GITAI Robotics is a space robotics startup that aims to provide safe and affordable labor in space while reducing operational costs by two orders of magnitude. The company is developing highly capable, safe, and reliable robots for ISAM (In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) services, including building and maintaining satellites, as well as space stations, lunar bases, and cities on Mars.

The GITAI Robotics S-2 robotic arm was recently transported to the International Space Station for a demonstration mission, and the company was also selected for the DARPA 10 program last month.

Nakanose said that the arm can be useful in relieving highly-trained from repetitive chores such as cleaning and routine maintenance. "Of course its important, but we can replace that kind of daily chores ... or dangerous operations ... with robots, robotic technologies," he said.

How does what happens in space affect your everyday life? The Ex Terra podcast is dedicated to introducing you to many of the interesting people involved in the commercial space industry, and taking you behind the scenes with many of the companies making significant contributions to the new space economy. The podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Audible, Breaker, Overcast, Pocketcasts and Radio Public.

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Last year saw the largest number of rocket launches, the largest mass to orbit ever achieved, and a wide variety of space missions by a growing number of countries and companies.

In short, it’s getting busy up there. So how can we keep ourselves safe and free from collision and conflict?

Robin Dickey is a space policy and strategy analyst at The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy. She focuses on national security, space, geopolitics, and international relations. She recently published a paper titled “(Space) Ships Passing in the Night: Translating Maritime Rules of the Road for the Space Domain” which sheds light on this situation.

"Some of these maritime domain principals help make it easier to make the interactions between different satellites and different satellite operators more regular, more predictable, less risky, and all of those things can help ensure in the long term that commerce in space is able to flourish," Dickey said.

How does what happens in space affect your everyday life? The Ex Terra podcast is dedicated to introducing you to many of the interesting people involved in the commercial space industry, and taking you behind the scenes with many of the companies making significant contributions to the new space economy. The podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Audible, Breaker, Overcast, Pocketcasts and Radio Public.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

Young entrepreneurs will be the future of space commerce, just as they are in most industries.On this edition of the Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Madison Feehan, who is leading multiple space commerce efforts … one that is involved in looking at ways to build on the Moon, and the other working on advanced space robotics and STEM education.

"In Junior High School I created a 3D CAD model prototype for a Mars habitat that was created using 3D printers. That didn't actually take off." Madison Feehan

At just 20 years old, Madison is the COO of Space Copy, and the co-founder and CFO of Moon Trades.

Space Copy is the first multi-purpose interplanetary manufacturing device that combines lunar regolith sampling, spectral data analysis, and 3D printing into one mechanism. Space Copy works to reduce the costs of frequent payload service missions, and well as reduce the amount of pollution and debris emitted by continuous resupply missions sent to the lunar surface to sustain long-term human presence by providing an in-situ resource utilization technology to be used directly on the Moon and Mars to create supplies needed to sustain human life.

"In Junior High School I created a 3D CAD model prototype for a Mars habitat that was created using 3D printers. I actually submitted it to NASA to see if anyone was intersted in developing the theory into an actual technology. That didn't actually take off," Madison said. "And when I was 16 I was approached by the same NASA office that I had previously sent that project off to, and they offered me a contract position to review some innovations for science instruments that were being developed for terrestrial and Lunar use."

Moon Trades is a global consortium designing lunar robotics for mining and AI space education for STEM enthusiasts.

In her "spare" time, Madison advises young people considering STEM and space careers.

Madison is a graduate of Harvard Business School ('22) - Entrepreneurship Essentials (2021), Negotiation Mastery (2022), Disruptive Strategy (2022); Comprehensive Certificate of Specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Harvard Business School Online, class of 2022.

The Ex Terra Podcast has been named one of the Internet's top 15 Space Business Podcasts by Feedspot. We hope you'll subscribe to stay up to date on Space Commerce through our interviews with leaders in the industry.

On a programming note, this is our final podcast to 2023. We'll return in January. We wish you all an outstanding holiday season.

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Arcfield was launched as a stand-alone company in 2021, but it has a long history in the aerospace industry dating back to 1957. The company was created to serve a single purpose: to solve the most complex and demanding national security and space-related challenges.

"We do an analysis every year of what our mission partners need, both government and commercial." Kevin Kelly, Arcfield

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Kevin Kelly, CEO of Arcfield.

Recently, Arcfield announced the acquisition of Orion Space Solutions, a company that applies fundamental space physics knowledge to solve real-world problems encountered in the space environment.

"We do an analysis every year of what our mission partners need, both government and commercial. We identify what those gap areas are. If it has capabilities that we feel we need to make part of Archfield's enterprise, we can either buy it or build it," Kelly said.

Kevin Kelly has been an active leader in the defense and intelligence industry for more than 30 years with proven success leading and managing companies through growth activities. He is passionate about innovation and ensuring that a company leverages its people, processes and technologies to its maximum potential to deliver for its customers.

Prior to Arcfield, Kevin was the CEO of LGS Innovations, a privately held independent technology company that was eventually acquired by CACI International in March of 2019. After its acquisition, Kevin oversaw the company’s integration into CACI through the company’s creation of a new high-tech sector (National Security and Innovation Solutions Sector), where Kevin would ultimately serve as president. In this role, Kevin oversaw the operations of a $2B business consisting of the technology and products portions of several key acquisitions; namely LGS Innovations, SIX3 Systems, TICOM Geomatics, and L3 NSS.

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Sateliot is the first satellite operator to offer IoT or Internet of Things connectivity over standard 5G Narrow Band-IoT. Their constellation serves as cell towers in space, expanding mobile operator coverage and providing global connectivity to unmodified commercial terrestrial devices wherever they are.

"Everything is going to take some time to be in the hands of everyone everywhere. But it's going to happen, and that's the revolutionary thing." Gianluca Redolfi, Sateliot

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks With Gianluca Redolfi, Chief Commercial Officer of Barcelona, Spain-based Sateliot.

"What we are providing from the satellites is an extension of the current coverage," Redolfi said. "Because in many ... use cases, they do not have connectivity."

In April of this year, Sateliot launched the first of its planned 250-satellite constellation. "Groundbreaker" is a 22-pound spacecraft that will allow users to seamlessly switch from a terrestrial to a non-terrestrial 5G network, with no need to purchase any extra hardware, such as antennas or modems. Also, they can keep using their current sim cards and mobile operators, thanks to the standard roaming agreements carried out by Sateliot. This eases the way to a massive Internet of Things adoption worldwide.

"Everything is going to take some time to be in the hands of everyone everywhere," Redolfi said. "But it's going to happen, and that's the revolutionary thing."

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Space launches have become very common, in fact, multiple times a week is now the norm. Each launch takes a well choreographed set of operations to get payload to space. But what goes on behind the scenes to make this happen?

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Laura Crabtree, CEO of Epsilon3.

Current mission tools are neglected in a program lifecycle, creating inefficiency, errors, and added costs over the course of a project. Epsilon3 arms operators with the best possible tools throughout an entire project’s lifecycle, which result in 10X more efficiency and operator-friendliness.

"The operator is not going off to do analysis. They need information in front of them quickly. So, how do we give them information quickly? You want to string together what happened yesterday, what happened two weeks ago, with what's going to happen tomorrow, and if you have everything on one platform, you have the string to do that," Crabtree said.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Laura worked at both SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Corporation prior to co-founding Epsilon3 with Max Mednik.

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On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Justus Parmar, founder of Fortuna Investments.

Parmar founded the private investment firm in 2015 to develop long-term partnerships with changemaking entrepreneurs in emerging industries.

Fortuna specializes in venture capital investments and has raised over $500 million for more than 125 companies since its founding.

Space is one of the target areas of investment for Parmar, and the company recently invested in Starfighters in Space, which owns and operates a fleet of F-104 aircraft that can launch payloads into space flying at Mach 2.

Still, Parmar is cautious about the current environment when it comes to investing in the commercial space sector. "I think we're in the thick of winter. At some point in time it's going to turn around. It'll be spring. Whether that's late next year or the following year is to be determined, but it will thaw out."

Parmar is an award-winning venture capitalist with over 15 years of public market experience. As the Founder and CEO of Fortuna Investments, he leads a team with offices in Miami, Los Angeles, and Vancouver that focuses on investing and creating the emerging technologies and industries of tomorrow. He has helped to raise more than $500 million for 125 early-stage companies and facilitated the initial public offering (IPO) of 24 companies. Several of his investment companies have reached a market capitalization of $1-billion in value.

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Phantom Space Corporation was founded to change the way satellites and other assets are transported into space, through space, and ultimately back to Earth.

The company's approach of offering of launch, propulsion, and satellite solutions enables a widening demographic to access space, space technology, and space data.

This time on The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Mark Lester, COO of Phantom Space, about how the satellite launch business is evolving, and Phantom's role in that business.

The company is developing two launch vehicles and has a proven track record of successful satellite programs, spacecraft design, and launch missions. The launch vehicles are built around proven components so as to be more cost-effective to launch.

"You see changing expectations. The bar used to be 'get to space and you're one of a few.' Now, it's not only get to space but do it over and over again in a very reliable, dependable way."

How does what happens in space affect your everyday life? The Ex Terra podcast is dedicated to introducing you to many of the interesting people involved in the commercial space industry, and taking you behind the scenes with many of the companies making significant contributions to the new space economy. The podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Audible, Breaker, Overcast, Pocketcasts and Radio Public.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

In this third and final installment of our series looking at geopolitics in Asia and Space Commerce, Tom Patton talks with Dr. Namrata Goswami about space commerce in India, and the influence of political and economic factors in the country.

India has been on a roll in space, most recently with the landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft at the south pole of the Moon. India is also actively supporting the private commercialization of space, with some 140 space startup companies currently helping building the space infrastructure there. Dr. Goswami brings her unique insights into the space programs of her native country developed through extensive study of the topic, including research on the ground in India.

Dr. Goswami goes in-depth into the Modi government, India's historic stance as a non-aligned country, and how India is now gravitating towards the United States in terms of collaboration in space, as well as insights coming out of the G-20 Summit which had space as a topic of discussion.

"The fact that India has taken a decision to move funding to the private sector ... to build rockets and to build satellites and to build propulsion systems ... means that India's future in terms of space startups is pretty exciting," Dr. Goswami said.

Dr. Goswami is an author, professor, strategic analyst and consultant on Great Power Politics, Space Policy, Alternate Futures, and Frameworks of Conflict Negotiation and Resolution. She is currently working on a book project "China's Grand Strategy and The Notion of Territoriality and Resources" and a second project on conceptualizing a space power matrix answering a key question: what makes a country a space power?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

A Conversation with Global Security Consultant Dr. Namrata Goswami

In this second in our series of podcasts on international relations and space commerce, Tom Patton talks with Dr. Namrata Goswami about the current state of China's space program.

"Today, China has about 140 space startups. Several of them have already launched to orbit." Dr. Namrata Goswami

China has over the past several years landed multiple spacecraft on the Moon and returned regolith samples back to Earth. Additionally, they have launched, assembled and manned the Tiangong space station. According to CMSA, which operates the space station, the purpose and mission of Tiangong is "to develop and gain experience in spacecraft rendezvous technology, permanent human operations in orbit, long-term autonomous spaceflight of the space station, regenerative life support technology and autonomous cargo and fuel supply technology."

According to the China Aerospace Studies Institute, over the past 20 year the relationship between China and Russia has transitioned from "a relationship of convenience" to what both countries call a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

What are the ramifications for Space Commerce in the U.S.? According to Dr. Goswami, China is taking a different approach to commercial space activities than Russia. "Today, China has about 140 space startups. Several of them have already launched to orbit. Now, what they are talking about is that they're going to build a commercial spaceport," she said.

Dr. Goswami is an author, professor, strategic analyst and consultant on Great Power Politics, Space Policy, Alternate Futures, and Frameworks of Conflict Negotiation and Resolution. She is currently working on a book project "China's Grand Strategy and The Notion of Territoriality and Resources" and a second project on conceptualizing a space power matrix answering a key question: what makes a country a space power?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe