Three Conferences Tackle Industry’s Pressing Issues
With just four weeks to go until the free-to-attend Space Tech and Smallsats Conferences at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen, anticipation is building around the agenda – comprehensive in coverage and broad in scope.
The conferences – which take place 19-21 November, bring together space industry professionals from around the world to discuss current trends, developments and challenges in the market, while considering the innovative technologies driving the industry towards new frontiers.
This year marks the launch of a brand-new format featuring sessions across three tracks: Industry, Technology and Smallsats. On the Industry track, the session ‘Plenary Agency Leadership Panel: The Importance of Moving Forward Gogether’ gathers senior leadership from major space agencies to explore challenges in Earth-bound technology development; the interplay between commercial and civil development; access to space; and managing space debris. A separate session on ‘Improving and Securing (Inter)Satellite Communications’ delves into the future of frequency bands, the consequences of high-throughput satellites and how to create better downlink opportunities.
The Smallsats track is focused on opportunities for Europe’s smallsats, with sessions covering market forecasts, analysis and opportunities, the impact of new players, leveraging LEO and sustainability. A standout session is ‘Breaking Through the Bottleneck Barrier: Going Forward with Small Launch Services’ – a panel session that brings together (soon-to-be) operational service providers to discuss challenges in funding, timelines for new vehicles, reducing time-to-market and how the price of small launch can remain competitive with large ride-share missions.
Start-ups are in the spotlight on the Technology track. ‘Start-up Session: Enhancing Greater Investment in the European Space Industry’ will see subject experts discuss how to establish a sustainable business in such an expensive and competitive industry; seamless integration of New Space organisations into conventional bodies; the benefits of cross-industry partnerships; and the promises of New Space. The session is a timely response to the rapidly rising number of start-ups entering this market.
Conference delegates will hear from speakers including Jeroen Rotteveel, CEO of Innovative Solutions In Space, who says the company has two main objectives for the show: “First, we hope to get in contact with potential new partners and suppliers for our cubesat components, modules and technologies that we can use in our small-satellite missions. Second, we hope to meet a lot of potential customers for our solutions and cubesat systems and services.”
ThrustMe’s president and CEO Ane Aanesland will also share her expertise in a session on selecting the right propulsion systems to enhance sustainable constellations. “Propulsion is an important topic and it is/will become crucial for the smallsat industry,” she says. “Propulsion will allow the industry to remain environmentally sustainable with de-orbiting and collision avoidance manoeuvres for smallsats.” She credits the expo and conferences as being “an event where traditional and new actors will meet up and join forces”.
Rotteveel and Aanesland will share the stage with expert speakers from the European Space Agency, DLR, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, ArianeGroup, KSAT, SES, JAXA, Rocket Lab and Energy and Airbus Defence & Space, alongside many others.
Space Tech Expo Europe takes place on November 19-21 in Bremen, Germany.
Keen to see what else the conference has to offer? Take a look at http://bit.ly/2mK7YSN
