SAN FRANCISCO – European civil space leaders suggested expanding their flagship campaign to develop a secure communications constellation.

Since the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) constellation of about 290 satellites was proposed, critics have attacked the program for being “too late and too small,” Nicolas Guillermin, European Commission team leader for security, said Sept. 17 at the Space Defense and Security Summit in Paris.

IRIS² is a public-private partnership to provide secure, low-latency, resilient satellite communications for European military, civil and commercial applications.

“Good things take time to be made, particularly in a sovereign way,” Guillermin said.

As to whether the IRIS² program is ambitious enough, Guillermin called the 290-satellite constellation “a minimum viable product” designed for scalability. “It’s absolutely possible to insert satellites later to develop new services that are built on top of the current architecture,” he said.

If European government leaders are satisfied with the services provided by the 290-satellite constellation, for example, the private sector could continue to invest in the constellation, Guillermin said.

Technical Maturity

Laurent Jaffart, European Space Agency connectivity and secure communication director, discussed plans to enhance underlying IRIS² technology.

To increase resilience, ESA will support maturation of key technologies like low-cost, multi-orbit satellite communications terminals. ESA also will encourage demonstrations to lessen technical risk of satellites destined for low altitudes in low-Earth orbit (LEO),. ESA also will support work aimed at creating a communications backbone for relaying data to Earth-observation satellites.

Taken together, ESA estimates the projects would cost about 600 million euros ($707.8 million).

“We’re looking at further resilience for capacity and for throughput, but we’re also looking at the ability to task satellites in near-real-time or real-time and disseminate data in real-time,” Jaffart said.

The SpaceRISE consortium working on IRIS², led by SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat, has pledged 4.1 billion euros of the anticipated 10.6 billion euro budget. ESA agreed in 2022 to provide 550 million euros.

5G and 6G

“IRIS² has been designed with the right ambition to put Europe back in the lead of the satellite communication industry,” said Antonio Abad Martín, Hispasat chief technical officer.

IRIS² satellites linked with terrestrial communications infrastructure will act as 5G nodes that can be managed like terrestrial nodes. The programmable satellites with an anticipated 10-year lifespan will be upgraded as soon as possible to the next technical standard, 6G, said Jean-Pierre Diris, French Space Agency CNES interministerial coordinator for France on IRIS² and government satellite communications.

In addition, the low LEO layer of IRIS² “will help us test and understand the business case for direct-to-device service,” Abad Martín said.

Not a Megaconstellation

Unlike Starlink and Kuiper, massive constellations designed for consumer broadband, IRIS² will include hundreds of satellites to provide services for European government agencies and businesses.

“IRIS² is not a megaconstellation,” Diris said. “It’s a constellation for our sovereignty, for protection of our data and continuity of service. It’s very important to see that Europe is intervening not against the megaconstellations but in complementarity.”

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