European control and components

Mark Lützner, seconded national expert at the European Commission and a member of the Iris² implementation team, described that Iris² is the EU’s first 5G satellite communication system, employing up to 300 satellites in low Earth orbit (1,200 km) and another layer at 8,000 km. He explained that its primary goal is to connect critical societal elements like emergency services, police, military and government, thereby enhancing resilience and preventing crises from escalating.

Lützner stressed that security is fundamental. Consequently, Iris² is implemented through a “security by design” philosophy with 300 requirements, continuous member state involvement and reliance on a European value chain to prevent dependencies. “Having satellites in low Earth orbit but also a medium orbit makes the constellation inherently more robust and resilient.”

The world in pictures

“We image the whole world’s landmass, the literal environment and most key open ocean areas every day,” stated Robert Kerby, head of business development EMEA at Planet Labs. He commented that Planet Labs maintains a nine-year archive with roughly 3,000 images per location.

Planet Labs partners with Nato to provide site monitoring (e.g. steel production, tank production and airfields), maritime domain awareness (detecting hidden or decoy ships by combining daily scans with Automatic Identification System data) and broad area monitoring to identify changes like new roads or trenches over millions of square kilometres.

“The co-founders were space hippies. They weren’t interested necessarily in defence. They wanted to save the rainforest. They wanted to think about sustainability, all very noble causes… but defensive intelligence has become a big part of what we do,” added Kerby.

 Their underlying technology and data are unclassified and openly available, but Kerby stressed that classified discussions occur for specific defence requirements. 

Protecting data integrity

Frederic Tourret, co-founder and CEO at FACTiven, addressed the growing challenge of data manipulation, particularly from generative AI, which can alter images or create fake ones. “Today, AI has the power to add a plane on Earth observation imagery, remove a vehicle or even create imagery from scratch.”

Tourret emphasised that FACTiven’s mission is to protect space-generated data, ensuring its trustworthiness and traceability so users can confidently take appropriate actions. This is crucial for “large constellations” to provide reliable, untampered, accurate, up-to-date data and services.

Protecting satellites

“We look from the ground at space to track and map any object with our sensors. Every night, we can track up to 500 objects,” said Thomas Eggenweiler, commercial director at Neuraspace. He noted that approximately one million objects pose collision threats to vital satellites (e.g. navigation, communication).

Neuraspace uses AI and machine learning to predict collisions up to five days in advance, enabling avoidance manoeuvres. The company also predicts space weather impacts (solar eruptions) on satellite operations.

Processing data in orbit

Jaroslaw Jaworski, CEO at Edge Aerospace, explained that his firm specialises in onboard computing for satellites, allowing data processing to occur directly in space rather than relying on terrestrial data centres. This capability is vital for time-critical applications like missile or drone tracking, enabling the rapid delivery of “actionable data” and reducing response times from minutes to near real-time. “When time matters, we deal with that.”

Future developments include fully autonomous spacecraft and potentially relocating data centres to orbit. “Instead of warming our environment and keeping data here, we can move a little bit of this data into space because we have 24/7 free energy and a relatively cold environment,” said Jaworski. He emphasised that defence has historically been the largest customer for space applications and will continue to drive innovation, suggesting that “every space company is going to be a space and defence company.”

Final word

Finally, moderator Eduardo Cruz (University of Luxembourg) asked the panelists how they would explain the importance of defence in space to a 15-year-old.

Lützner: “We’re very dependent on connectivity. So, what I do with Iris² is improve the resilience of connectivity.”

Kerby: “I would ask him or her: ‘If you had our capabilities, you could image the whole world every day… what would you do?’… You’re on the absolute edge of being able to understand those things and have a career in tech. Imagine what you could do.”

Tourret: “I would invite him or her to imagine a satellite flying in space and providing vital information to Earth.”

Jaworski: “We will move all the data centres that are on Earth to space. Imagine that!”