The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a 78,4-million-euro contract to multinational technology company GMV to develop key technologies and demonstrate the benefits of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT).
Satellite navigation has traditionally relied on satellites at medium Earth orbit (MEO), but future navigation systems will adopt a multi-layer, system of systems architecture employing satellites at different orbital altitudes.
Low Earth orbits can bring important benefits to users in terms of improved signal resiliency, robustness, and accuracy.
The signed contract includes the design and development of satellites and payloads, the procurement of launch services, the provision of a Ground-Segment-as-a-Service (GSaaS), the development of a test user receiver, system operations, as well as experimentation and demonstration of LEO-PNT services with end users.
A total of five satellites will be developed and placed into orbit. The first satellite, an initial technology demonstrator based on a 12U Cubesat architecture, will be launched within 20 months from kick-off to perform initial testing.
Four additional small satellites will be launched to complete the demonstration constellation by 2027.
The LEO-PNT satellites developed in this contract will transmit new advanced signals in UHF, L, S, and C bands complementing the signals currently transmitted by navigation satellites such as Galileo and GPS.
An innovative “LEO shield” integrity determination function, capable of assessing in real time the integrity of GNSS signals received onboard the LEO satellites and alert users in case of malfunctioning will be also demonstrated.
GMV will be responsible for the complete end-to-end space mission and will lead an industrial organization that includes OHB System AG, Alén Space, Beyond Gravity and Indra as core partners.
With a key role as space segment prime of the small satellites, OHB System AG will lead the development and manufacturing of 4 LEO satellites in Bremen, bringing to the project its key expertise in the production of 34 Galileo satellites.
Alén Space, now part of GMV’s group since mid-2023 will provide the first technology demonstrator Cubesat platforms as well as important payload components.
Alén Space will also bring to the project its key expertise in new space methodologies, considered essential for the LEO-PNT mission.
Beyond Gravity, a leading independent space equipment supplier to satellite and payload primes and launcher operators, will play a key role in the development of the PNT payloads onboard the satellites.
With a strong expertise in GNSS applications in various markets, Indra will also play a key role in the project coordinating the experimentation and validation campaign that aims at demonstrating the benefits of LEO satellites for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) for end-users services.
The team is completed with 14 end-user representatives and key stakeholders from different parts of the LEO-PNT value chain and with a presence in key potential LEO-PNT markets such as road, rail, maritime, navigation at high latitudes and in inland waterways, indoor positioning, fishing, precise timing, IoT/asset-tracking, critical infrastructures, location-based services, and 5G/6G industries.
With the LEO PNT in-orbit demonstrator (IOD), GMV is ushering in a new era that will open the door to a new generation of navigation systems.
Leading a space mission from start to finish is a major commitment for GMV and represents the next logical step in consolidating the company’s position as a leading player in the European aerospace industry.
The geospatial industry has always embraced innovation. Today, the convergence of AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly reshaping the landscape. We have observed how quickly AI can streamline repetitive tasks by aggregating human experience. For example, this is evident when applied to automatically extracting features from massive 3D point clouds.
The convergence of IoT and cloud computing enables the real-time collection and analysis of geospatial data on an unprecedented scale. Real-time data processing improves quality control and empowers on-site operators to make informed decisions.
These transformative technologies are poised to play a pivotal role in the industry, allowing greater focus on non-repetitive, high-value tasks, such as advanced analysis and decision-making.
From Data to Cloud
Geospatial data serves as the digital blueprint of our planet. It serves as the foundation for the digitization of the physical world. By unlocking insights hidden within this data, we can make informed decisions from resource allocation to infra development. This, in turn, translates to enhanced sustainability, climate resilience, optimized supply chains, and smarter infrastructure investments. Geospatial data has the potential to be a cornerstone for economic growth and stability.
The strategic use of geospatial data for consolidation and responsible infrastructure development has the potential to have a profound impact on local, national, and global economies. The key to sustainable transformation lies in the strategic integration of innovative technologies into society, both economically and environmentally. Cloud computing represents a quantum leap in the scale, analysis, and application of spatial information.
The cloud revolution has democratized access to geospatial data and applications, empowering leaders with actionable insights in near real-time. This opens doors for the strategic integration of spatial information into everyday operations, allowing us to optimize resource allocation and policy-making. Cloud-based geospatial solutions can guide informed decisions that strike a vital balance between economic progress and environmental stewardship.
“The strategic use of geospatial data for infrastructure development will have have a profound impact on local, national, and global economies.”
Force for Collaboration
A healthy ecosystem fosters innovation and growth through positive feedback loops. For this, we need to ensure widespread accessibility of geospatial data capture and visualization technologies, particularly those crucial for creating Digital Twins. The strategic use of geospatial data for infrastructure development will have a profound impact on local, national, and global economies.
Lowering acquisition costs, improving usability, and fostering a competitive landscape are key aspects. Both manufacturers, such as CHC Navigation, and end-users will benefit from an actively competitive marketplace that fosters innovation and the continuous development of new solutions. While perspectives and priorities might differ between countries and communities, the view from space reminds us of our shared home on this planet.
Geospatial data provides policymakers with a neutral, visual overview that can transcend controversy and pave the way for collective progress. The potential of these technologies for regional and global cooperation is immense, offering a compelling model for a more united future.
In this week’s bulletin, Planet & SynMax Expand Partnership for AI-Powered Maritime Surveillance, NVIDIA Announces Earth Climate Digital Twin, PlanBlue Partners with Fugro to Scale Underwater Habitat Mapping, Stockholm to Deliver Retail Items via Drones and USGS and Australia Extend Partnership for Landsat Satellite Mission.
The Swedish municipality of Värmdö kommun in Stockholm has introduced a new drone delivery service for a populace of 10,000. Services provided include pharmacy products, groceries, meals, and retail items from stores and restaurants in Värmdö Köpcentrum.
Foodora Air, the project is a collaboration between three Swedish companies: Tele2, a mobile connectivity firm; Foodora, a restaurant and grocery delivery company; and Aerit, a delivery drone manufacturer. The service will launch in May where only food will be delivered first.
The company offers delivery flights that are conducted beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), which provide households registered with the company with on-demand access to goods and services. Initially, the services will only be available on weekends, but they are expected to expand to cover more days of the week.
“Establishing our first delivery hub is a major milestone for Aerit and drone services in Sweden. We are turning 30-minute car trips into 7-minute battery-powered flights,” said Alexander Perrien, CEO of Aerit. “Värmdö Kommun has been a great partner in this journey assisting with everything from identification of potential locations to land permit applications. We look forward to enhancing the sustainability and accessibility of the community,” he added.
Nimbi, the aptly named drones are equipped with six weatherproof motor/propeller units arranged in three sets of two at the ends of its three arms. They have a maximum load-carrying capacity of 8.8 lb (4 kg) in a 10-liter (2.6-gal) cargo compartment.
Each of these drones can travel up to 7.5 miles (12 km) when fully loaded, while it can go as far as 13 miles (21 km) if empty. While hovering, it produces a motor noise level of 65 decibels.
Resembling old-school milk churns, the Nimbi can pick up and deliver cargo using its unique winching mechanism. This winch enables package pick-up and drop-off without the requirement of any additional infrastructure.
Nimbi will be aided by Tele2’s 5G technology, which enables fast and efficient food delivery from several regional restaurants. Food deliveries will start in May on Värmdö and can be ordered via the Foodora app.
“This marks a new era in how people receive deliveries, and we believe we can see more applications in other industries,” says Stefan Trampus, Executive Vice President of B2B at Tele2.
“For us at Tele2, the partnership with Foodora is a perfect example of how we can use our 5G connectivity and expertise to drive future delivery services in a simple, sustainable, and smart way while providing customers with an extraordinary experience,” he added.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated two innovative navigation missions, Genesis and LEO-PNT, as part of its FutureNAV program, with contracts totaling €233 million awarded to several European entities.
This strategic move is aimed at addressing the growing demand for more resilient and precise navigation solutions in Europe.
ESA has signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space to deliver an end-to-end solution for the LEO-PNT orbit demonstrator.
This contract includes the space (5 satellites to be launched), ground and user segments, the in-orbit operations (including deorbiting), the launch, the test user segment, experimentation, and service demonstration in different industries’ representative user environments.
Francisco-Javier Benedicto Ruiz, Director of Navigation, ESA, highlighted the significance of these missions in meeting the burgeoning needs for enhanced navigation and ensuring Europe’s leadership in the vital space-based downstream market.
LEO-PNT Constellation for Future Applications
This LEO-PNT constellation will work in combination with Galileo and other satellite navigation systems to provide guaranteed centimeter location accuracy, robustness, resistance against jamming and spoofing as well as low latency (very fast acquisition).
LEO-PNT will thus allow to serve emerging applications such as high-level autonomous cars including persistent coverage in dense urban areas, unmanned aerial and maritime vehicles, or 5G/6G ground telecommunication network synchronization.
Adding a LEO-PNT constellation layer to the Galileo GNSS, combined with improved user receivers, will unlock new applications and economic growth while bringing essential environmental benefits reducing CO2 emissions through fuel saving and a more efficient energy network.
By launching the first European LEO-PNT demonstrator, ESA is demonstrating the leading position of European agencies and industry in the development of future operational space programs that will revolutionize tomorrow’s world.
“The strong support from CNES French Space Agency completed by Italian Space Agency contribution are demonstrating the key innovative and strategic character of this project for the future. Thales Alenia Space will re-enforce its capabilities in new space navigation solutions and small satellites systems with this demonstrator, and support the design of the next evolution of satellite navigation,” Herve Derrey, CEO, Thales Alenia Space.
Thales Alenia Space’s Role in Developing LEO-PNT
Thales Alenia Space in France and Italy is leading the program, supported by nanosat industries in Europe, mainly based in Spain and Germany. Telespazio will be involved in providing its expertise to support the operations and the performance analysis of the system.
LEO-PNT will benefit from Thales Alenia Space’s strong expertise as the leader in the navigation domain from EGNOS to Galileo Second Generation as well as from its heritage acquired through Native Positioning System or IOT Programs such as ARGOS, Angels, Kineis or Omnispace.
Thales Alenia Space will also capitalize on its strong partnership experience with Newspace actors, leveraged to introduce new entrants into this field.
Their solution will also capitalize on Europe’s dynamism in micro-launch vehicles, helping to secure Europe’s strategic access to space.
Kinetica unveiled at NVIDIA GTC the industry’s only real-time vector similarity search engine that can ingest vector embeddings 5X faster than the previous market leader, based on the popular VectorDBBench benchmark.
Under the hood Kinetica uses NVIDIA RAPIDS RAFT to harness the power of the GPU for vector similarity search.
With Kinetica’s best-in-class combined data and query latency for vector embedding pipelines, large language models (LLM) can immediately augment their results with new information via embeddings as soon as they are generated, without delays at scale.
Goldman Sachs Research estimates the total addressable market for generative AI software to be $150 billion. As more generative AI tools are developed and layered into existing software packages and technology platforms, businesses across the economy have the potential to realize tremendous benefits.
Unlike existing vector databases that suffer from data latency issues, Kinetica’s innovative ability to leverage the GPU in real-time ensures access to the latest data, empowering applications with unparalleled speed, accuracy, and responsiveness.
Its capacity to deliver instant insights amid data growth and change presents a groundbreaking solution for industries reliant on quick and up-to-date AI-driven analytics.
“At Kinetica, our focus has always been on delivering real-time insights in a rapidly evolving data landscape through our natively vectorized GPU optimized architecture,” said Nima Negahban, Cofounder and CEO, Kinetica.
“The introduction of real-time vector similarity search for pattern and anomaly detection perfectly aligns with our technology foundation and underscores our position at the forefront of data-driven innovation.”
Real-time vector similarity search also opens up new applications in domains for retrieval augmented generation (RAG) that are beyond just language and rich media.
Vector embeddings of time series and spatial data can capture features and patterns that convey meaning about time-variant phenomena like stock prices, weather, and objects in motion.
A real-time similarity search engine can immediately identify temporal trends, spatial patterns, and anomalies as they occur making it suitable for various use cases where real-time insights on numerical data are crucial for informed decision-making and predictive analytics.
“While other vendors offer vector-only databases as a product, our approach integrates vector search as a powerful feature within our mature, distributed, secure, and ANSI SQL compliant database, providing enterprises with a comprehensive solution for data analytics.” said Amit Vij, Cofounder and President, Kinetica.
Bentley Systems announced that effective July 1, 2024, Greg Bentley will transition from Bentley Systems’ CEO to Executive Chair of its Board of Directors.
Nicholas Cumins, currently COO, will then be promoted to CEO, and be proposed to join the Board of Directors.
The announcement was made during the opening event for Bentley Systems’ new UK headquarters in the City of London, beginning the observance of the company’s 40th anniversary.
Nicholas Cumins, CEO designate
Cumins has served as Bentley Systems’ COO since January 2022. He joined Bentley Systems as Chief Product Officer in September 2020 prior to the company’s IPO.
Previously he was General Manager of SAP Marketing Cloud and served as Chief Product Officer of Scytl, a platform for online voting, and as Senior Vice President of Product with OpenX, a pioneer in programmatic advertising.
Before OpenX, he had already served in a variety of senior roles at SAP, including product management, corporate strategy, and business development.
Cumins is a dual French and U.S. citizen and is based in France. He holds Maîtrise de Droit (Law) and Maîtrise de Sciences de Gestion (Business) degrees from the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Paris.
Nicholas Cumins said, “This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Bentley Systems, at its essence a company of engineers for engineers. Remarkably, the company has been founder- and family-led throughout those four decades. Greg has presided over an extraordinary legacy of long-term growth, sustained innovation, and value creation inspired by a commitment to advancing the world’s infrastructure for better quality of life.”
“Greg has had a profound influence on the lives and careers of Bentley colleagues, and, together with them, on infrastructure engineers worldwide, taking pride in their work and what Bentley software enables them to accomplish.”
“His entrepreneurial spirit is deeply embedded in the company’s culture and values. I am honored to have been selected to follow in his footsteps, and I represent the Bentley leadership team when I say we are confident in our readiness and growth mindset for the coming decades,” he added.
Greg Bentley, Executive Chair designate
CEO since 1995, Greg Bentley is the oldest of five brothers who founded Bentley Systems. Keith, Ray, and Barry Bentley retired within the last several years and remain company Directors.
Greg Bentley said, “I am very pleased to be able to retire from CEO responsibilities this year (at age 69) with such confidence that this completion of our extended succession process now leaves Bentley Systems demonstrably able to increase its potential, while safeguarding its established performance.”
“Under Nicholas Cumins as COO since January 2022 (and Chief Product Officer previously) both our ARR growth and operating margins have consistently improved to the highest levels in our just-now 40-year history.”
“And vitally, over the three-plus years since BSY’s IPO and the expected retirement wave that enabled, we fully reinvigorated our executive leadership with a high-functioning cadre that, while 20 years younger, benefits from valuable public-company experience and is already reaching its collaborative stride,” he said.
“Most significantly, our Board determined Nicholas to be the ideal CEO for our future by virtue of the continuity he respects and personifies in our ‘family values’ of dedication to the success of our colleagues and thence the success of our users and accounts. Equally, I am personally excited by the resolve and zeal of Nicholas and this next generation of leaders for technical and commercial innovation within our sustained mission,” he stated.
“I am looking forward to contributing as Executive Chair, foreseeably. Beyond supporting Nicholas behind the scenes in the functions naturally new to him, I will remain responsible for overall capital allocation, such as potential platform acquisitions. And by choice I will continue to regularly interact with our investment constituencies, with whom I have found particular affinity. Here’s to Bentley Systems’ next 40 years!”
To accelerate efforts to combat the $140 billion in economic losses due to extreme weather brought on by climate change, NVIDIA announced its Earth-2 climate digital twin cloud platform for simulating and visualizing weather and climate at an unprecedented scale.
Part of the NVIDIA CUDA-X microservices, announced separately today, Earth-2’s new cloud APIs on NVIDIA DGX Cloud allow virtually any user to create AI-powered emulations to speed the delivery of interactive, high-resolution simulations ranging from the global atmosphere and local cloud cover to typhoons and turbulence.
When combined with proprietary data owned by companies in the $20 billion climate tech industry, the Earth-2 application programming interfaces help users deliver warnings and updated forecasts in seconds compared to the minutes or hours in traditional CPU-driven modeling.
“Climate disasters are now normal — historic droughts, catastrophic hurricanes and generational floods appear in the news with alarming frequency,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Earth-2 cloud APIs strive to help us better prepare for — and inspire us to act to moderate — extreme weather.”
Generative AI for Climate Tech
Earth-2’s APIs offer AI models and employ a new NVIDIA generative AI model called CorrDiff, using state-of-the-art diffusion modeling, that generates 12.5x higher resolution images than current numerical models 1,000x faster and 3,000x more energy efficient.
It corrects inaccuracies of coarse-resolution forecasts and synthesizes metrics critical to decision-making. CorrDiff is a first-of-its-kind generative AI model that delivers super-resolution, synthesizes new metrics of interest to stakeholders, and teaches the physics of fine-scale local weather from high-resolution datasets.
The Central Weather Administration of Taiwan plans to use these diffusion models to forecast more precise locations of typhoon landfall.
When a typhoon warning is launched, the priority is to minimize casualties by carrying out early evacuations based on quality information generated by relevant agencies, including Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR). In the last decade, the death toll due to typhoons has fallen.
“Taiwan is a critical component of the global supply chain, and flooding risk analysis and evacuation preparedness are core to our mandate,” said Chia-Ping Cheng, administrator of CWA.
With more than 136 typhoons striking the island since 2000, using Earth-2 to mitigate these impacts is key to improving the quality and resolution of disaster informatics, NCDR said.
Another key component of Earth-2 cloud APIs is NVIDIA Omniverse, a computing platform that enables individuals and teams to develop Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD)–based 3D workflows and applications.
The Weather Company, a global leader in weather data forecasting and insights, plans to integrate its meteorological data and Weatherverse tools with Omniverse, enabling customers building digital twins to better understand and visualize the impact of actual weather conditions for the first time.
The Weather Company also plans to explore the use of NVIDIA score-based generative AI for its Weatherverse services, Weather Engine solution for enterprise-level weather intelligence, and new high-resolution weather modeling products.
“To help effectively address current and future weather- and climate-related challenges, it’s critical now more than ever to incorporate reliable, globally scaled real weather data and insights into digital twin environments to better analyze, plan and simulate the impacts of weather,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company.
“We’ve worked with NVIDIA for years on GPU acceleration of GRAF, our proprietary weather modeling systems, and we plan to adopt Earth-2 APIs to create higher resolution, energy-efficient simulations at a lower cost.”
Other early adopters of Earth-2 APIs include weather analytics platform companies like Spire and Meteomatics, which can build on their proprietary data sources and data assimilation to produce accurate forecasts, as well as startups Tomorrow.io, north.io and ClimaSens, which are exploring new solutions for climate tech applications.
Day 2 of the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2024 began with interesting sessions on the present and future of PNT from LEO.
The interest in complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has significantly increased in recent years following the emergence of international initiatives from the private and public sectors, relying on new industrial models and early availability of in-orbit results.
The list of possible technical advantages is large, ranging from increased resilience to faster high-accuracy convergence, to simple low-energy solutions, to integration with communication systems (such as provision of 5G/6G NTN localization compatible with communication protocols), to signal monitoring on-board, among several others.
“Through a low Earth Orbit (LEO) PNT constellation plan using 480 satellites, JAXA plans to enable the ultra-rapid precise point positioning (PPP) convergence service for Earth users,” said Masaya Murata, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan.
User communities aiming for increased performance like robustness, accuracy, availability, and time-to-fix, would benefit from such advantages in combination with existing solutions, including GNSS and inertial user equipment.
Current international initiatives are incorporating PNT solutions in LEO with different services and use cases in mind, in parallel to assess initial results and to develop sustainable system architectures and business cases.
“The ability of satellite navigation systems and augmentation can be used together to provide better capabilities at the user level than it can be achieved by relying solely on the open signals of one system,” said Francis Soualle, Airbus Defence and Space.
He adds, “Interoperability doesn’t apply in MEO-LEO “symbiosis” exploiting features of a LEO layer not designed for standalone PNT services.”
Exploring the Optical Technologies for GNSS
Satellite Communications is currently undergoing a significant transformation with new standards for 5G/6G non-terrestrial network access which is under development.
Mega constellations in LEO promise global network connectivity, with ongoing developments for additional constellations with new features such as the European IRIS2 initiative.
Optical link technologies, facilitating high data rates, and features like quantum key distribution play a significant role. Currently, the synergetic usage of the SATCOM signals for PNT services as well as the joint usage of constellations and satellites for communications and PNT is under investigation.
Additionally, there’s a consideration for leveraging optical inter-satellite links to enhance PNT services. The panel provided insights into the developments and highlighted potential synergies between SATCOM and PNT.
Vera Eklund, System Engineer, Tesat-Spacecom, Backnang, Germany highlighted the benefits of optical technologies for GNSS:
Planet Labs, a provider of daily data and insights about Earth, announced that they have expanded into a new strategic partnership agreement with SynMax, a Houston-based satellite analytics and intelligence company.
This marks an evolution in Planet’s previously announced partnership with SynMax, providing data for energy industry intelligence and dark/spoofing vessel tracking.
The specialized agreement enables Planet to sell an analytics tool for vessel monitoring and classification to their customers. Through this unique offering, Planet customers will be able to leverage the combined strength of Planet’s unparalleled satellite data, enhanced with SynMax’s proprietary artificial intelligence, for a first-of-its-kind solution, named Theia.
This product will offer comprehensive data-informed intelligence for the maritime domain, providing actionable intelligence and the ability to roll back time across the maritime domain.
“We’re excited for this strategic partnership with SynMax, bringing together Planet’s unique dataset and SynMax’s algorithms to provide maritime domain awareness around the world,” said Kevin Weil, Planet President, Product & Business. “For our customers, timely and accurate data regarding maritime events can enable efficient market operations and enhanced security measures.”
Planet owns and operates the largest fleet of Earth observation imagery satellites, capturing a scan of the Earth on a near-daily basis. With a deep archive of high-cadence Earth imagery, stretching back over years, Planet users observe trends and identify patterns of change. With this robust dataset, SynMax can digest and process Planet data to identify and classify ships across the world, delivering customers with maritime insights for strategic planning on a customizable web-based platform.
“This new strategic agreement enables us to scale our maritime solutions,” said Brendan Moore, CEO at SynMax. “With Planet as the broadest collectors of over ocean imagery and SynMax utilizing the most advanced analytics to identify and track tens of thousands of vessels each day, together, we are providing a game-changing capability for maritime domain awareness.”
SynMax processes more Planet open water data than any other Planet partner, enabling broad area management of our seas. This data helps identify light, gray, and dark vessels, track illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and monitor illegal fishing operations. Through integrated multi-source intelligence fusion, the solution provides advanced insights into vessel spoofing and dark vessel tracking capabilities as ships fail to transpond accurate Automatic Identification System (AIS) positions.
A vast repository of actionable data is integral to advance sustainability goals and make the world a better place to live.
To achieve a more sustainable world, robust economic prosperity, and shock resilience, many ‘enabling’ factors need to be at play. These include strengthening productive capacities, ensuring social justice and equity, transparent financial markets and investment, stronger governance and institutional settings, and efficient resource consumption and management.
However, countries are now also becoming more aware of and dependent on other ‘cross-cutting’ enabling factors in the digital transformation domain – in science, technology, space research, and other analytical capacities.
These include digital infrastructure; robotics and automation; innovation and knowledge capital; and the benefits and value of data, sensors, networks, and location intelligence to guide and support evidence-based policy and decision-making.
This is where we see the role of geospatial data, information, and enabling technologies making a significant impact in the future.
Governments, at least to some degree, now understand the need for reliable data, information, and knowledge to support their decisions and to ensure a level of transparency and accountability.
Boosting Development
Moving forward, countries and sectors will have a growing need for geospatial information to support national development, policy, and decision-making, and to achieve socio-economic prosperity. Information systems that are comprehensive, coordinated, integrated, and underpinned by geospatial information technologies and applications, provide the evidence on ‘where’ people interact with their place, cities and environment, and to deliver timely and reliable information necessary for citizens, organizations and governments to build accountable actions, decisions and impact.
Managing Complexity
Geospatial technologies and the geopolitical landscape are often perceived as being co-dependent, especially given the long history of map-making in a military context. Both are anchored to location, knowing what is happening where and when, and understanding geographic positions on Earth.
However, with increasing globalization, our world is becoming increasingly complex, and perhaps less resilient. One of the major learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic was that it demonstrated how entrenched our interconnected world, and commensurate vulnerability, had become – especially with global supply chains.
The pandemic had no respect for political borders, development divides, or physical limitations. No country was left untouched, although the developed world suffered much more than the developing world, and all governments and sectors of society were significantly impacted, creating ripple effects, shocks, and prolonged distress to the global economy.
But at the same time, reinforced the unprecedented need for timely data, geospatial information, enabling technologies, and insights for governments and citizens across the globe, to not only enable decision-makers to inform policies and planning, but to also minimize the risk to people, especially the most vulnerable population groups.
The pandemic also provided a catalyst for bridging divides and forging collaborative digital transformation and innovation in multiple areas of society. Every country had to learn to adapt, and every country used technology to do so – including geospatial technologies.
Today, we are much more technologically mobile and adaptive than in the past. That bodes well for the future.
Knowledge Infrastructure
The geospatial knowledge infrastructure (GKI) concepts, a bit like the UN-IGIF, challenge us to move beyond ‘geospatial data as a product’ to ‘geospatial knowledge as an outcome’ within the broader digital ecosystem.
For communicating to external stakeholders, this messaging is important, as geospatial data ecosystem is only a part, albeit a very important one, of the wider digital data ecosystem. In this regard, as we think more about building resilient and sustainable economies we need to recognize and adapt to how digital technologies and innovation are evolving and are able to assist governments, industry, and the broader community to better understand the role of geospatial information within the ‘knowledge economy’.
This helps us to then focus more on the provision of solutions – being able to solve problems, rather than on the provision of data – and you solve the problem. This means data, applications, analytics, and existing knowledge are embedded in the process and creating value.
Making a Difference
The SDG Data Alliance is establishing a very special role as a means to provide and accelerate SDG implementation reality in developing countries – including some of the world’s least developed countries. Using the power of purpose driven collaboration, global geospatial frameworks, innovation, and enabling GIS technology from Esri, the SDG Data Alliance is presently supporting 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and Africa.
With the mantra ‘country-led, and country-owned, the Data Alliance’s unique approach allows countries to not only track progress towards achieving the SDGs but to develop the necessary national capabilities and capacities to make data-driven decisions based on their unique national circumstances. We provide methods, frameworks, and technology, and they make them their own. We provide guidance and they do. They learn
and gain knowledge and we learn and gain knowledge. They grow and we grow. Most importantly as a partnership – there is a high level of trust, commitment and collaboration established on both sides.
Expansion
Now, building on this momentum, the SDG Data Alliance is focused on growing its reach and impact and is turning its sights toward Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as they prepare for the United Nations’ 4th Conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), hosted by Antigua & Barbuda May 27-30. SIDS4 is a unique once-in-a-decade gathering that will bring together Heads of State from 39 island countries to shape a ten-year economic framework for sustainable development.
Island nations are impacted the most by climate change, though they have contributed the least. On the frontlines of the climate crisis, they have become one of the most influential blocs during climate negotiations. During the 78th United Nations General Assembly in September 2023, PVBLIC signed an agreement with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Antigua and Barbuda, with the support of the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS), to collaborate on the expansion of the SDG Data Alliance to the 39 island nations.
In November, PVBLIC signed a Partnership Framework Agreement with the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Gaston Browne, outlining the creation of a Center of Excellence and Global Data Hub for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which will be focused on propelling small island developing states into a future marked by resilient prosperity, and sustainable development.
The SDG Data Alliance, with partners Antigua and Barbuda and UNOPS, plans to begin implementation in 2024 with the creation of a SIDS Global Data Hub, with the objective to establish a sustainable and enduring repository for comprehensive socio-economic and environmental data on SIDS.
Additional plans and exciting announcements will be made during SIDS4 in late May. We hope to see the geospatial community there in full force in support of the sustainable development of island nations.
The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2024 commenced today at Munich with the theme, “GNSS Meets Friends in New Orbits – Potentials and Synergies!”
The Summit is part of the efforts of the Bavarian government and the cluster on aerospace and satellite navigation to stimulate applications and services in this high-tech field.
The discussions at the summit highlighted the evolving landscape of satellite navigation and its integration with other space-based technologies, and keeping in view the geopolitical situation, how countries should come together to develop robust GNSS systems to keep their countries safe.
Christoph Kautz, Director for Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation, DG DEFIS, Brussels, Belgium, stated that if one member state faces a crisis like a natural disaster and it does not have enough means to help itself, then the member state can call the Commission, and the Commission will call other Member States who have already committed in advance to provide in advance certain tools that is needed, for example in case of forest fire, fire brigades or air firefighter planes will be made available to the Member State and destress the situation.
Historically, satellite navigation has been closely linked with Medium Earth Orbits (MEO). However, the burgeoning presence of mega-constellations in Low Earth Orbits (LEO) is reshaping this traditional understanding.
The summit aims to explore how complementary navigation satellites in LEO can enhance the integrity of GNSS signals at the Earth’s surface.
The potential for closer convergence between navigation, communications, and Earth observation systems, all operating in LEO, is a key focus of the conference. This integration is expected to uncover various synergies and new potentials in the field.
Future Navigation to rely on LEO PNT
“We are planning to launch 10 Galileo satellites this year in close collaboration with European Union Agency for the Space Programme and European Space Agency. Now that GNSS is launched in LEO, the navigation has become more precise and accurate, which is being used in autonomous vehicles, maritime, drones, and for making cities smart,” said Stefan Schnor, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Berlin, Germany.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated two innovative navigation missions, Genesis and LEO-PNT, as part of its FutureNAV program, with contracts totaling €233 million awarded to several European entities. This strategic move is aimed at addressing the growing demand for more resilient and precise navigation solutions in Europe.
Javier Benedicto, ESA’s Director of Navigation, highlighted the significance of these missions in meeting the burgeoning needs for enhanced navigation and ensuring Europe’s leadership in the vital space-based downstream market.
Threat of Loss of GPS
Keeping in view the geopolitical situation, jamming and spoofing of GNSS, and manipulating GPS have become a threat to civilians’ lives and unveiled the vulnerability of the country’s dependence on these services.
Harold “Stormy” Martin, National Coordination Office for Space-Based PNT, Washington DC, USA said, “Threat of loss of GPS is very real and the US takes it very seriously. We have U.S. policy that mandates that we have resilience, and the US has worked for years to leverage development of commercial and government complementary PNT.
“For example, the US Department of Transportation plans to field test operationally ready complementary PNT systems that are at a technology readiness level of 8 or above, as well as commercial complementary PNT systems. The Department of Transportation sent out a solicitation to vendors just last month and they’re working to develop a test range and evaluations, conducted on that range.”
DeepRoute.ai has announced plans to develop end-to-end smart driving solutions powered by the centralized compute architecture of the upcoming NVIDIA DRIVE Thor platform, based on the new Blackwell GPU architecture designed for transformer and generative AI workloads.
This architecture will be first adopted by passenger vehicles integrated with DeepRoute.ai’s smart driving solution, and scheduled for launch next year.
DeepRoute.ai began conducting end-to-end (deployment training) architecture road tests on NVIDIA DRIVE Orin, the predecessor to DRIVE Thor, back in August 2023, validating the viability of the model through significant testing and simulation.
DeepRoute will be able to leverage the benefits of their software investment in DRIVE Orin, and take advantage of the scalable DRIVE architecture to easily transition current development efforts to DRIVE Thor once ready.
During his session at GTC, DeepRoute.ai CEO Maxwell Zhou, showcased the videos from these road tests, which demonstrated proficiency in navigating complex scenarios with oncoming vehicles and pedestrians in a natural, polite manner while ensuring safe and efficient driving.
Another example showed the vehicle carefully changing lanes to pass when recognizing a taxi dropping off passengers. As the model continues to obtain a wealth of data, it is poised to iterate results and performance that offer a safe, smooth, and efficient driving experience.
Unlike traditional autonomous driving solutions that separate into perception, prediction, planning and control modules, etc., the end-to-end model integrates all of these modules into one neural network, allowing for no information loss.
The model also learns from a vast repository of video clips that fosters insight into more nuanced driving behaviors.
One example of this sophistication is the model’s capacity to understand courtesy and consideration toward pedestrians during heavy rain, adjusting its actions to take cues from the pedestrian’s behavior.
“The end-to-end model is revolutionary for autonomous driving, signaling the end of ‘rule-based’ AI and the dawn of a new era that is ‘learning-based’.” said Maxwell Zhou, during his GTC session.
“High performance SoCs like NVIDIA DRIVE Thor with 1,000 teraflops of performance, are crucial for future success of the end-to-end model. With this technology, we will achieve our goal of artificial general intelligence in robots by integrating smart driving cars with end-to-end model.”
“DeepRoute has demonstrated remarkable technology innovation prowess in recent years, evolving into a staple within in the transportation industry for AI driving systems.” said Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive, NVIDIA.
The global geospatial market is expected to grow from $63 billion to $148 billion in the next five years. Satellites transformed modern mapping from static approximations into dynamic reflections of our world and the activity within it.
In the early 2010s, the use of distributed networks of small satellites made it more cost effective to capture timely geospatial data at a global scale.
Reshaping Industries
Today, a variety of geospatial platforms (including satellites) capture data at different altitudes, benefiting from low-cost components, commoditized storage/ compute, and decades of GIS product development.
The adoption of cloud, edge computing, new AI capabilities, and increasingly powerful geospatial APIs and SDKs are making the benefits of geospatial intelligence more accessible.
Developers no longer need to be experts in image capture, data processing, or object detection, and instead can focus on building specialized applications tailored to unique customers, similar to the proliferation of GPS brought about by Apple’s App Store.
The ability to collect, process, and analyze endless amounts of geospatial data is creating powerful new applications that are helping to reshape how the largest global industries operate.
A seemingly infinite number of venture-scale businesses are now being built in multi-trillion dollar global industries such as agriculture, insurance, and climate markets.
AI Boom
As a horizontal technology that cuts across everything including next-gen manufacturing and supply chain management, satellite design and operations, deeper and more actionable intelligence, SatCom network management, and more.
Funding to AI companies remains strong, driving growth in an otherwise tepid market.
Today, NVIDIA’s platform is powering everything from simulation to design and operations to asset management on orbit. Meanwhile, synthetic data has become an essential tool for the advancement of AI and ML.
Given the massive datasets produced by Earth imaging satellites, GEOINT is the largest initial market and leading GEOINT organizations like Maxar, Planet, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are leveraging this technology for AI training and validation.
While 2023 was a year of experimentation, 2024 will see AI integrated into enterprise workflows as products from AWS, Google, and Microsoft will set the pace for enterprise adoption and revenue generation.
The Road Ahead
As much growth as we’ve seen in recent years, AI is not as widely adopted as it will be – not by a long shot. Computer vision tools are still in the early stages of adoption and we expect to see much more innovation here.
Recent advancements in AI are enhancing the capabilities of companies across the Space Economy. While 2023 was a year of experimentation, 2024 will see AI integrated into enterprise workflows as products from AWS, Google, and Microsoft will set the pace for enterprise adoption and revenue generation.
AI will continue to play a pivotal role, accelerating innovation and enabling companies to unlock the value of geospatial data for a broad set of users.
This trend will benefit not only space applications but also various other segments of the Space Economy as digitization of our physical world gains momentum.
There’s huge potential to positively reshape industries and enhance daily lives with location intelligence. A simple, precise addressing system is revolutionising everything from navigation, logistics, to emergency response.
We focus on combining digital transformation with efficiency and innovation by offering a global addressing system that not only simplifies location sharing but also increases efficiencies for both people and businesses. With our technology, businesses can better optimise routes, find customers first time and cut out the inefficiencies that create surplus emissions.
Due to its multi-lingual nature, what3words technology is used globally by leading automakers, logistic providers, as well as emergency services.
Grassroots Impact
We extend support to humanitarian efforts like disaster and emergency response to make a tangible impact on how digital innovation can be used for good. Precise addressing is used by communities all over the world in need of a more precise addressing system – in Haiti, for example, IHS used the app to help specify where water pipes needed to be laid.
In Durban, South Africa, NGO Gateway Health Institute, which provides emergency support vehicles for people living in the townships, trained local young people to help residents discover and use their what3words address. The local emergency services were also trained to quickly find and navigate what3words address they are given over the phone or via SMS.
The Rhino Refugee Camp in Arua, Uganda is embracing what3words to make life easier for the people who live there. Videre Global also uses what3words to efficiently deliver, install, and maintain their solar solutions across Africa.
“Precise location data has an immense potential to bridge divides. Accurate location information can support humanitarian aid, enhance global trade, and foster cooperation across borders.”
Interconnected World
Intelligent location technology is a vital tool in building a more connected, collaborative world, even in the face of adversity. Precise location data has an immense potential to bridge divides. Accurate location information can support humanitarian aid, enhance global trade, and foster cooperation across borders.
It is not just about improving operational efficiencies but creating a framework that allows businesses to contribute to a more interconnected, dynamic, and resilient global economy. Precise, real-time location intelligence is fundamental to a resilient global economy. It underpins everything from emergency services to logistics and mobility solutions.
KSAT, Kongsberg Satellite Services, a provider of satellite ground networks and Earth Observation services has acquired a majority stake of 70 per cent of VAKE, a Norwegian space–startup that delivers maritime domain awareness by using satellite data combined with machine learning.
Since 2018, VAKE has been working on applying Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) to satellite images to detect and analyse the behaviour of vessels, including ships that choose to hide their position, identity, and activity at sea.
They have developed strong Machine Learning (ML) capabilities for several maritime applications which started by leveraging open data from the European Space Agency and the Copernicus program, and now also offer integration of commercial satellite data into their products and services.
KSAT has followed the development of VAKE since the company was founded and sees great opportunities in joining forces with VAKE to solve the future challenges in maritime domain awareness, offshore asset protection and shipping activity tracking.
“We see this as a great opportunity where KSATs solid experience, extensive market knowledge and position combined with VAKE´s capacities in AI/ML and innovative approach will result in improved services, increased market share in existing markets as well as opportunities in adjacent markets,” says KSAT Executive Vice President Strategy and Technology, Arnulf Kjeldsen.
VAKE and KSAT are joint in their view of the importance of AI and ML for satellite imagery analysis and data fusion for future Earth Observation services.
“This was a clear strategic choice for us to increase access to satellite sources and reduce the time it takes before insights from satellite data are made available to customers and end users. As a developing company we will also greatly benefit from the expertise and network that KSAT has built up over decades in the space industry, ” says CEO of VAKE, Thomas Leira.
KSAT has perfected the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in combination with other satellite-based data sources, for maritime monitoring services like oil spill detection and vessel detection.
KSAT draws from an extensive portfolio of satellites and the company’s services are used for decision support by authorities, coastguards, energy companies and other end users worldwide. Information is provided in near-real time via KSAT worldwide ground network consisting of 300+ antennas spread over 28 locations.
“KSAT is a world-leading provider of satellite data reception with the best global network for downloading and distributing data from satellites. Teaming up with KSAT jointly gives us a competitive advantage and will help in getting to the market positions and opportunities we are targeting internationally much faster,” adds Chief Commercial Officer in VAKE, Tugba Gunes.
While KSAT holds majority ownership, VAKE remains as an independent company with the same team, continuing to provide its offerings to the market, but now with the possibility of being integrated into KSAT’s deliveries as well.
NATS Services has announced a strategic commercial partnership that will revolutionize the way the sky is managed for new airspace users.
The combination of Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM suite of technologies and NATS Services’ leading airspace management expertise will enable competitive and innovative services to integrate new airspace users, while maintaining safe operations for its existing commercial aviation customers.
This deal will also see GuardianUTM Flight Approval Services being deployed at some NATS-controlled airports later in 2024, allowing for digitally managed UTM flight requests and approvals and enhanced situational awareness.
The partnership will also accelerate Altitude Angel’s roll-out of its transformative ARROW technology, which when fused with its GuardianUTM platform, detects and identifies all airspace users, enabling drones to fly BVLOS and share the airspace with crewed aviation safely and securely.
On the strategic partnership, Guy Adams, Managing Director of NATS Services said, “Supporting the development of New Airspace Users through airspace integration and the provision of new services is one of our strategic priorities. This partnership with Altitude Angel is a milestone in UK aviation, bringing together the technology, operational expertise and innovation that will allow us to further support the industry.
“The combination of Altitude Angel’s UTM technologies and NATS’ deep understanding of air traffic and airspace management will allow us to further embrace the integration of this new generation of airspace users, while also continuing to deliver the very highest standards of safety and efficiency.”
Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and founder added, “Through this alliance, NATS and Altitude Angel bring together the unparalleled strength of air traffic control expertise with the world leading innovation of UTM.
“This partnership brings together in-depth knowledge, real-world experience, and, most importantly, a shared vision for a future where the skies are not just open but interconnected, where traditional and emerging aviation seamlessly coexist.”
“Together, we will create an airspace that reflects the harmony of collaboration and the promise of a safer, more sustainable aviation future for all. We are pleased our leadership and innovation has been recognised by NATS as important to not only its future, but to the future of UK airspace.”
Accenture has acquired Flo Group, a European consultancy and Oracle business partner specializing in global supply chain logistics.
This acquisition further enhances Accenture’s Oracle capabilities in Europe to help clients build more resilient and agile supply chains that provide end-to-end visibility. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2007, Flo is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with additional offices in Argentina and India.
Flo’s 280 people join the Accenture Oracle Business Group, bolstering its capabilities to help clients design their digital core to be ready for supply chain transformation.
“Accenture is committed to helping organizations reinvent themselves and build their digital core as a source of competitive advantage,” said Andrea Cesarini, lead of the Accenture Oracle Business Group in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“Together with the Flo team—a highly valued Oracle partner with deep skills in designing, building and running complex logistics platforms—we can unlock even more value for our clients in Europe.”
With a focus on consulting and implementation of Oracle supply chain cloud technology, Flo takes a holistic approach to help clients realize business benefits from their logistics initiatives while producing savings and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Flo primarily serves enterprise clients in Europe in a wide range of industries including retail, automotive, consumer goods, manufacturing, mining, energy, chemicals and government.
“For 17 years, we’ve been delivering complex supply chain solutions worldwide, as a leading Oracle business partner in supply chain in Europe,” said Michiel Keijzer, CEO, Flo Group.
“By joining Accenture, we can deliver logistics excellence at scale, while creating new growth opportunities for our people.”
The acquisition of Flo follows the recent addition of Inspirage, an integrated Oracle Cloud specialist firm with an emphasis in supply chain management.
PlanBlue announced a partnership with Fugro to integrate PlanBlue’s pioneering underwater technology and analytics with Fugro’s mature framework, enhancing cutting-edge habitat mapping technology and digital solutions building.
The partnership is poised to revolutionize the industry by leveraging PlanBlue’s innovative approach to refine and expand Fugro’s solutions.
The primary focus will be on seamless integration across various platforms, with an initial emphasis on the integration of uncrewed vehicles like autonomous underwater vehicles.
This strategic alliance holds substantial promise, not only for upgrading existing offerings but also for making meaningful impacts across diverse sectors.
From supporting offshore wind farms to driving initiatives for ocean health, conservation, and nature preservation, to exploring new markets, the potential for positive change is substantial.
The collaborative efforts aim to address challenges and create solutions that transcend industries, with a keen focus on promoting environmental sustainability.
Fugro’s established reputation and industry knowledge, combined with PlanBlue’s invaluable agile expertise in combining hyperspectral imaging, precise underwater navigation, and AI-based automated data processing to ground-truth aerial and satellite imagery, sets the stage for a dynamic partnership.
The enthusiastic collaboration is geared towards creating solutions that not only meet the current demands of the industry but also contribute significantly to environmental conservation and sustainability.
“We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership brings,” said Marco Filippone, Fugro’s Solution Director for Ocean Science and Hydrography.
“By integrating PlanBlue’s advanced technology and analytics into our framework, we aim to lead the industry in providing innovative solutions that make a positive impact on the environment and various sectors.”
“This partnership is a great opportunity to scale our business operations and data products and have a growing impact on coastal resilience,” commented Dr Hannah Brocke, Co-founder and CSO at planblue.
“Accelerating the collection of insights about marine habitats is essential for meaningful policy decisions in the blue economy. Through this partnership we strengthen our contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and global initiatives like the UN Decade for Ocean Science and Seabed 2030.”
The partnership between Fugro and PlanBlue signifies a shared commitment to driving positive change through technological innovation. As the collaboration progresses, both companies look forward to exploring new frontiers, pushing boundaries, and creating solutions that make a lasting difference for a safe and liveable world.
With PlanBlue’s technology integrated into Fugro’s underwater drones, the project aims to restore marine habitats, fortify the national system for observing marine and coastal ecosystems, and comprehensively map coastal and marine habitats across Italian waters (specifically seagrass meadows).
As the collaboration progresses, both companies look forward to exploring new frontiers, pushing boundaries, and creating solutions that make a lasting difference for a safe and liveable world.
Trimble and Radiodetection announced a collaboration to improve the technology used in the utility measurement and mapping process.
Through the integration of the Trimble® Catalyst™ DA2 GNSS system and Radiodetection’s RD MapTM+ application and precision locator products, the software and hardware integration streamlines utility-locating workflows to provide high-accuracy measurement capabilities for the creation of underground utilities maps in a single field operation.
Simplified Utility Mapping with Survey-Grade Accuracy
Data collected with the Trimble Catalyst DA2 GNSS system can now be simultaneously synced with Radiodetection RD Map+ and precision locators that find and mark buried utilities. By streamlining this connection, workers can efficiently and accurately digitize utility-line locations and reduce costly reporting errors.
“Accurate geolocation is critical to the operation and maintenance of underground utilities and public infrastructure,” said Stephanie Michaud, strategic marketing manager, Trimble Surveying & Mapping Field Solutions. “By adding survey-grade capabilities to existing utility workflows, this collaboration creates a connected solution that provides confidence and reliability during the data capture process.”
This integration advances utility measurement workflows by giving workers the capability to accurately represent the utility asset in a digital format. This streamlines the operation, maintenance and construction process whenever utilities are involved.
“We are excited to bring to the market this solution alongside Trimble as part of the Radiodetection ‘Map It Your Way’ initiative,” said Tom Turner, product management and marketing director, Radiodetection. “The Map It Your Way initiative is launching a range of solutions combining our latest digitally-enabled hardware with mobile applications to allow customers to accurately map underground utilities.”
Availability
Trimble Catalyst DA2 GNSS solutions are available through Trimble Geospatial Distribution Partners. Trimble Catalyst GNSS solutions are also available through the Radiodetection Distributor Network alongside Radiodetection’s precision locators and RD Map+.
Neuraspace announced that Kongsberg NanoAvionics has selected Neuraspace’s space traffic management (STM) solution, based on artificial intelligence for its own end-to-end small satellite mission services.
Satellite manufacturer and mission integrator NanoAvionics will make Neuraspace’s STM system for collision analysis, manoeuvre planning, and improving space sustainability part of its LEOP (launch and early orbit phase) and operations package.
In addition to enhanced safety for satellites, NanoAvionics and its customers will benefit from automated spacecraft operations such as collision analysis and manoeuvre planning, ensuring their assets are protected at all times.
Žilvinas Kvedaravičius, CEO of NanoAvionics said, “At NanoAvionics, ensuring sustainable space operations has always been a core focus, and we’ve continually employed collision avoidance tools to maintain this. The integration of Neuraspace’s software-as-a-service into our service portfolio marks a significant advancement in our efforts.”
“This enhancement builds upon our existing methodologies for space traffic management and aligns with the increasing demands from our customers who are committed to meeting the sustainability targets set by their stakeholders, regulators, and end-users”
Using Neuraspace’s STM system reduces the need for manual labor, which is also a cost factor. Additionally, the platform minimizes mission disruptions and can help lower insurance premiums through improved space debris mitigation.
Neuraspace’s solution can also enable additional earnings by extending the satellite lifetime, for example by avoiding using valuable fuel for unnecessary maneuvers and providing enhanced services such as priority maneuvers.
Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace said, “We look forward to delivering our solutions and services and aim to empower NanoAvionics and its customers with enhanced safety and efficiency in space operations.
The Neuraspace solution addresses both current and future space sustainability requirements and thus contributes to the overall sustainability of space and the space industry.
With the support of our customers, Neuraspace is well-positioned to continue its growth and success in the space traffic management industry.”
For the widespread dissemination of spatial knowledge, a bottom-up approach is essential— acquiring diverse datasets and insights from industry experts and then distributing them.
However, this approach poses the challenge of extracting usable information from vast datasets. Educating experts and scientists alone will not suffice; there is a need to train university students through carefully curated programs.
Collective learning involving individuals from various backgrounds, fostering diversity and experience, is a crucial factor for systematic innovation.
The development of knowledge will result in standardized capabilities, paving the way for the generation of innovative applications and use cases through open data. To achieve this, a more data-driven approach is necessary.
Incorporating academia with international entities such as the United Nations and the World Bank will ensure a linear worldwide progression of knowledge building.
International players can establish a platform with analytics to facilitate learning, while companies can contribute by providing APIs and insights, collaborating within an ecosystem.
It is imperative to leverage these technologies to build a better future. The entire concept of a data-driven approach and collective learning holds significant importance for the next generation.
Disaster Mitigation
Satellite data plays a crucial role not only in identifying complex objects and tracking developments on Earth but also in disaster mitigation and building resilient infrastructure.
During the 2011 earthquake in the east of Japan, satellite data were insufficient to provide immediate information for risk assessment and recovery activities.
However, in the 2024 earthquake, we were able to promptly provide satellite data that aided in rescue missions and monitored the affected areas.
Yet, there is still much to be done. The solution lies in sharing live URLs of real-time satellite data for disaster management in the event of earthquakes, flood damage, or forest fires.
We can enhance our capability by increasing the number of satellites, reducing processing time, and offering precise information. For instance, accurate landslide risk assessments can be provided, pinpointing potential risk zones.
AI introduces a new dimension to disaster prediction and analysis at timely intervals. We are amassing information and datasets about global disaster occurrences to train AI models and machine learning algorithms for predictive intelligence.
Within six years, we anticipate predicting the damages from a disaster and proactively preparing to minimize the impact, while also furnishing relevant data for constructing robust infrastructure.
“The next 15 years are pivotal for humanity. Emphasizing an appropriate vision is essential to harness the full potential of AI systems for sustainable decision-making.”
Future Transition
Understanding the benefits of interoperability and mitigating conflicts is crucial. Recent geopolitical risks stem from various factors, such as each country’s economic state or energy security.
When addressing this complex issue, it’s essential to recognize the power of the economy, often not given sufficient importance. Policymaking is intricate in many countries.
If geospatial data, or any data for that matter, can demonstrate incentives for greater profitability with a positive impact on society, many people may choose this less turbulent route.
Changing people’s minds takes time, so whatever transformation we envision for the next generation must be initiated by this generation. For instance, sustainable goals and positive climate change actions must be undertaken now.
Economics has already shown that collaboration can yield greater benefits than conflict through the power of a competitive market.
Scientific approaches, fueled by robust economic actions, can shape a different future for the next generation. While it may take time, laying the groundwork for usable platforms, tools, and structures will redefine the concept of living.
The next 15 years are pivotal for humanity. Emphasizing an appropriate vision is essential to harness the full potential of AI systems for sustainable decision- making.
