【World Satellite Business Week】Business Leaders of Cutting-Edge Technologies and Optical Inter-Satellite Communication Providers in the Space Business Talk about the Future of the Industry.
In September, exhibitions were held in various parts of the world, and the excitement in space development is likely to accelerate further. From WARPSPACE, Mori, Takahashi, and Kunii participated in the World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) held in Paris.
WSBW is organized by Euroconsult, a consulting firm for the satellite industry. It is a conference for top executives from satellite-related businesses in various countries to discuss trends in satellite manufacturing, satellite data analysis, small space vehicles, and other satellite-related businesses. The conference provides a forum for direct discussions and networking among executives from various companies, making it an extremely conducive place for business negotiations.
During WSBW, various partnership agreements were announced, such as the Swedish Space Corporation’s (SSC) order to Cailabs, a French deep-tech company, to build its first optical ground station in Australia, and a pre-merger collaboration between Eutelsat, a French satellite communications company, and OneWeb, US communications satellite company. From the end of 2022 to next year, optical ground station demonstrations and optical inter-satellite communications demonstrations are scheduled in various regions, attracting the attention of optical communication-related businesses and space agencies worldwide. This way, it is clear that interest in optical communications is increasing, and at the same time, the movement toward commercialization is accelerating.
(For more information on last year’s event, please refer to this past article. These articles were worked on by the previous editors and are more accessible than my writing.)
Once again, WSBW was a hybrid conference, renting the ground floor of “The Westin Paris — Vendôme” in front of the Louvre Museum, where more than 1,500 Business Leaders attended and exchanged ideas. WARPSPACE’s CSO, Mori, was one of the panelists at the session on optical communications, which was created last year. In this article, we will report on WSBW in detail.
TESAT CEO, Thomas Reinartz, Mynaric CCO, Tina Ghataore, and Honeywell Vice President, Andrew Csizmar joined the panel discussion on the widespread use of optical communication device terminals.
Briefly speaking about the standardization of optical communications, if the industry as a whole does not agree on which wavelengths of optical communication to be used in general, both operators and users will be in trouble. Many power cables for mobile devices use USB-TypeC terminals, but if the terminals of the cables are different for each supported device, you will probably be in trouble too. This panel discussion reaffirmed the importance of standardization of optical communications. On the other hand, Mori emphasized the importance of establishing a baseline for the “use” phase of optical communications, such as a tracking protocol (to check the position and direction of both transmitting and receiving antennas when connecting optical communications), in addition to the standardization of the radio frequency band. TEAST and Mynaric develop optical communication devices, while WARPSPACE is an operator that develops services based on these terminals. Because they are such operators, their comments gave us a different perspective as a player in the optical communications industry. The panel discussion covered various topics. The overall conclusion of the debate was the following
As a result, the price of optical communication devices will settle down and become popular within 10–15 years.
The discussion was positive. Mori offers an in-depth discussion on the background of the SDA (Space Development Agency) standardization movement, and the insight of TESAT and Mynaric, who are collaborating with the SDA.
Thus, WARPSPACE’s participation in WSBW has brought further attention and business development in the cutting-edge optical communications industry. We look forward to continued business development as a key player in optical inter-satellite communications in the future.
The WARPSPACE booth exhibit allowed Mori, Takahashi, and Kunii to discuss face-to-face with the partners they have been communicating with, forming deeper partnerships. Especially the WARPSPACE booth’s limited-edition tote bags were a big hit. Perhaps future goods development may be possible.
