Keynote Speakers for the 2019 AMOS Conference

The Keynote speakers and SSA Policy Forum topics are set for the 20th annual AMOS Conference to be held on Maui, September 17-20, 2019.

Day one of the 20^th AMOS Conference will feature two keynote speakers. Major General Nina Armagno, Director, Space Programs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Washington, D.C., will kick off the official part of the program. Maj Gen Armagno directs development and purchasing on space programs to Air Force major commands, product centers and laboratories. Her responsibilities include crafting program strategies and options for representing Air Force positions to Headquarters U.S. Air Force, the office of the Secretary of Defense, Congress and the White House.

Maj Gen Armagno earned her commission and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in June 1988. Her experience in space systems operations includes combat-mission-ready operator, instructor, evaluator and flight commander in strategic missile warning, space surveillance, space control, space launch and theater missile warning mission areas.

Prior to her current assignment, Maj Gen Armagno served as Director of Plans and Policy, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. She was directly responsible to the USSTRATCOM Commander for the development and implementation of national security policy and guidance, military strategy and guidance, space and weapons employment policy and concepts and joint doctrine as they apply to the command and the execution of its mission.

The second speaker on Day 1 is Hirohisa Mori, Director of National Space Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office, Japan, who previously held the same office 2008-2010. Prior to the current position, Mori had worked at Ministry of Defense as a government official since his graduation of Bachelor of Law, Tokyo University in 1992. His responsibilities covers policy, legal and international affairs related to Self Defense Forces. He served as First Secretary at Embassy of Japan in Canada, and as Visiting Research Fellow at Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University in USA.

The keynote presentations lead into the SSA Policy Forum which on Day 1 will address “The Future of Launch and On-Orbit Safety.”  The SSA Policy Forum, coordinated in collaboration with Secure World Foundation, explores international issues related to Space Situational Awareness in a panel format.

Andrew D’Uva, President of Providence Access Company, will moderate the panel that will look ten years ahead and how the world’s civil and commercial Space Traffic Management (STM) system has developed as a consequence of U.S. and other policies, emerging capabilities, advances in scientific understanding, and rapid expansion of space use by commercial and civil actors.

Speakers from Iridium, Analytic Graphics, Inc., FAA and GIDSTA will join D’Uva to discuss the future of what launch and on-orbit safety looks like by examining how this system came to be, what challenges it needed to overcome, and what problems are still unresolved.

Day 2

The keynote speaker on Day 2 is Francesca Letizia, a space debris engineer at European Space Agency (ESA) Space Debris Office where her main tasks include the assessment of general compliance to space debris mitigation guidelines and the development of a metric for the contribution of a mission to the space debris environment. Before joining ESA Space Debris Office, Francesca was a mission analysis engineer at OHB System, where she worked on the trajectory design and the collision avoidance strategies for satellites with electric propulsion.

Following her presentation, the second SSA Policy Forum will discuss “Oversight of Satellite Constellations: Licensing and Norms.”  The growth in commercial space activities has also sparked a growing number of governments to establish or modernize their existing licensing frameworks to provide oversight of private sector space activities. At the same time, satellite operators are developing norms of behavior and best practices to demonstrate responsible behavior and influence regulations.

Moderated by Victoria Samson of Secure World Foundation, the panel will discuss recent efforts to modernize licensing frameworks and develop best practices for large constellations and the role for improved space situational awareness.

Day 3

Kevin O’Connell, Director of the Office of Space Commerce at U.S. Department of Commerce returns to the AMOS Conference this year to present the keynote on Day 3.

Mr. O’Connell is one of the world’s foremost experts on the policy, security, and commercial issues of remote sensing technology. For the last three decades he has been intimately involved in identifying, analyzing, and managing emerging threats to the nation’s interests, governmental and commercial. His expertise has been proven in some of the most influential institutions, including the Department of Defense, the White House Situation Room, the National Security Council, the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, and RAND Corporation’s Intelligence Policy Center (which he founded and served as a director).

His presentation will lead into the Policy Forum discussion on “SSA Data Sharing and Open Data Repositories.” The growing number of space actors and activities is driving increased demand for better quality SSA data and products. This in turn is creating interest in pooling different sources of data together in ways that are openly accessible to many different users. This panel will discuss the value of such open data repositories, what characteristics are essential for their success, and what challenges will need to be overcome in creating them and building trust with users.

Brian Weeden of Secure World Foundation will moderate this panel with an international panel including Pascal Faucher from CNES, the French government’s space agency; and Rogel Mari Sese, program leader for the Philippines National Space Development Program and prime advocate for the newly established Philippines Space Agency (PhilSA). Weeden, Faucher and Sese will be joined by space sustainability advocate Moriba Jah, Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Mark Mulholland, U.S. Department of Commerce.

For the full agenda, please visit https://amostech.com/agenda/

The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference is the premier technical conference in the nation devoted to space situational awareness. The cross section of private sector, government, and academic participation helps foster important dialogue and international collaboration. The continued growth in attendance and participating countries at AMOS reflects a growing interest in space sustainability and space commerce initiatives as new actors—national governments, private sector companies, non-governmental entities, and universities—become involved in these activities.

The SSA Policy Forum brings 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.

In addition to the Policy Forums the AMOS Conference includes Technical Sessions, Exhibit Sessions, Technical Short Courses, Networking events and the second annual EMER-GEN program, designed especially for young professionals and students (35 and under) enthusiastic about careers in space.