If you enjoyed watching the commercial lunar landing attempts this year, be sure to thank Darren Charrier.
As the director of business development for Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), which operates a network of lunar communications antennas, Charrier has been instrumental in keeping the lines open for recent lunar missions. With traffic picking up around the Moon, KSAT is just getting started.
One small step: Charrier has had his eye set on the Moon since high school.
“Helping our species become interplanetary seems like the best thing you can do with your life,” Charrier told Payload. “Every step of my career…kind of zigzags, but keeps going towards that.”
At KSAT, he’s helping to organize the building blocks for humanity’s return to the Moon, arguing that comms are “the first domino” that needs to fall to set up infrastructure on the lunar surface.
The zigzag: Charrier’s pathway to KSAT was full of twists and turns. After graduating from the University of San Diego with a degree in aerospace engineering, Charrier started his own company, which aimed to develop tools to lighten the load for hardware designers.
“When you’re starting a company, you get very good at communicating value,” he said. “And I think that has been a very important stepping stone for me throughout the rest of my career.”
Back to the Moon: As KSAT, Charrier’s work is all about communications. He’s spent time with the teams of nearly every lunar mission planned for the rest of the decade, to ensure that everyone can leverage KSAT’s antenna network to make the most of their limited time on the lunar surface.
Ultimately, Charrier sees himself as more than just a sales director. He says he’s working to make the commercial sector’s lunar dreams possible, by organizing the methods they’ll have to share to phone home.
“Setting up the rules of the road and expectations is critical during this phase, and also making sure that we do it in a way that enables the market, as opposed to exploits it,” Charrier said.
