exploration and colonization beginning 20 years in the future. The Clarke Orbit Around Mars The Central Florida team chose the most classic architecture of all for its Mars network: a three-satellite constellation in aerocentric orbit using widebeam transmission to provide near-complete Martian coverage, just as Sir Arthur C. Clarke illustrated it in his historic 1945 article proposing GEO communications satellites. In the first phase, the team would launch a single large-scale satellite, IRIS-1, aboard an Atlas V from ULA and transfer it to Mars orbit. The satellite would be equipped with a 3.5m high-gain antenna for communication with Earth and three 0.5m antennas for surface and inter-satellite links. Operating at multiple frequencies, it would provide data rates up to 24 Mbps at the farthest distance of 400 km between Earth and Mars. Like other teams, Central Florida planned to rely on the existing NASA Deep Space Network of 34 earth stations around the Earth. Over the next ten years, succeeding missions would put IRIS-2 and IRIS-3 into Mars orbit. Together, the satellites would provide 98% coverage of the surface, and manage the link to Earth through inter-satellite connectivity. Whichever satellite had a view of Earth would become the relay for the other two satellites in the network. 10
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Aerocentric Satellite Constellation Learn More You can read the full report of the U Central Florida team here, or click on the image below to see an interview with all the members of the group.
Spacevision 2015
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The University of Illinois Designs SSPI presented the first-place cash award to students from the SEDS Chapter at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign for a mission proposal called MOSIAC: Mars Orbiting Satellites for Advanced Interplanetary Communication.
1st Place
The winners of our first prize were team leader Chris Lorenz and 14 teammates (see below) from the Illinois Space Society. Their industry Mentor was Denis Curtin, formerly COO of XTAR and a member of SSPI’s Satellite Hall of Fame. Mission Objectives The competition asked student teams to approach design of a Martian satellite network in two phases. Within the first ten years, the communications network would be providing a minimum of 6 hours of connectivity per sidereal day to robotic landers conducting research and building a habitat for humans. Within another ten years, network would would need to provide connectivity between Mars and Earth for 98% of the sidereal day to support human exploration and colonization. From SmallSats to Solar Eclipse Relays In a detailed analysis, the team proposed the construction of 40 identical small sats based on the TerraSense 300 commercial smallsat bus. In the first phase, a constellation of smallsats would be launched four at a time aboard an Atlas V or its future variants, transferred to Mars and placed into low orbits at 1,507 km altitude. A minimum of six active satellites would provide continuous coverage. They would communicate directly with Earth using X-band at a low data rate sufficient for robotic exploration. In the next phase, the team would place identical smallsats into a higher 10,700-km orbit to provide higher-bandwidth continuous of the surface in support of human exploration. Due to the higher altitude, they would depend on the deployment of higher-powered transmitters on surface equipment to close the link and provide a high data rate. These would be augmented by a pair of optical communication relay satellites (LACOR), based on the GEOStar-2 bus from Orbital ATK, sent to the Sun-Mars L1 Lagrange point. Communicating with the smallsats over X-band, the LACOR relays would enable data rates of up to 80 Mbps.
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a Martian Satellite Network In a final phase, the MOSAIC architecture requires a Solar Eclipse Relay (SER) satellite at the Sun-Earth L4 point to fill the coverage gap that occurs when the Sun blocks communications between Earth and Mars. The satellite hop becomes complex – from smallsats to LACOR to SER and then to Earth – but it ensures 24x7x365 connectivity. Learn More You can read the full report of the U Illinois team here, or click on the image below see an interview with all the members of the group.
Spacevision 2015 The Orbiter April 2016
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A Q&A with Minoo Rathnasabapathy, Executive Director at Space Generation Advisory Council By Robert Bell I first met Minoo Rathnasabapathy, pictured right, at the SGC Conference in Montreal in 2014. She was, at the time, the newly named the executive director of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). In a time when the satellite industry is struggling to retain young talent, organizations such as SGAC are vital for fostering the next generation of talent for the industry. That is why, each year, SSPI provides funding for a number of students to attend the Space Generation Advisory Council Congress, which provides space policy recommendations to the United Nations and precedes each year’s International Aeronautical Congress. Robert Bell: What is the mission of the Space Generation Advisory Council? Minoo Rathnasabapathy: The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) aims to represent students and young professionals in the international space community. Consisting of over 4000 members in over 110 countries, SGAC acts as a platform to enable and empower young professionals in breaking down barriers across career levels and borders to foster dialogue and help infuse new ideas into industry, agency and academia. What are SGAC’s principal activities to carry out that mission? SGAC is fulfilling its mission by enabling students and young professionals to attend international events where they can be exposed to the space community. In addition to this, SGAC organizes several events focusing on this by addressing pertinent issues facing the space industry. The delegates’ findings and preliminary recommendations are presented to SGAC’s parents, members and at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) where SGAC holds Permanent Observer status. How does SGAC engage with SSPI? What does SSPI contribute to you and what does SGAC contribute to SSPI? SGAC and SSPI support each other’s common interests in promoting space activities and the space workforce through career development and education. SSPI and SGAC hosts the Annual “Satellite Futures” scholarships, open to students and young professionals within the field of satellite development who are tasked with writing a paper based on their contributions in the field of satellite systems development, space law, regulation or policy. The Orbiter April 2016 14
In addition, SGAC supports SSPI’s Better Satellite World Campaign by contributing stories submitted by SGAC members from both developed and emerging space nations about the influence of satellites systems on their daily lives. From your vantage point working with students and young employees, what are the most promising developments you see in this sector? One of the very interesting developments in the current satellite industry is the idea of bringing Internet to individuals and communities across the world through a constellation of satellites. Not only is it interesting to follow the rapid technological developments necessary, but it is also critical to address the challenges of mitigating the potential of creating orbital debris and potential Ku-band interference. And most importantly initiatives like these stress the importance of satellite technologies for our everyday life. How does satellite make the world a better place, in your experience? As one of the aims of SGAC is educational outreach, the importance of satellites in connecting the world today is undisputable. The ability to access information quickly and often opens opportunities for not only the next generation to gain experiences and share cultural knowledge, but ultimately makes education more convenient. You can find out more about SGAC at www.spacegeneration.org/.
Now Available:
LAUNCH FAILURE? Can we attract and retain the talent that powers innovation?
The 2016 SSPI Workforce Study. Click here for more information.
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Better Satellite World
Taking Medicine to the Ends of the Earth Poverty and distance are the enemies of health. In the rich world, high-quality medical care is usually a short drive away, because there are three physicians available, on average, to serve every 1,000 people. In South Africa, however, there are 0.8 doctors per 1,000, even though it is one of Africa’s most prosperous countries. In one of the region’s poorest countries that is not racked by war, Tanzania, the average is only 0.3 per 1,000. In the world’s developing nations, some 3.1 billion people live in rural areas, which makes it hard for them to get to a caregiver. More than half of them live on US$2 per day or less, which does not buy a lot of medical care when they do. Not even rich-world citizens are immune from the curse of distance. Whether in rural counties or remote mines and wellheads, people can find themselves far from help when help is needed most. That is why health systems around the world turn to satellite to extend the reach of medicine and defeat threats to public health before they become catastrophes. Have Mercy In the early 1980s, a ship called the Anastasis set sail from the United States for the coast of Africa. It was a hospital ship, staffed by volunteer doctors, nurses and medical technicians, who donated their services wherever the ship touched land. Over time, the three vessels of the charity, Mercy Ships, have conducted thousands of life-saving, often life-changing surgeries and medical procedures. Satellite has played a supporting role in nearly every one. “For surgeries in particular, there are two key areas – lab and radiology – that depend on a connection with satellite,” Mercy Ships’ programs design director Michelle Bullington told Via Satellite magazine. “In our lab, we use it to help with diagnoses from a remote location back to the US. All of the scans from our radiology department are read remotely.” Satellite does more than help cure patients. It also helps create local healers. Mercy Ships delivers classes via satellite to local medical staff to build up a lasting skills base. They also use satellite keep the corporate ship afloat. Videoconferencing via satellite replaces many in-person meetings, saving on travel. Shipboard volunteers also contribute their stories through satellite video to help with fundraising back in the US. Mercy Ships is hardly the only nonprofit using ships to deliver medical care. A Bangladeshi charity, FRIENDSHIP, operates its own fleet of floating hospitals. They use SATMED, an e-health platform developed by satellite operator SES, working with European NGOS, which is funded by the Luxembourg government. In addition to communications, SATMED provides software tools from electronic medical records and tele-radiology to e-learning. SATMED is also also at work in Benin, where it is improving mother and child health after childbirth, and Niger, where it enables local practitioners to consult with national and international doctors.
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Telemedicine at the Extremes “This remote delivery of care, consultation and training is called telemedicine – and it is having a huge and growing impact on people’s lives. According to a study of a single telemedicine network by the American Telemedicine Association, medical consultations between rural hospitals and metropolitan medical centers saved more than 850 lives over a four-year period. Review of medical orders by hospital-trained pharmacists at the medical center prevented more than 11,450 serious drug interactions and allergic reactions. Improved oversight of acute care for the most seriously ill saved 28,500 days in the intensive care unit and reduced costs by $44 million. Thirteen thousand feet above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Apollo Hospitals has brought telemedicine to the top of the world, in a government-assisted project called Himachal Pradesh Telehealth Services. The location is so remote that it a helicopter was needed to ferry in the equipment, and the Apollo team’s first job was to clear 20 feet of snow and ice around the local clinic so they could set up the satellite terminal. They equipped the clinic with a two-way video link and remote diagnostic kit for measuring vital signs. It was put to the test a few days ahead of the scheduled opening when two local people suffered heart attacks. Consulting remotely with emergency doctors in Chennai, India, the telemedicine team was able to rapidly stabilize the patients and prescribe next steps. Since then, hundreds more have had consultations with faraway doctors who would otherwise never have set eyes on the residents of Himachal Pradesh. Ships at sea, oil platforms and remote mining sites face isolation almost as extreme. To meet their needs, George Washington University (GWU) teamed with software developer Diginonymous to develop Digi+Doc. It gives its users voice and video access to more than 500 physicians and specialists at the GWU Medical Facility. VSee, a private company, provides telemedicine support for two Shell oil platforms off the Nigerian coast, which allows the single medic on duty to bring aboard the expertise of multiple physicians. (The VSee system is also in use aboard the International Space Station for everything from medical consults to school presentations.) The grandfather of satellite telemedicine is surely the International Radiomedical Centre in Rome. Using the simple tools of telephone and email via satellite, it has cared for more than 50,000 maritime patients since its founding in 1935. Fighting Disease Outbreaks When Ebola broke out in West Africa, NetHope, a consortium of humanitarian organizations, coordinated a strong response from satellite companies. The nonprofit deployed hundreds of satellite terminals from Thuraya, Inmarsat and Eutelsat to Ghana, Liberia and Guinea, and SES brought its SatMed platform to Sierra Leone. These systems provided voice, email, videoconferencing and digital services to educate emergency responders, spread best practices, identify gaps and coordinate response. A different satellite technology holds out hope for stopping epidemics before they begin. Insects are responsible for spreading many diseases, and climate change, trade and travel are constantly driving insect populations to new areas. A consortium of Belgian companies, supported by the European Space Agency, has developed a software and services package called Vecmap. It improves how field researchers gather data and how public health authorities use it. The work begins with field researchers placing insect traps and checking them periodically to identify, count and test the insect found there. They enter data into the smartphone app, which captures exact GPS coordinates as well, and Vecmap pools the information to map high-risk areas on a satellite images. This is invaluable information for public health officials working to prevent the next epidemic. It also helps field researchers find those traps in the field as well as select new target areas, which are the most time-consuming and costly part of data-gathering. Health is the greatest gift. Wherever poverty or distance denies that gift to the world’s people, satellite brings a healing hand and hope for a better life. The Orbiter April 2016
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