Better Satellite World: Closing the Link

In this podcast series, we look at the importance of high-performance ground segment as a key to unlocking new opportunities in space that we've never imagined.

Episode 1: A Conversation with SES's Nicole Robinson and Isotropic Systems' Jeremy Turpin

This podcast features a dialogue between two companies that recently signed an historic agreement: Isotropic Systems and SES. The two companies signed an antenna evaluation contract with the United States Air Force Research Lab to work in collaboration with the United States Army research engineering team for tests of Isotropic's multibeam terminal over SES’s O3b MEO satellite constellation.

As Senior Vice President of Global Government for SES Networks, Nicole Robinson is responsible for the company’s global business portfolio of government customers in the areas of defense, security, humanitarian, federal, civilian and institutional organizations. She also serves as Chairman of the Board of Redu Space Services and Director of the LuxGovSat Board of Directors. Nicole has served in a variety of executive roles during her 12 years at SES, including leading teams in the areas of government product development, sales and business development, government affairs and marketing. Before joining SES, she served as leader of the Strategic Communications function for the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ). In 2012, she received a Promise Award from SSPI as a leader among the 20 Under 35. Nicole is the President of SSPI’s Board of Directors.

Jeremy Turpin received his Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. While at Penn State, he focused on cutting-edge topics in electromagnetics, including transformation optics, metamaterials, and their application to high-efficiency, manufacturable antennas with capabilities not achievable using conventional methods. He was a co-founder and president at E x H, Inc., an electromagnetics software development firm, based on technology developed during his doctoral studies. Now the lead of technology development and innovation as the CTO and Co-Founder of Isotropic Systems, Ltd., Jeremiah Turpin is leading the technical development of a new class of phased array antennas for use in SATCOM communications and beyond. Isotropic Systems recently announced a new developmental phase of its collaborative partnership with SES to produce scalable, cost-effective multi-beam customer edge terminal antennas capable of unlocking access to the groundbreaking O3b mPOWER system. Jeremy is a member of SSPI’s Board of Directors and of the 2019 20 Under 35 cohort.

With Thanks to Our Corporate Partners

Episode 2: A Conversation with Telesat's Manik Vinnakota

Manik Vinnakota is Global Product and Commercial Director at Telesat, a position he has held for 2 years. In his current position, he leads product planning and commercial partnerships for the company, including market and competitive intelligence, product/pricing definition and product-market fit, business planning, channel and partner development, sales enablement and strategic customer engagement. Manik previously served at Telesat as Strategy Director, as well as telcos as part of Delta Partners, a TMT advisory boutique, and Accenture's telecom strategy practice. While at Telesat, he has driven growth by restructuring the company's sales organization, establishing new sales models with indirect channel partners and building a new digital services roadmap. Manik has also been responsible for codifying market positioning and defining products for a new business unit, allowing for double product penetration among B2B accounts. He holds a Bachelors of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.

In a conversation with SSPI Director of Development and Innovation Lou Zacharilla, Manik talks about the unique challenges Telesat faces in closing the link between their fleet of 298 state-of-the-art LEO satellites and the all-important ground segment.

Episode 3: A Conversation with Kepler's Mina Mitry

Mina Mitry is Co-Founder and CEO of Kepler Communications, a satellite company working to reshape the satellite communications industry and bring the internet to space. Kepler is currently building connectivity infrastructure to serve the global ever-growing demand for machine data, and doing this with satellites that are roughly the size of a loaf of bread and 1/100th the cost of traditional telecommunication satellites. The company aims to provide real-time communications to other satellites, space stations, launch vehicles, habitats, and any other space-borne assets with its in-progress satellite constellation and development of other new technologies.

Before co-founding Kepler, Mina served as Director of Engineering at teaBOT and as a Reasearcher in Numerical Methods at Pratt & Whitney Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. In a conversation with SSPI Director of Development and Innovation Lou Zacharilla, Mina talks about closing the link through development of new technologies and connectivity infrastructure to meet the ever-growing needs of the modern world.