SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 European civil space leaders suggested expanding their flagship campaign to develop a secure communications constellation.<\/p>\n
Since the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS\u00b2) constellation of about 290 satellites was proposed, critics have attacked the program for being \u201ctoo late and too small,\u201d Nicolas Guillermin, European Commission team leader for security, said Sept. 17 at the Space Defense and Security Summit in Paris.<\/p>\n
IRIS\u00b2 is a public-private partnership to provide secure, low-latency, resilient satellite communications for European military, civil and commercial applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood things take time to be made, particularly in a sovereign way,\u201d Guillermin said. <\/p>\n
As to whether the IRIS\u00b2 program is ambitious enough, Guillermin called the 290-satellite constellation \u201ca minimum viable product\u201d designed for scalability. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely possible to insert satellites later to develop new services that are built on top of the current architecture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If European government leaders are satisfied with the services provided by the 290-satellite constellation, for example, the private sector could continue to invest in the constellation, Guillermin said.<\/p>\n
Technical Maturity<\/p>\n
Laurent Jaffart, European Space Agency connectivity and secure communication director, discussed plans to enhance underlying IRIS\u00b2 technology.<\/p>\n
To increase resilience, ESA will support maturation of key technologies like low-cost, multi-orbit satellite communications terminals. ESA also will encourage demonstrations to lessen technical risk of satellites destined for low altitudes in low-Earth orbit (LEO),. ESA also will support work aimed at creating a communications backbone for relaying data to Earth-observation satellites.<\/p>\n
Taken together, ESA estimates the projects would cost about 600 million euros ($707.8 million).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at further resilience for capacity and for throughput, but we\u2019re also looking at the ability to task satellites in near-real-time or real-time and disseminate data in real-time,\u201d Jaffart said.<\/p>\n