AI is an integral part of the non-terrestrial networking industry.
We all know that artificial intelligence is transforming every industry. An industry that is nascent today, but which will be essential for all of us in the future and which could hardly exist without AI, is that of space telecommunications – or non-terrestrial networks, as the participants prefer to call it. At a NTN conference in Riyadh last month, industry leaders discussed how to ensure their potential benefits are realized, including global connectivity, a better understanding of our planet and progress towards a multiplanetary future.
The importance of NTN
One of the reasons why RTNs are so important is that they will bring true connectivity to the entire planet. Delegates of the second international forum “Connecting the World from the Sky” in Riyadh last month, a conference co-organized by the International Telecommunications Union and the Communications, Space and Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia , learned that over the past two years, the number of people without reliable access to the Internet has increased from 2.7 billion to 2.6 billion. One hundred million more people connected is a very good thing, but there is clearly a long way to go.
NTNs don’t just enable connectivity: they allow us to observe and understand the Earth. Their cameras and sensors collect large amounts of data which, when analyzed, allow us to better understand how the climate works and the actions we need to take to stop and mitigate global warming. They allow us to monitor and manage natural and man-made disasters like floods and fires. And they give us tools to optimize the use of natural resources and improve productivity in agriculture and other industries. For example, Ahmed Ali Alsohaili, director of Sheba Microsystems, says NTN data is essential to Aramco’s pipeline maintenance program.
The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibits sovereign claims to extraterrestrial territories, making commercial exploitation of space a delicate matter. But resource extraction is a gray area, and Xavier Lobao Pujolar, head of the future projects division at the European Space Agency, says that with initiatives like the Artemis Accords, leaders are preparing for a future in which the supply of rare earths and other valuable materials can no longer be monopolized or controlled by a handful of countries.
There’s a lot of talk these days about how reusable rockets will allow us to establish colonies on Mars. This is sometimes criticized as a waste of resources that could be better deployed to care for people here on earth. But the logic of making humanity multi-planetary is powerful. Earth is vulnerable to human-caused damage, as well as external threats, such as asteroid impacts. We’re literally putting all our eggs in one basket, and that’s a risky position. For humanity to become multiplanetary, we need NTN.
NTNs need AI
NTNs require the coordination of expensive assets at scale. Satellites and other high-altitude platforms must be piloted, adjusted and coordinated. Their use of scarce resources like energy, bandwidth and spectrum must be optimized and they must be monitored for failures and accidents. All this must be done taking into account the latency induced by operating over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.
As Mishaal Ashemimry, director general of the Saudi Center for the Future Space, says, the rate of satellite launches has increased significantly in recent years, and it continues to increase. There used to be about a dozen launches a year, and now they happen about every week. There will be more in the next three years than in the last ten years. There is no way to manage, coordinate and optimize this number of remote assets without AI. The number of civilian satellites in Earth orbit today is less than 10,000, but will soon reach hundreds of thousands. Even a human army couldn’t handle that amount of space traffic. Nor could it handle and analyze the tsunamis of data falling back to earth.
Objectives of the Saudi NTN conference
Last month’s Riyadh conference had a number of objectives. One of these was to ensure that access to NTNs was maintained for all and did not become the preserve of a privileged few. Spectrum must be shared between countries, but also between RTNs and terrestrial networks, which represents a much larger industry. NTNs must be regulated fairly and effectively, which is easier said than done. The conference was entirely focused on civilian NTNs, with military applications out of scope.
One of the obvious challenges facing RTNs is the danger posed by space debris. If you have seen the movie Gravitystarring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, you will be aware of the risk that the collision of two satellites could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction. Mishaal Ashemimry of the Center for Space Futures says that if we don’t address this risk quickly, a damaging collision is inevitable. It is difficult to develop regulations that everyone can agree to and follow, and worryingly, other delegates suggest it may take a serious accident before concerted action is taken .
Where eagles dare
The variety of assets involved in NTNs is mind-boggling. Most deployed satellites are in low Earth orbit, between 100 and 1,240 miles above us. They are cheaper to put into orbit than satellites located further away and suffer less from latency and signal broadcast. But to be geostationary – to maintain a stable position above a point on Earth – satellites must be more than 22,000 miles above it. Geostationary satellites waste no time covering the 70% of the planet’s surface covered in water. And each GEO satellite can “see” a third of the planet.
Another type of stable orbit is found even further away, at the five Lagrange points, two of which are a million kilometers away and the other three much further away. These orbits are stable relative to the Earth-Moon or Earth-Sun systems and are useful for various types of scientific observations and experiments. ESA’s Xavier Lobao Pujolar says there is a race between the United States and China to place satellites in these locations.
Getting closer to the ground, NTNs are also carried by high-altitude platform systems, which are planes, balloons and drones. For example, Barry Matsumori, president and chief operating officer of Skydweller, describes how his company offers a low cost per transmission unit because its planes – like a 747 but larger – are relatively inexpensive to deploy and operate. It can also be geostationary, unlike LEO satellites.
A multipolar world
The vast majority of satellites in orbit today belong to American companies. Starlink has about 7,000 of them in LEO, each circling the Earth every 90 minutes, 340 miles above us. It clearly intends to deploy an additional 5,000 and could eventually launch as many as 30,000. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has only two in orbit today, but plans to launch 3,200 , half of which should be completed by mid-2026. U.S. government agencies operate about 200 other nonmilitary satellites, including the 31 that provide the GPS system we all use in our digital maps.
It has become clear to everyone that the United States has become a less predictable and less reliable partner – in NTR as in all other areas. China has been developing its satellite constellation for years, but other countries are increasingly thinking about how to maintain access to NTNs. Eutelsat, a company owned mainly by European and Indian interests, operates around 700 satellites, and the EU plans to launch another 300 in the coming years under a program called Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and satellite security.
Saudi Arabia in space
Saudi Arabia wishes to play a leading role in the development of this multipolar world. Martijn Blanken is Managing Director of Neo Space Group, an organization established by the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund. He says Saudi Arabia cannot overtake Starlink and Kuiper, but the Kingdom has good relations with almost every country in the world and NSG wants to become a preferred provider of NTN-related services.
The Kingdom has deployed 17 satellites since 2000, and as part of its ambitious Vision 2030 program, it plans to spend more than $2.1 billion on space initiatives by the end of the decade.
It will partner with other countries to build satellite constellations and ensure that strong and effective regulators provide equitable access to space telecommunications for all.