Finnish space tech company ReOrbit is taking a different approach to satellite design, using software that enables satellites to be built with flexible architectures so they can update as needed, ensuring the uninterrupted flow of data in space.
“We don’t build software-defined satellites. We build software first, then software-enabled satellites,” Sethu Saveda Suvanam, founder and chief executive of ReOrbit, tells Connectivity Business News in the latest episode of “The Dish.”
“We basically reverse the way satellites are built,” Suvanam says. Most satellite system designs have a hardware-first approach and incorporate software components later, he says.
ReOrbit, together with ESA, has developed a stack of software to act as the “backbone of its system architecture,” while hardware components are treated like a “commodity,” he says.
The Helsinki-based company in September raised $7.4 million in a seed round to expand its software products, which incorporate AI and machine learning, Suvanam says.
“AI is definitely at the core of what we build today,” Suvanam says. AI is used to design satellites for autonomy while moving data in space involves machine learning algorithms, he says.
ReOrbit’s satellites are also designed to support optical links, allowing the continuous movement of data, Suvanam tells CBN.
Optical communications capabilities are critical because the industry is moving away from point-to-point satellite communication. Satellites will need to transfer data to and from multiple locations in space or multiple sources from space to the ground, Suvanam says.
ReOrbit is designing satellites with the future in mind as satellites are becoming more integral in everyday life. In fact, everything we do is related to the space industry in some way, Suvanam tells CBN.
“I think in the near future, people will actually look back and say that satellites are the new oil. I think we’re moving in that direction.”
Listen as Suvanam discusses how ReOrbit is using AI to improve the flow of data in space.
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