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Digital Space

Space is going digital at last.

An industry long restricted to an insignificant slice of telecom spending has begun a journey toward a much bigger role in connecting and comprehending the planet we share. The digital capacity of space keeps growing with new satellites, on-orbit servicing and debris removal spacecraft. The new generations of satellite being launched into GEO, MEO and LEO are increasingly commanded by onboard software that interacts with AI-enabled software on the ground. They steer their electronically-generated beams wherever needed, adapting minute by minute to demand.

Businesses have been funded to put data storage systems in orbit and on the Moon. And ground technology is beginning a revolution to replace analog systems with end-to-end digital, creating the possibility of seamless interconnection with the world’s telecommunications networks. MORE

 

Digital Space is underwritten by

Podcast

Bits, Bytes and AI, Oh My! – Episode 5 – Satellite Data in Real Time

This podcast series delves into the rapidly evolving world of digital technology and its transformative impact on the space of satellite industries. In this series, we explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning and space based digital infrastructure with industry leaders and technologists. In episode 5, we hear from Carla Filotico, Partner and Managing Director at Novaspace.

Carla Filotico has 20 years of experience in management and strategy consulting. In her current role, she leads Novaspace strategy practice. She has extensive knowledge of the space sector, its ecosystem and applications/domains and more generally of the issues related to the space industry along the entire value chain from R&D, to manufacturing, launch, operations and to downstream applications. Ms. Filotico has been supporting space public institutions on space and industrial policy, market development and entrepreneurship fostering, as well as key global and European industry players to grow their business and shape their investment strategies. She is an active member of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Jury.

 

This podcast series is sponsored by

More Bits, Bytes and AI, Oh My! podcasts →

Digital Space NOW

Byte-Sized Space

A long time ago, the world was analog. Now, it’s digital, and it’s time for space to be digital as well.
 

The Orbiter: Digital Space

Videos

The Better Satellite World campaign shows the world why our industry, though often invisible, is indispensable to modern life, through powerful stories and videos that depict space and satellite technologies contributing to the economy, society and sustainability of planet Earth. Some of our Better Satellite World videos focus on how digital space and satellite technologies are shaping everything from economics to modern warfare. Many of our recent New York Space Business Roundtable conversations have also covered topics from AI to the Cislunar economy and more.

About Digital Space

Our digital technology world owes a debt of gratitude to space. It was the need to miniaturize electronics for the first civilian and military space programs that created demand for the integrated circuits independently invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Intel in 1960. From that pioneering work came today’s silicon chips that cram 100 million transistors in a space the size of the head of a pin.

Today, more than 60 years later, space is going digital at last. Human activity in Earth orbit has long been ruled by radio waves, which transmit information in a continuous analog stream unlike the series of separate bits in digital circuits. Satellites were designed to send and receive to fixed spots on Earth’s surface and were unable to adapt to changing market demand. Deliberately designed for simplicity, they beamed back to Earth whatever analog signal they received. The ground systems they connected to were assemblies of analog hardware that amplified, split, combined and switched communications.

The new generations of satellite being launched into GEO, MEO and LEO are increasingly commanded by onboard software that interacts with AI-enabled software on the ground. They steer their electronically-generated beams wherever needed, adapting minute by minute to demand. The digital capacity of space keeps growing with new satellites, on-orbit servicing and debris removal spacecraft. Businesses have been funded to put data storage systems in orbit and on the Moon. And ground technology is beginning a revolution to replace analog systems with end-to-end digital, creating the possibility of seamless interconnection with the world’s telecommunications networks. An industry long restricted to an insignificant slice of telecom spending has begun a journey toward a much bigger role in connecting and comprehending the planet we share.