The 23rd annual AMOS (Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies) Conference once again features SSA Policy Forums that put the spotlight on hot topics related to Space Situational/Domain Awareness. Presented by Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the AMOS Conference held on Maui September 27-30 will be hybrid, offering livestreaming of all presentations.
Coordinated in collaboration with Secure World Foundation, the SSA Policy Forum discussions bring together the developers and implementers of SSA capabilities and the architects of SSA policy to interact at a time when the landscape is rapidly changing.
On Day 1 the topic is “Using SSA to Verify Future Space Security Agreements.” As the international community strives to negotiate space security agreements, the question arises about how to verify actions on orbit and whether the agreed-to behavior is being followed. SSA can provide a technical foundation for verification; by understanding what SSA can do, states are better placed to negotiate behaviors that can be confirmed by outside observers. This panel will discuss the technical ranges of SSA programs and how they can be applied to verify future space security agreements.
Moderator Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation will be joined onstage by panelists, Almudena Azcarate Ortega, Associate Researcher, Space Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research; Daniel Ceperley, Founder & CEO, LeoLabs; Michael Gleason, Senior Project Engineering, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, The Aerospace Corporation; Douglas Hendrix, CEO, ExoAnalytic Solutions and Benjamin Silverstein, Research Analyst, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP .)
On Day 2, the Policy Forum will consider the question “Is Orbital Carrying Capacity a Useful Metric?” With the increasing deployment of very large satellite constellations, we are seeing a fundamental change in the way we use the space environment – calling into question our understanding of the carrying capacity of specific orbital regimes or regions. There are research efforts underway to define and apply approaches to assessing orbital capacity. This panel will discuss those approaches, and the work needed to understand how orbital capacity can be applied in behavioral and operationally relevant ways to improve the safe and sustainable use of LEO for all operators.
Moderated by Ian Christensen, Director of Private Sector Programs, Secure World Foundation; the panel will livestream panelists John Janka, Chief Officer, Global Government Affairs & Regulatory, Viasat Inc.; Francesca Letizia, Space Debris Engineer, European Space Agency; Hugh Lewis, Professor, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton. Appearing onstage at AMOS will be Richard Linares, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Akhil Rao, Assistant Professor of Economics, Middlebury College.
On Day 3, Brian Weeden, Director of Program Planning of Secure World Foundation will moderate a panel that will explore “The European Perspective on Space Traffic Management.” While space traffic management has been a hot policy topic for the last several years, the conversation has largely been driven by the perspective from the United States. The European Union recently announced their strategy on STM, which is billed as a different approach than that from the United States. This panel will discuss the current EU thinking on STM, how it is similar or different from that of the United States or other countries, and what the prospects are for cooperation or competition going forward to develop an international STM regime.
The international panel will include: Pascal Faucher, Chair, European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking; Defense & Security, CNES; Sebastien Moranta, Research Manager, European Space Policy Institute; Rodolphe Muñoz, Legal Officer, European Commission, Directorate- General for Defence Industry and Space; and Regina Peldszus, Space Policy Officer (Space Security, Space Situational Awareness), European External Action Service.
For more than 20 years, Maui’s AMOS Conference has been the nation’s leading technical conference on space situational/domain awareness. Bringing together policymakers and experts from the private sector, academia, the military, and government agencies, the AMOS conference attracts papers and presentations from the world’s foremost scientists working in the near-space arena.
The 2022 AMOS Conference has attracted record attendance with many placing value on the numerous networking opportunities provided. In anticipation of numbers and limited seating, the conference will be streamed live to an overflow room and to the virtual platform and mobile app.
In addition to the keynote and policy forums, programming includes technical sessions, invited speakers, exhibit and poster sessions, plus technical short courses on topics ranging from space law and collision avoidance, to space debris and the use of machine learning in SSA. Virtual attendees have access to all presentations as well as online networking and virtual exhibits.