Satellites rely on radio spectrum to communicate with each other and with ground stations on Earth, but spectrum is a limited resource and susceptible to interference — a problem that gets worse as more satellites are launched into orbit.
Satellite operators are becoming increasingly concerned that increasing numbers of spacecraft over the same area of Earth, using the same part of the spectrum (called the frequency band), will generate more signal interference. To reduce these risks, operators usually coordinate with each other and enter into agreements to ensure interference is minimized. But coordinating between many different satellite operators, and tracking these agreements over time, is an expensive and time-consuming burden.
Consider the process in the United States. Spectrum allocation falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission, which approves satellite applications in “processing rounds.” Once a constellation is approved for a round, the operator of that constellation may have to coordinate with operators in all previous rounds and provide analyzes for each previous round to prove that their satellites will not generate interference.
“It’s a very tedious process.” Magnistar Founder and CEO Jacqueline Goode explained in a recent interview before participating in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield competition. “Suddenly, the number of problems related to spectrum management in the space sector is compounded. It is the fundamental problem of signal interference: multiple satellites communicating in the same frequency band across a given area are likely to interfere with each other, which is the coordination process that these satellite operators follow.
Even once an agreement is reached, operators “have no way of ensuring that these agreements are actually adhered to, and make only minimal efforts to actually monitor the outcomes of that agreement,” she added.
The result is that regulators and operators are overwhelmed, with modeling, simulation and tracking tools that are hardly up to the task at hand. Magnestar’s solution is a software platform called 24/7x, which runs interference simulations and performs specific calculations, such as signal-to-noise ratio, to ensure the RF environment remains clean. This technology is built into a peer-to-peer operator sandbox, so operators can communicate with each other and send data back and forth in a unified and independent manner.
“Once they have access to that sandbox, they can complete the coordination directly in that sandbox,” Judd explained. Magnestar’s technology can perform 10 times the number of simulations compared to current technology, she said.
The software also indexes coordination agreements, which can help companies manage and adhere to these agreements. While Magnistar’s technology does not magically turn spectrum into a finite resource, Judd believes that as coordination improves, companies will be more able to share spectrum dynamically, which would be a game-changer for the industry.
“Even operators that have a lot of spectrum and are only using 10-15% of their allocation will likely be able to share some of that spectrum or even sublease some of that spectrum in an exchange-type market,” Judd said. “This can only be achieved if we ensure that coordination agreements are adhered to and that they have clear pathways for communication.”
Good is the first founder of Magnestar in December 2021. She previously worked as director of data strategy and product management at the $124 billion Canadian pension fund OMERS, and for Canadian software company TIBCO, where she engineered and helped deploy enterprise data infrastructure systems. In multiple industries.
“I realized deeply that I had this love for space,” she said. “I knew I wanted to build the company at that point. I had gained enough skills and connections to build a company and decided I wanted to build it in space.
To get started, I applied to the International Space University and received funding from the European Space Agency to study space engineering. She was also accepted into Britain’s Entrepreneur First programme, and was the 10th individual founder to ever complete the programme, out of a pool of over 600 companies.
She reached out to more than 25 satellite operators within the company’s first six months, and “everyone was pointing to signal interference, coordination was the absolute bottleneck within their companies, and post-coordination monitoring was a big issue as well.”
Magnestar currently employs five people full-time and three people part-time. The startup raised a $1.1 million seed round at the end of last year, and is currently in the process of raising a full seed.
Besides fundraising, the team is staying busy: Magnestar is currently in the beta testing process, and plans to start an early adoption program in February 2024 that will enable up to 10 operators to use the software for two to three months. Hence, the company hopes to convert these operators to a full license that is paid on a monthly or annual basis.
The long-term vision is to have hundreds, if not thousands, of users using the technology on a regular basis, and to make 24/7 the “industry-wide standard” for managing interference, Judd said.
“This problem will increase as we go from 8,000 satellites in space today to over 100,000 satellites. Preventing real-time signal interference and collisions is something we are moving toward as an industry that we are well positioned to solve.”