SSPI

In a conversation hosted by NYSA’s Joe Fargnoli and SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla, Paul Gloyer, President of Gloyer-Taylor Labs LLC; Douglas Helmuth, Remote Sensing Scientist and Former Principal Investigator at Lockheed Martin SSC (now retired); and Sanjay Wagle, co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group, talk about what meaningful business cases can be made for sustainable technologies in space and satellite. This podcast is based on the recent New York Space Business Roundtable conversation, conducted on January 19, 2022.

In a conversation with SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla, Wade Barnes, co-founder and CEO of Farmers Edge; Prateep Basu, CEO of SatSure (a Better Satellite World Award recipient in 2020); and Sanjay Wagle, co-founder and Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group, talk about the major risks in agriculture today, business models and innovations that use satellite-based information to transform agricultural practices and the impacts of climate change on agriculture and investment.

In a conversation with SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla, Dr. Steven Hamburg, Chief Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, talks about MethaneSAT, which locates and measures methane emissions from oil and gas operations around the world with precision and at a scale never achieved, providing valuable data for making decisions on climate change. In his role at EDF, Dr. Hamburg works to ensure that EDF’s advocacy is based on the best available science.

In this first episode of This Planet's on Fire, we hear an overview of what the satellite industry has done and is currently doing in the fight against climate change. Can we engineer our way out of this crisis? Probably not. But what we are doing as a technology and an industry is helping people realize the steps that need to be taken. NASA Division Director of the Earth Science Division Dr. Karen St. Germain and ESOA Secretary General Aarti Holla-Maini join SSPI's Lou Zacharilla to bring a global perspective to this issue.

Raven joined Ball Aerospace in early 2020 as a Systems Engineer and currently serves as lead for the Electrical Power Distribution Subsystem (EPDS) on NASA’s SPHEREx program, which will conduct the first near-infrared all-sky spectral survey to study the cosmic origins of the universe and galaxies. Her contributions to the EPDS on the SPHEREx program have already proven invaluable in her 14 months spent on the project. In her first 6 months on the project, She was responsible for researching and procuring the solar array technology that will power the SPHEREx spacecraft and quickly realized that the original design exceeded the system’s mass allocation. Raven discovered a novel technology that is more efficient, smaller, lighter and more powerful for less cost than the established baseline, thereby getting the project back on track seamlessly and with added benefits. She consistently provides valuable feedback for deliverables, researches options for spacecraft components and contributes design ideas.

Sydney began her career at Boeing in 2014 as a Structural Design Engineer, a role in which she supported projects like the 777 Automated Floor Drilling Equipment Elimination & Floor Redesign project and the 777X Folding Wing-Tip Mock-Up. She also worked in the Commercial Aircraft Operations Center as a Service Engineer before moving on to become a Mechanical Systems Engineer designing, analyzing and managing projects for additively manufactured parts for space and launch systems. Sydney next took on the position of Responsible Engineering Authority (REA) for satellite reflectors, in which she led a cross-functional team to develop reflectors for multiple commercial and government programs, demonstrating rapid problem-solving skills and the ability to consistently meet aggressive deadlines and cost targets. In her current role of Structures Stress Engineering Manager, she leads a high-performing team of 18 engineers that perform critical technical analyses for all 3 major Boeing Divisions: Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) and Boeing Global Services (BGS). While Sydney’s primary organization within the company is in BCA, her leadership spans beyond BCA products to include BDS products such as the CST-100 Starliner reusable spacecraft capsule, Space Launch System and Wideband Global SATCOM.

Kelsey joined Planet in February 2020 after completing a series of internships at the Paris Observatory and NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. In her current role at Planet, she is responsible for identifying, triaging, root causing and resolving satellite anomalies and performing fleet-wide health check-ins for the largest Earth Observation satellite constellation in the world. Kelsey also has extensive experience in using Python to develop tools for autonomous satellite operations and in creating and aggregating performance metrics to provide insight into constellation health and productivity. While working at Planet, Kelsey also serves as a Paris Observatory Researcher and Summer School Lecturer, a position she has held since 2018. She is enrolled to begin her Ph.D. in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems at the University of Oxford in October 2021.

Until her retirement in 2019, Donna Potter served as Senior Executive Director of Research and Development at Maxar, after she originally took on the position at Space Systems/Loral (SSL) in 2011. She managed the research and development portfolio for SSL and later Maxar, furthering the technologies the company needed to remain competitive in the GEO communication satellite market.

How can new space companies manage their relationships with their workforce, the societies in which they operate, and the political environment? This is the central question behind the “S” in ESG investing — the social aspect of sustainable investing and business management.  A number of social factors can affect a company’s performance, ranging from short- to long-term challenges. Social factors to consider include a company’s strengths and weaknesses in dealing with social trends, labor, and politics. A focus on these topics can increase profits and corporate responsibility.

It would be challenging to find an industry which touches the aspirations of humanity more than the space and satellite industry. But as it becomes more diverse and society takes the turns that we have been taking, we ask if we are doing enough on the social scale to accommodate this vision of a single planet which is populated by a single humanity?

As we navigate questions of culture, gender, nationality, mores and morals, how should management respond? What is the value of giving so much emphasis to the “S” of ESG? What will be the impact on the brand and the overall “health” of companies? Will taking the right steps increase value for investors? Are Social Factors universal? Or are they in themselves a new form of control by a few? Is more nuance needed?

SSPI and the New York Space Business Roundtable are pleased present the third entry in this regular series. 

Speakers include:

• Sabrina Alam, Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) and Sustainability, SES Satellites
• Douglas Jarl, Investment Banker, Barclays, Aerospace, Defense & Government Services
• Richard Morrison, Competitive Enterprise Institute
• Anthony R.G. Nolan, Partner, K&L Gates
• Joseph D. Fargnoli, Co-Founder, New York Space Alliance (host)
• Louis Zacharilla, Director of Development and Innovation, SSPI (host)