For out latest blog post, we’re introducing Erika Rossetto who has recently been elected as a Standard Member Director for the SDA.
Who do you work for and what’s your role within the company?
I work for Embratel Star One, which is part of Claro group. We operate 5 GEO satellites, and we have one more to be launched soon. I am the head of flight dynamics team. I take care of all station keeping activities, including SSA routine.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the satcom industry?
I believe the biggest challenge is to equilibrate the demand for more and more satellites, especially mega constellations, and space safety. SSA has been a challenge for the space community for a long time. We have done good improvements, but now we are facing a new era with a giant challenge.
What do you think should be the key focus within SSA in the coming years?
From my point of view, we should focus on enhancing our tracking capability to collect quality data for a larger number of objects and small bodies. In the same direction, we can have independent source of data.
How does data sharing improve your operations?
By sharing data, we can access more reliable ephemeris directly in case we need to evaluate a close approach, for collocation satellites for instance. Another improvement is to learn with other operators and have more data to calibrate the system.
Are there any new challenges within flight dynamics?
Yes. Due to the high number of satellites, it is becoming more and more common to need to share the same position with another operator. That is a great challenge for flight dynamics since there are differences between systems and routine operations, which bring a challenge to perform the station-keeping safely.
Another point is the low-thrust satellites. Such propulsion models limit us to perform mitigation manoeuvres quickly. We need to have a robust SSA system to keep the flight safety.