Spanish ground systems specialist GMV is investing in ways to tap into the growing market for smallsats and tempt new ventures away from “homemade” solutions, business development head Miguel Molina has said. “The cost per satellite and associated launch is really going down, and so the cost associated with ground segment and operations must be in line with this trend,” he told SatelliteFinance.
Spanish ground systems specialist GMV is investing in ways to tap into the growing market for smallsats and tempt new ventures away from “homemade” solutions, business development head Miguel Molina has said.
Molina also believes there are no technical issues standing in the way of the new LEO-based players such as OneWeb, however, their potential for financial success has yet to be demonstrated.
“The big challenge is really more economical than technical,” he told SatelliteFinance.
“The cost per satellite and associated launch is really going down, and so the cost associated with ground segment and operations must be in line with this trend.”
He said the influx of ventures looking to roll out large constellations of smaller satellites is forcing the group to adapt its existing control systems and slash costs.
“We have carried out some internal projects – some of them still under validation – to integrate smallsat and fleet management concepts in our products,” he said.
“In this sense we are simplifying the architecture, and we are especially working in areas related to full automation and ‘light’ user interfaces. This approach is reducing costs at the deployment, operations and maintenance levels.”
Molina declined to comment on whether it was engaged in any discussions with these operators. SatelliteFinance understands it is talking to at least one of the new LEO-based satellite players.
GMV has been operating satellite ground systems since it was founded in 1984, and its international expansion strategy in Asia this year helped it secure a contract to build a control centre for Indonesian satellite BRIsat in July.
The group has been expanding in Asia, South America and Middle East alongside the telecoms growth in these regions, with customers including Star One, Visiona, Arabsat, Yahsat, BRI and NBN among others.
Molina singled out Africa as having the most exciting potential for growth in the medium to long term, because of its lack of infrastructure and the difficulty in developing ground-based communications.
It is also looking to develop new capabilities to enlarge existing markets in Europe or US, including space debris, navigation and Earth observation applications.
