Here are the notes I took from last night. Unfortunately time was limited and I couldn't ask every single question I wanted to.
Funding
I won’t go into a lot of detail here as this one has been answered multiple times. However I would like to reiterate that once the first batch of pearls are up the remaining launches will be funded through revenue received from the first batch.
Institutional Investment
Was interesting to note that in the last 3 days they have had 25 meetings with institutions.
The Pearls
Someone asked how many pearls will fit in the launcher. It could be between 2 and 3 dozen. Exact specifications are not yet known as this is dependent upon Virgin launch testing.
It is
very interesting to note that Gomspace have spent 10 million euros upgrading their facility in preparation to build the pearls. That gave me confidence.
Preliminary design of the pearls is complete and critical design of the pearls is in progress. Design completion and obviously funding need to be in place for the satellite build to commence.
Launch risk
These days there is an expected 97% success rate with launch. However the pearls will be covered by insurance. Should the launch fail this would effect a four month delay until the next launch.
Earth and Space Weather risks
I asked Meidad about weather related risks. He advised that the S band frequency is being used for communication. Meidad explained that this band mitigates impacts to the network of earth weather events ie: cloud/storms etc. So there is no expected impact to Quality of Service based upon earth weather events.
Space weather events ie: solar flares. Should there be solar flares it is possible that some satellites could be taken out of service. While a region of coverage could be lost the network itself would continue to work.
Testing of the diamonds
Meir emphatically stated that the SAS testing of the diamonds is 100% complete.
Solutions for customers
I asked Meir whether there would be a “cookie cutter” solution that would be used by all Telcos/customers or would it be a bespoke solution for each customer. Meir advised it would be bespoke for each customer. Essentially interested customers would advise SAS of their requirements, SAS would make the necessary changes to configuration, software etc. and then a customer trial would be undertaken. I asked if this approach would create extra costs and overheads to which Meir responded “No”. As such I assume that all trial costs would be baked into the final contract for any customers.
I also asked Meir whether they were just going to wholesale bandwidth or do some retail offerings. He advised they would do both.
Licensing and Insurance
I got some one on one time with Meidad while he was trying to eat and asked about licensing and insurance and did he feel confident that there would be changes to regulations now that nano satellites and constellations are starting up. He was very confident that a fair outcome would be negotiated. Some talks have been kicked off with the UK space agency about this topic and there is a workshop next month on this. So hopefully it can be resolved soon and advice to the market thereafter….. I didn’t actually ask him what he thought the timeframes for resolution would be.
Upcoming conferences being attended
@craigvn these are the upcoming conferences that Meidad mentioned they would be attending
- Satellite conference and exhibition, March, Washington
- World space business week, September, Paris
- I missed the name of this once, October, Germany (I’m sure we could ask for the details via FB)
- Sorry missed this one too, November, Africa (I’m sure we could ask for the details via FB)
