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Satellite 2009 - Optimistic Outlook
One aspect that should be noted by Washington politicians was the number of European and Chinese vendors with good order books, and the major US manufacturers who pandered to the Pentagon, ignored the international marketplace and have allowed their international competitors to move into the civilian market. The reliance on war will bite the US in years to come. Technology wise the biggest change was in the number of Maritime systems and equipment being offered to the industry. Maritime and mobile applications seem to be the biggest growth area. One area I found of interest was the number of small emergency terminals and hand held location devices geared to the management of search and rescue after a natural disaster. With the migration of huge numbers to areas near the sea, and within the paths of Hurricanes and Tornados these are finding a lucrative market. Satellite Surveillance & Communications
On my global travels I have had the privilege of spending time with Arthur C Clarke at his satellite center in Sri Lanka and exchanging ideas on the history and growth of satellite communications. He actually was looking forward to meeting me after hearing I had spent several years mapping the RF picture of the major cities and developing a model of where satellite communications would work, and where they would not. Those were the days when satellites were cutting edge and the only competition was expensive copper cables. The arrival of Fiber Optic Cables should have ended the growth of satellites, but the demand for remote services outstripped the ability to lay fiber and so the use has risen. Today with GPS, Earth Observation and command and control circuits for the fleets of UAV's flying around the trouble spots of world, satellites are far from obsolete. These pages were developed when the many plans for constellations were flying faster than Mosquito's in Florida, and are being updated again in 2009. I welcome your input and in the meantime enjoy, but remember many pages may be out of date.
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March 30th, 2009 --- The doors have closed on Satellite 2009 in Washington, DC but from all indications the order books are still open and business is brisk. This year there was a positive atmosphere, in spite of the terrible global recession. The long lead times associated with the satellite industry are working in their favor, as projects are kept going, and not cancelled in a knee jerk reaction, the scenario in many other technology based industries.