Episode Summary
This week on Pathfinder, Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace and former President of the Portuguese Space Agency, discusses the rising importance of space situational awareness (SSA) and traffic management.
Episode Notes
In this week’s Pathfinder pod, Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace and former President of the Portuguese National Space Agency, discusses the growing importance of space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management. Neuraspace is a Portuguese startup that is developing a software platform that provides satellite operators with risk assessments, maneuvering advice, and insights on space debris.
Chiara explains Neuraspace’s mission to tackle the challenges of space debris and why it’s essential to develop better tools for managing space traffic. She also shares the story behind Neuraspace’s founding, the company’s growth, and their innovative approach to automating satellite operations.
We also discuss:
- The threat of space debris and its long-term implications
- How Neuraspace integrates multiple data sources
- The role of space situational awareness in the future of autonomous spacecraft
- Differences in commercial and government customer needs
- The long-term vision for making space a safer, more sustainable place for satellites and other assets
And much more…
• Chapters •
00:00 – Intro
00:58 – What is Neuraspace?
02:14 – The founding vision
04:07 – Is space debris an issue?
08:18 – Unnecessary maneuvers
09:40 – Neuraspace’s ecosystem
11:17 – Neuraspace’s ground-based hardware
12:36 – Challenges acquiring the right data amidst competition
14:17 – Value chain of space situational awareness
15:26 – Benefits of having a company focused on intelligence
17:40 – How Neuraspace predicts collision events
20:22 – Challenges integrating different sources of data
22:00 – Automation and level of control satellite operators
24:37 – Scaling
26:39 – Catalysts for satellite threat detection
28:24 – Primary customers
28:53 – Expectations of governments vs. commercial clients
30:05 – State of orbital debris globally and how Chiara thinks it’ll change
31:12 – Competitors today
32:25 – Revenue model
33:36 – Work Neuraspace does with regulatory bodies
34:20 – Funding
36:07 – Long-term vision for Neuraspace
• Show notes •
Neuraspace’s website — https://www.neuraspace.com/
Neuraspace’s socials — https://twitter.com/neuraspace
Chiara’s socials — https://twitter.com/chiaramanfletti
Mo’s socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam
Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes
• About us •
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