Key Satellite Technologies to Watch

by Bruce Elbert

Austin, Tex., March 3, 2025 - I am going to make the case that technology, in a word, is the key to seeing how satellites will continue to address worldly needs and at the same time guarantee their future. We can look back to a different word in the 1967 movie, The Graduate, when the male star is advised by an elder:

Image courtesy of Boeing

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?

Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

That movie tells us that Benjamin was thinking about other things, like a girl named Elaine, but I think about Technology all the time. So, what about technology is so important?

Technology is the “How” of what we do to address the needs of potential users and people in general. It is what companies like SpaceX, Toyota and Boeing themselves do – taking ideas, physical principles, lots of math, and integrate it with what they obtain from our earth. They make these ideas happen in the real world. And success happens when all of the relevant technologies and their interconnection are properly addressed.

Looking ahead, I see a number of technologies that are currently at the forefront that will determine what that future in space will look like. Perhaps this is my career guide to the Benjamins and Elaines of the future, but please be mindful that a specific technology may grow stale in no time. An example is the TV picture tube, which one of my college instructors said around the time that movie came out probably wouldn’t exist at some point in my career. He suggested that I consider a different line of work, in two words – systems engineering. More on that later.

Technology in the Space Segment

Satellites are distinguished by their ability to launch and operate in the space environment without physical support or repair for a period measured in years. Today, we have seen a revolution in their design and production, moving away from single unit hand-work to large scale batch and production line manufacture. The size and weight of Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbits (NGSO) satellites is greatly reduced as their numbers are measured in the hundreds and thousands to yield an effective constellation capable of meeting or exceeding what we can obtain from just one working Geostationary Orbit (GEO )satellite. Technology enters into the picture for a design that emphasizes cost and ease of test, as well as of launch. From there, the spacecraft bus subsystems are miniaturized and yet they must do the established functions of power generation and storage, attitude and orbit control, heat management and temperature control, telemetry and command.  What is interesting is that many of the critical components, like star trackers, reaction wheels and ion thrusters, were developed and produced by the prime contractor rather than from traditional specialists in the US and overseas. But, this could ultimately become like Toyota where the majority of components are procured rather than made in house. Thus, good “make versus buy” decisions are likely to become more important to achieve a cost/effective supply chain.

"...Technology is the “How” of what we do to address the needs of potential users and people in general. It is what companies like SpaceX, Toyota and Boeing themselves do – taking ideas, physical principles, lots of math, and integrate it with what they obtain from our earth. They make these ideas happen in the real world...."

At the same time, the communications payload now employs millimeter-wave amplifiers well above the Ka band that was new to the industry in the 1990s. The proliferated identical small satellites will apply advanced digital processing and adaptive beam techniques that heretofore were seen as the soul domain of GEO satellites in the HTS class. We move from conventional IC, circuit board and RF component design toward the use of FPGA and ASICs along with advanced materials that produce a major portion of the payload on a single substrate. Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) are simplified since the satellite comes off a robotic production line and can be tested through a single connector using automation (not new to AIT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize factory flow and troubleshooting.

I have observed that modern launch systems have evolved with reusable boosters with an assembly of smaller engines rather than a single big rocket. The launch rate at Cape Canaveral has increased from a handful in 2023 to over 100 in 2024. So, all processes involved in launch prep needed to be accelerated. This was unheard of in historical space endeavors.

Technology in the Ground Segment

It is always about the antenna, an important and highly visible element of any ground station. That applies to individual user terminals as well as the larger stations used as gateways to the terrestrial infrastructure and as control nodes for effective traffic and subscriber management. But, with high-powered GEO and much closer NGSO satellites, the antenna size is greatly reduced and amenable to volume production if quantities justify. With a large constellation, the quantity of gateway antennas mushrooms to the point that this segment becomes an operational and maintenance challenge on a scale normally associated with land-based microwave and cellular towers. So, this equipment is designed from unmanned operation with extensive monitor and control ability. 

Since 1990, the receive-only and VSAT type of user terminal was simplified since the antenna is aligned only once during installation. Mobil services to vehicles, aircraft and vessels changed to auto-point and auto-track mechanisms and controls, moving into a domain that comports well with NGSO demands. The trick, however, was to make a pointing and tracking style of user terminal at a cost comparable to the fixed VSAT even through the device is technically much more involved. This is where the phased array, demonstrated early in the 2000s for in-flight broadband, is the preferred approach and now in high production to meet demand in the hundreds of thousands and even millions of units. Gateway antennas, however, are still mechanical in design but phased arrays that produce multiple beams are in the offing.

Technology in the Network

Satellites only gained commercial value when engineers put the ground elements in place and interfaced them to end users. This is the essence of the network, which is as simple as a point-to-point link to provide a telephone call and, more recently, a data circuit. Today’s networks employ the Internet, which in the words of Dr. Vinton Cerf, one of its founding technologists, is “a vast network with the potential to connect people and information across the world, readily available to anyone with a connection.” We see that satellites provide the last mile connection especially for those outside of urban areas and in motion as well. We made satellites part of this vast Internet through a high-bandwidth connection at tiering points 

and by addressing the vicissitudes of our medium to resolve the protocol aspects. Reducing the latency from hundreds to tens of milliseconds has been the final challenge answered by the NGSO constellations. But, a properly functioning satellite-enabled Internet service needs a lot more.

We can consider the satellites, earth stations and user terminals to be a key part of the infrastructure, but the overall network demands other ingredients. This is like how the cellular telephone network comes into being where the network is seen in logical terms through dedicated IT resources – signaling and network management. The signaling part provides the transfer of configuration commands and the data needed to set up connections, as well as for monitoring of the elements of the network. This is given in the illustration, below, for a typical cellular network, courtesy of Fujitsu. The Core network, Transmission network and the Base station network have direct analogies in an advanced satellite system of the type now employed for Internet access and mobile satellite communications. The network management part is addressed in the Network Management System (NMS) interfaces with these facilities to maintain the command and control data and to make long term and short term decisions regarding provision of services, fall back and recovery from interruptions, and to operate the network as a revenue-earning business. Basically, you can’t acquire subscribers and you cannot collect money unless you have the proper network management resources.

The technology within the NMS at the top of this figure is heavily software based and likely contained in servers or through a cloud provider. The software has conventional parts, like operating systems and data management systems, but the critical part is specific to the satellite environment. The satellites in the lower layer of the Transmission network are moving and hence the connections change from minute to minute, which is different from the illustrated terrestrial cellular network where you stay connected to the same base station for all or most of a call. NGSO networks of necessity have to treat all users as if they are mobile.

One of the more interesting technologies that is getting a lot of attention is called a digital twin, conceived as a software representation of the system that allows prediction and emulation of detailed behavior. Achieving this in real time means that the digital twin stays advanced of the real system and NMS. Such schemes have been discussed and demonstrations produced, but so far it has not reached reality on a serious scale. We can also talk about machine learning that collects data and is able to move resources to where they are needed without human intervention. This example is for a single constellation and NMS, but we have discussed multi-orbit systems that have the potential to guarantee service under literally all conditions. Solving this problem takes more than software, and so a multi-orbit and multi-system approach is needed.

One final innovation is not new to radio communications – it’s the cognitive radio technique to gather up unoccupied bandwidth that a real system can’t help but leave unused. Through advanced software management of space and ground, these “white spaces” that sprout literally anywhere can be detected and handed over to traffic bearers. Putting this to use means that more services at higher average data rates and more users can be accommodated with a fixed spectrum allocation.

Conclusion

Future satellite constellations and networks likely will employ technologies still in gestation. For one, the venture capital industry is always looking for opportunities in space to invest in. Likewise, leading governments are seeking a competitive edge for space applications and are willing to spend for what shows promise. Please remember that technology really follows application especially in this new space environment. That means that you need to know what you want to do before you research ways of making the idea happen. 

The entrepreneurial mind deals in the “What” to identify an underserved market and developing mission space. The systems engineer who deals in the “How” is the one who works with the entrepreneur to construct a technical approach that makes sense. Once the system is conceived on paper (or on a computer), the needed parts may be identified so that their performance individually and in a system can be understood. This effort will uncover those elements that are not yet available as a commercial product. Literally, you need to explore the technical world and even engage in R&D on your own. The physics and IT that combine to yield this new system become the foundation of the future and opportunity for innovators to yield a competitive advantage.              
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Bruce Elbert  is the Founder and President of Application Technology Strategy LLC. He is a satellite industry expert, communications engineer, project leader and consultant with over 50 years experience in communications and  space-based systems in the public and private sectors.  Areas of expertise include space segment design and operation in all orbit domains, systems architecture and engineering, ground segment systems engineering, development and operation, overall system performance improvement, and organizational development. He can be reached at: bruce@applicationstrategy.com