[Warp Station] Future Applications Enabled by Optical Communications Under the Flag of Planetary Boundary
WarpSpace’s event series “Warp Station Elements” was held on September 28, 2023, under the theme “Cross-Cutting Collaboration for Understanding and Protecting the Health of the Planet Earth”. The venue was the Ito Hall, Hongo Campus, the University of Tokyo.
This year’s “Warp Station Elements” focused mainly on the concept of “Planetary Boundary”, providing sessions for discussing environmental issues on Earth with experts from various industries. In this article, we interview Kunii, a member of the business development that handled the “Warp Station Elements”, to learn more about the event and its results.
The Aim of Warp Station Elements
Planetary Boundary, proposed by Swedish environmental scientists Johan Rockström and Will Stefan in 2009, refers to the area of important ecological processes in the global environment and the limits within which these processes should be kept within a sustainable range. Specific examples include quantitative assessments of sustainability in biodiversity, ocean acidification, and the global surface nitrogen and phosphorus cycles (*1).
These concepts are not directly related to Warpspace’s business of data relay services utilizing optical communications. However, since the purpose of Warpspace’s service is to send more Earth observation data obtained using space to the ground without delay, global environmental issues are potentially deeply connected to those values with which Warpspace aims to provide.
Kunii, on the other hand, mentioned the following issues regarding the planetary boundary concept.
I believe that in order to keep each item within a sustainable range, it is essential to have a cross-sectoral approach that crosses different industries and technologies, in addition to cooperation among multi-industry, government, and academia. In this context, we feel that there is a lack of opportunities to bring together expertise from different fields, build cooperative relationships, exchange knowledge on how to build a sustainable society, and engage in dialogue to develop a common yardstick.”
Therefore, Warp Station Elements, led by Kunii, aimed to provide a place for experts and leaders from different fields to gather and encourage discussion, and to serve as a hub that functions as a community for building a common understanding of planetary boundaries and for business co-creation.
(*1 [Reference: Ministry of the Environment] White Paper on the Environment, Recycling-Oriented Society, and Biodiversity, 2009 edition)
Discussion on Planetary Boundaries
The day of the event brought together a diverse group of participants. Finance, telecommunications, insurance, deep tech, lawyers, security, weather forecasters, and academics participated in the event, which was in line with the event’s main objective of “providing a forum to promote cross-disciplinary relationship building and create dialogue.
The results of the actual evaluation of planetary boundaries using satellite data were shared and were received with surprise by professionals from a variety of backgrounds. The author was particularly impressed with the use of satellite data to assess biodiversity, as described by Yasuhiro Kubota, President of Think Nature, Inc. In Mr. Kubota’s project, the ground is observed from low Earth orbit using a multispectral camera (*2), and the spectral data obtained by the camera is used to assess biodiversity from space, taking advantage of the fact that absorption in a certain wavelength band correlates with biodiversity. This kind of idea is precisely the result of combining expertise in both environmental ecology and space utilization, and is nothing less than the approach to planetary boundaries that the Warp Station aims to achieve beyond the integration of different disciplines.
The panelists also actively discussed the establishment of common evaluation criteria for planetary boundaries. Specific examples include the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) were cited as specific examples. It is important to utilize these existing frameworks to quantitatively assess how their activities affect the planetary boundary.
What was the response to the Warp Station and what insight we got?
Experts from different fields came together to provide opportunities for collaboration to solve common problems while communicating from multiple perspectives on the application of satellite data and the significance of increasing the volume of satellite data distribution. In particular,
I realized once again that it is important for space-related companies to recognize space utilization as one of the solutions to certain issues, such as the planetary boundary in this case, instead of using satellite data and space utilization as the main subjects of our PR activities.
By creating a community where people who are working to solve issues with different approaches can get together and engage in ongoing dialogue, I got the feeling that not only satellite data-based solutions can solve problems, but that new forms of business co-creation that combine satellite data with other technologies may also emerge. I believe that we can get closer to a sustainable world by continuing to create such a place over the mid-to-long term.
On the other hand, in the questionnaire, one respondent commented,
“Through this event, I became more interested in optical communications and overseas trends related to optical communications.
We are seeing a steady flow of interest in Earth observation data and its utilization among ground-based service providers who do not develop their own satellites, as well as interest in WarpSpace’s services that aim to increase the convenience of Earth observation data.
Also, after the panel discussion, Kunii says,
Mr. Matsuura of RESTEC said that a bottom-up approach driven by something fun is needed, such as “creating pictograms on the ground and shooting them with a satellite,” while Mr. Umada of FoundX, the University of Tokyo, said that “as a private company, they need to solve problems while properly running the economy and creating jobs.”
It was impressive that Mr. Umada of FoundX, the University of Tokyo, mentioned the importance of not only solving problems but also making economic rationality the driving force. At first glance, this may seem like a contradictory statement, but I understood that it is necessary to go one step further to “make people feel closer to space. In other words, I think he presented a question as to how we can turn the wheel of both sustainability and economic rationality and how we can overcome the dilemma of being environmentally friendly but not being sustainable as a business if we do not make money at the same time.
On that premise, I would like to point out the viewpoint that “in an age when big data such as satellite data can be easily accessed, it may become important to put aside hypotheses, dive into the sea of data, and find business ideas based on objective facts,” as Mr. Umada mentioned, as well as the idea of not only using natural capital unidirectionally but also creating a social system to circulate it.
I think it was very good for the participants to hear about case studies of people who are actually working to create a system that not only uses natural capital one-directionally but also circulates it, which gave them new perspectives.
The need for a community that connects bottom-up and top-down projects and organizations with different orientations, and the flexibility to choose the most appropriate approach and means at any given time, will undoubtedly become more important in the future.
It remains to be seen whether these realizations will have a direct bearing on Warpspace’s services. However, it can be said that the use of satellite data as a means of resolving issues related to Planetary Boundaries has broadened the scope of the project and laid a strong foundation for Warpspace to further develop its business. We at Warpspace continually plan those events, stay tuned!
