With the 25th annual AMOS Conference sold-out for months an impressive line-up of speakers will feature in the morning sessions. Keynotes and SSA Policy Forums kick-off each of the three days with Lieutenant General Philip A. Garrant, Commander of Space Systems Command, headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, to give the opening Keynote on Day 1 – Wednesday September 18. (Read more about Lt. General Garrant)
The AMOS Conference, to be held September 17-20 on Maui, 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 space arena.
Lt. Gen. Garrant’s remarks will be followed by the first of three SSA Policy Forums. A collaboration with Secure World Foundation, the SSA Policy Forum brings together the developers and implementers of SSA capabilities and the thought-leaders of SSA policy to discuss a landscape that is rapidly evolving.
On Day 1 an international panel will discuss the “Sustainable Operations of Large Constellations: The Role of Orbital Carrying Capacity and Other Tools.” Given the increasing operational complexity in the space environment, including the deployment and of operation of large satellite constellations and the increasing range of space actors, the need to improve holistic approaches for mitigation of risks to safety and sustainability in that environment increases in relevancy. Approaches such as crossing policy, operational, and SSA services aspects – will have important benefits for business and service continuity, maintaining access to orbit for future users, and ensuring safety in a multi-user domain.
Moderator Ian Christenson, Senior Director, Private Sector Programs, Secure World Foundation will be joined by Richard Linares, Associate Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Andrew Muciaccia, Poletecico di Milano; Andrew Ratcliffe, Chief Engineer, United Kingdom Space Agency and Audrey Schaffer, Slingshot Aerospace.
Ian Christenson, Secure World Foundation
Richard Linares, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DAY 2
Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa, President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will kick off Day 2 with a keynote presentation. First joining JAXA 2003-2006, Yamakawa was engaged in mission design of numerous Earth-orbiting scientific satellite projects as well as in lunar and interplanetary missions. He also engaged in the navigation, guidance, and control systems of the solid propellant rocket, M-V, and liquid propellant reusable sounding rocket, RVT. He was a study manager and a project manager of the Euro-Japan collaborative mission to Mercury “BepiColombo” from 2000 through 2006. He was a visiting scientist at NASA JPL in 1997-1998 and at ESA ESTEC in 2002.
He moved to Kyoto University in 2006 as a professor of the Research Institute of Sustainable Humanosphere, a professor of the Graduate School of Engineering (cooperating chair) and a deputy director of the Unit for Synergetic Studies of Space. His academic interest lay in orbital mechanics, trajectory optimization, space propulsion, and space situational awareness.
He was appointed as secretary general at the Secretariat of Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy, Cabinet Secretary, Government of Japan in 2010 through 2012. Then, he was assigned member of the Committee for National Space Policy, Cabinet Office from 2012 through 2018. Yamakawa was appointed President of JAXA in April 2018.
Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa, JAXA will give the keynote on Day 2 of AMOS 2024
The keynote presentation will be followed by a Policy Forum discussion titled “SSA in the Asia-Pacific: Where We Are, Where We Are Going.” While it is agreed that a certain baseline level of SSA is needed to ensure spaceflight safety, different operators and actors have different needs for it.
Victoria Samson, Chief Director, Space Security and Stability, Secure World Foundation, will moderate this panel as it discusses what those needs are in the Asia-Pacific region and examine how countries and companies within it are determining what should be prioritized and how they are developing their own SSA capabilities. The possibility of regional cooperation in sharing SSA data will be discussed, as will any challenges and possible roadblocks to doing so.
Samson will be joined onstage by Dan Ceperley, Founder & Chief Operating Officer, LeoLabs; Sittiporn Channumsin, Director of Space Technology Research Center, GISTDA; and Lexie Weikert, Manager Business Development, National Security, Astroscale.
Victoria Samson, Secure World Foundation
Dan Ceperly, LeoLabs
Sittiporn Channumsin, GISTDA
Lexie Weikert, Astroscale
DAY 3
On the Friday of the AMOS Conference, Pam Melroy, Deputy Administrator, NASA, will give the keynote presentation.
Melroy was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in 1983. As a co-pilot, aircraft commander, instructor pilot, and test pilot, Melroy logged more than 6,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft before retiring from the Air Force in 2007. She is a veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and Operation Just Cause, with more than 200 combat and combat support hours.
Melroy was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994. One of only two women to command a space shuttle, Melroy logged more than 38 days (924 hours) in space. She served as pilot on two flights and was the mission commander on STS-120 in 2007. All three missions were assembly missions to build the International Space Station.
After serving more than two decades in the Air Force and as a NASA astronaut, Melroy took on a number of leadership roles, including at Lockheed Martin, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Nova Systems Pty, Australia, and as an advisor to the Australian Space Agency. She also served as an independent consultant and a member of the National Space Council’s Users Advisory Group.
Col. (USAF, ret) Pam Melroy was sworn in as the NASA deputy administrator on June 21, 2021.
Col. (USAF, ret) Pam Melroy, NASA, will give the keynote on Day 3 of AMOS 2024
The final Policy Forum of the week will feature a discussion of “Space Weather and SSA – What’s Needed Next?” Recent events such as the February 2022 loss of 38 Starlink satellites due to space weather highlight the important connection between space weather and orbital trajectory predictions. Historically, the limited operational low Earth orbit (LEO) population with an altitude distribution biased towards high LEO meant operations were less sensitive to the accuracy of space weather prediction. The proliferation of LEO and very LEO with large constellations makes space weather modeling and forecasting an acute challenge.
This session will examine space weather prediction capabilities, current practices for atmospheric density modeling, and the impact that these have on both the accuracy of SSA and conjunction warnings as well as the ability to share SSA data among various stakeholders. Further, it will look to US and international plans to address these issues in light of changing SSA data and service models.
Krystal Azelton, Senior Director, Program Planning, Secure World Foundation will moderate the panel that includes Marco Concha, Flight Dynamics Lead, Amazon Kuiper; Tzu-Wei Fang, Space Scientist, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center; Piyush Mehta, Associate Professor, West Virginia University; and Matthew Shouppe, Senior Associate, Commercial Space Strategy, Booz Allen Hamilton.
Krystal Hazelton, Secure World Foundation
Marco Concha, Amazon Kuiper
Piyush Mehta, West Virginia University
Matthew Shouppe, Booz Allen Hamilton
In addition to the keynotes and policy forums, the conference features technical sessions, exhibit and poster sessions, fourteen technical short courses plus feature presentations. This year’s featured presentations include Richard DalBello, Director, Office of Space Commerce; and Barbara Golf, USSF, Strategic Advisor for SDA, SSC/SZ. Ms. Golf will present “Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) Introduction and Way Forward.”
Colonel Jeremy Raley, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Colonel Joseph Roth, U.S. Space Force return to the AMOS stage to present “Future Space-based Logistics for SDA.”
On Thursday afternoon Lieutenant Colonel Jason Altenhofen, U.S. Space Force, Space Systems Command; and Gregory Less, Millennium Space Systems, will give the Featured Presentation “Victus Nox: Tactically Responsive Space – Space Domain Awareness Mission.”
Presented by Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the AMOS Conference will be hybrid, offering livestreaming of all presentations. In-person registration has been sold out for months 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. Virtual tickets are still available providing access to all presentations as well as online networking and digital swag provided by sponsors.
The 2024 AMOS Conference is sponsored by a.i. solutions, Advanced Scientific Concepts, Advanced Space, Anduril, Astro Haven Enterprises, Astroscale, BAE Systems, BlueHalo, Booz Allan, CACI, Celestron, Charles River Analytics, COMSPOC, EO Solutions, ExoAnalytic Solutions, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, General Dyamics Mission System, GEOST, GMV, Hart Scientific Consulting International, HTDC, JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, Kayhan Space, KBR, Kratos, L3 Harris, LeoLabs, LinQuest Corporation, Lipoa Investments, LLC, Lockheed Martin, LSAS Tec, MAXAR, MDA Space, Mitre, NEC Aerospace Systems, Northrop Grumman, Peraton, Pier-Tech Inc., Planewave Instruments, Raytheon, Rocket Communications, SAIC, Sea West Observatories, SEAKR, Slingshot Aerospace, SpaceFlux, SpaceMap, SpaceNav, SpaceX, The Boeing Company, The Tech7 Company, TOPTICA Photonics, Transastra, USRA.