Exploring next generation satellite technology, with SES CTO, Ruy Pinto
How did you get involved with space?
I studied electronics engineering at university in Brazil. And, when I graduated in the early ‘80s, I was looking for interesting things to do.
In Brazil, at that time, they were setting up their own space program and they needed expertise in what is called real-time software. I was offered a scholarship by the Brazilian government and a job in the new satellite program.
Working in the Brazilian satellite program, I learned the technology there. And then, I would say that, in a good way, I was hooked.
What were you working on back then that got you hooked?
I spent a long time working with various generations of technology around satellite mobility.
The problem is, if you have a satellite moving in the sky, and you yourself are moving in a car, a ship, or a plane, this adds a degree of complexity.
But, when you pick up your mobile phone, even if you're on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, you don't really want to know if you are using a satellite or not. You just want to stay in touch with your social media, with your loved ones.
The technology has now evolved to allow this to be possible and transparent. That's one of the strengths of the satellite industry, the ability to be transparent but provide a differentiated, unique service.
Have you enjoyed your first few months as CTO at SES?
I am humbled and proud to be now the chief technology officer for SES. And I'm really excited by the path, the journey that SES is taking.
I couldn't have expected anything better from a company that is going places, is trying to innovate and transform the industry, but not from a position of a small startup. We are an established innovator, an established disruptor of the industry.
That’s not something you hear too often.
It's not only startups that innovate. Companies like SES do innovate and are innovating. I think it's important to stress that.
SES started as a video distribution satellite company in the ‘80s. It was innovative at its very start. Because if you think about it, satellites are fundamentally a very efficient way of distributing TV.
From one satellite, you can reach millions of homes. Even today, SES reaches 355 million homes. That’s about a billion people. From a single point, you can multicast. You can distribute. You don't need individual cables to every house.
Does this apply to data networks too?
For data, and mobility, space has unique qualities. It can go wherever you don't have terrestrial infrastructure.
It can be very quick to set up too, which is useful when you have natural disasters. You can just take a relatively small terminal and a couple of bags, set it up like we do in Emergency.lu, and you're going.
So that ubiquitousness, the capability to multicast or to be deployed anywhere, anytime, is key to space.
How does 5G fit into all this?
5G is the next generation of mobility services, it will provide satellites with a significant role to play.
Today, between 70% to 80% of internet traffic is video. So, if we can combine our capability to distribute TV signals with our new data transmission technologies, we can make a difference.
What does this mean in practical terms?
An example of where mobility counts is, connected planes or digital ships. Autonomous cars are all the rage. They’ll make our lives easier, so you and I can do a lot of things whilst the car is driving us. Of course, the same is true for a ship.
On a plane, the same thing too. You can provide data about the performance of the engines in real time to a control center somewhere using satellite technology.
And, of course, you can provide communications to islands in the Pacific, to disasters when they happen, in all areas. All that is at the fingertips of a company like SES.
An autonomous world. Is all of this possible today?
It is possible today but there are still some obstacles, around regulation, for example.
If you are going to have a ship, a container ship that is much more autonomous, you need to have regulations and safety to make sure that it is done in a safe way, as you do with cars.
The basic technology blocks of an autonomous ship, of a connected plane, of 5G, they are all there. They now just need to be deployed and packaged.
As CTO of SES, are there any projects that you're particularly passionate about?
Oh yes. Absolutely. I'll give you a couple of examples that are linked to our GEO and MEO orbits.
Right now, we actually operate in two different orbits. We operate in a geostationary orbit (GEO), which means that the satellite is always in the same place in the sky. However, this is a high orbit, 36,000 kilometers up.
And then we operate in a lower orbit, which we call medium Earth orbit (MEO), which is 8,000 kilometers away. The satellite will be actually moving. But, being closer allows you to have higher capacity and lower latency. The signals travel back and forth much faster. We have big projects in both of these orbits.
Shall we start with the one that’s closest to home? The MEO project.
The medium Earth orbit project is called O3b mPOWER. O3b mPOWER is a completely digital satellite. In each of the seven satellites that we are planning to launch initially, it can generate 5,000 beams.
The number of beams means that, for example, if I have a cruise ship on the Caribbean, I can locate a beam and that beam can follow the ship, transparently, and can provide a level of capacity that other technologies are not yet able to supply.
Even if you look at some of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) projects, they are close, but it's debatable if they can provide the same capacity that moves around with that beam.
So you can focus the bandwidth where it’s needed, when it’s needed?
Yes. So, we could provide support for TV distributors at a unique sporting event. The Olympics, for example, or a Superbowl, or the World Cup.
5000 beams. How does that compare with current technology?
A legacy satellite has 12 beams, two for gateways and 10 for the users. An O3b mPOWER satellite has 5,000.
And your other project, is that SES Next?
That’s right. SES Next is a fully configurable geostationary satellite that we can move around.
What does that enable you to do?
Right now, we provide video services out of a 19.2 degrees east longitude position. We provide GEO services to Germany, UK, Spain, France, and a number of European countries. The footprint is the shape of Europe.
On traditional satellites that's very difficult to change. We can move it and we can draw Europe over Asia, but as you can imagine, that doesn’t really work.
And when you buy a satellite, it typically takes one year to design and buy, and let's say three years to manufacture. And it lasts 15 years. So you are talking about 20 years.
20 years is a long time in today’s rapidly changing world.
It’s very hard to know what our customers will want in 20 years time. SES Next is designed to address this problem.
SES Next is a fully configurable satellite, except for the frequency band where it works. The number of beams, the whole overture, the whole footprint, can be drawn in real time. We just load the software that we want.
It can become a totally different satellite, in a different place?
With SES Next, I can say, "Look, it's going to be over Europe for five years, over America for five years, over Asia for five years." And instead of distributing video, we can provide data services. It's the same satellite. Only the software changes.
And by the way, if I need another one, I can have it flying in two years as opposed to five. And it's cheaper.
How many satellites do you currently operate?
We operate in excess of 70 satellites. More than 50 of the bigger, geostationary satellites. And 20 MEOs. We also have seven medium Earth orbit satellites and one big geostationary satellite, SES 17, on order. SES 17 will be flying in 2021. And O3b mPOWER will be flying at the end of 2021, beginning 2022.
What do you think of all these competitors announcing the launch of thousands of mini satellites?
First, I think there's a lot of disruption coming from the LEO orbit satellites. You have Telesat. You have OneWeb. You have LeoSat. You have Amazon and you have Elon Musk and SpaceX. SpaceX is a great partner of ours, by the way, with their own ideas and their own constellation.
In general though, I think there will be consolidation in that sector.
Not all of these plans will find a market to support them?
I think that there is a lot of optimism in the different business models.
Bringing internet to the whole world is a very interesting and inspiring concept and one we subscribe to. But there is a difference between that and a viable business model.
I think a number of them, a small number of them, will survive and provide a service. But, you can even argue that they are complementing us. Some of them may need our help because we provide a different orbit, with significant amount of capacity they do not normally have.
Are you interested in Low Earth Orbit at SES?
There is an argument to say that each orbit has its own best use.
We believe MEO is incredibly powerful in terms of combining lower latency with high capacity, and a relatively small number of satellites.
We are going to have conceivably 27 as opposed to the 600 plus of OneWeb, 3,000 plus of SpaceX, or 100 plus from Telesat.
But they do indeed have the capability to provide lower latency. It's easier to replenish them. There are advantages to LEO.
So, I wouldn't exclude the fact that we may partner, or we may eventually work on a different orbit if we feel that there is a big enough market that justifies it.
Do you think there is a good future for Luxembourg in the space sector?
Yes, I think there's a bright future for space in Luxembourg.
First, I'm an admirer of the Luxembourg government’s model for fostering new industries. Luxembourg has a tradition of helping finance and nurture new initiatives, innovation, and technology. SES is a living demonstration of this.
SES is based in Luxembourg. It started in Luxembourg. Today it's a global company. But the heartbeat of the company is still pretty much here in Luxembourg.
I see no reason why the space sector in Luxembourg would not continue growing. There will be bets that don't work. There will be bets that work. And there are very few governments that I know that are able to be agile and quick in fostering growing sectors, like artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, and space.
You know, it's like you're cooking, and all the ingredients are there. If we put it in the fire for the right amount of time, and we keep a close eye on it, we should have a culinary delight coming out of the kitchen.
