Looking back over the last 30 years, Millennials working across the satellite industry noted the vast amount of change that both the technology and markets have seen just in their lifetimes. This includes huge advancements in capacity with High-Throughput Satellites (HTS), new actors and concepts such as those touted by O3b, satellite payloads growing from 1 Gbps to 1 Tbps, and small satellites making more than a little splash in the commercial and even government industries.
“The industry has been rapidly changing in recent years with the creation of a lot of start-ups by Millennials, and the ever greater implication of universities through cubesats, among other things,” Kahina Aoudia, 25, director of legal and regulatory at the Space Partnership International (SPI), told Via Satellite.
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Predicting 2047
“The satellite industry of 2047 is no doubt going to be different than that of 2017,” said Minoo Rathnasabapathy, executive director for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). “The significant technical advancements our industry has experienced, coupled with changes in the market and customer needs, and in addition to an expected decrease in launch cost will define the next 30 years.”
“One of the biggest changes will be greater accessibility to space,” says Aoudia. “A larger part of the world will have access to satellite-based services such as DTH or internet; more people will be able to go to space.”
New Technologies and Frequencies
“I really believe that we will go wireless and satellite will play an important part in this new telecom era,” says Alan Ribeiro, 31, of Embratel Star One. “New bands, such as Ka, Q and V, with higher frequencies and more HTS capacity, will be just the beginning for new telecommunications capacity 30 years from now.”
Letting the Next Generation In
“You see what SpaceX has been able to accomplish using a workforce that skews to the younger end of the spectrum,” says Jordan Irving, 31, system engineer at Iridium. “There are pros and cons to their approach, of course, but it shows you that younger people can do a lot if given the opportunity.”
Rathnasabapathy believes that it is easy to sell the younger generation on the space industry, however, but the industry isn’t yet doing enough to maintain the younger workforce. “There is a constant demand for young professionals to enter the industry, but what the space industry struggles with is retaining these high-quality professionals.” VS
