Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker 1

Standards and Interoperability for Space Missions Success

There is a bevy of lunar missions on the horizon from various space agencies, consortiums, and the private sector. Many of them employ exciting new exploration methods, mission concepts, and communications scenarios. To provide opportunities for coordination of these anticipated missions, leading agencies and the associated community have formed a Lunar Communications Architecture Working Group as well as a Lunar Communications & Navigation Working Group. For planetary exploration, a Mars and Beyond Communications Architecture Working Group addresses the concepts, operational scenarios, and technologies for future missions, starting with Mars.

With the diverse interests and backgrounds, ambitious and complex technologies, and the fact that many contributors are new to the field, expectation of success in the area of interoperability between them requires the utilization of standards in space data systems. The Interagency Operations Advisory Group (IOAG) and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) have been leading this effort. Furthermore, the Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG) plays a critical in coordinating the spectrum allocation and channel assignment to prevent interference among missions.

The IOAG provides recommendations for common needs across multiple agencies related to mission operations, space communications, and navigation interoperability. Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, the CCSDS is a multi-national forum with 28 nations collaborating to develop the most well-engineered space communications and data handling standards in the world. It has the goal of enhancing governmental and commercial interoperability and cross-support, while also reducing risk, development time & project costs. To date, more than 1000 space missions have chosen to fly with CCSDS-developed standards.

The next significant phase of space operation, namely human spaceflight to the Moon and beyond, places the utmost importance on human safety. This requires tremendous coordination among all agencies and brings increased attention to the need to build interoperability into the design of flight and ground operational systems. The utilization of standards can lead to increasing data throughput and enhancing the science and exploration objectives, to the benefit of all.

Mr. Sami W. Asmar

Sami W. Asmar is the General Secretary of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and its NASA delegate as well as Liaison to the Interagency Operations Advisory Group. He is the manager of the commitments office for the Interplanetary Network Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, a radio science co-investigator on several solar system missions, and a technologist leading institutional initiatives to advance radio and laser link utilization for planetary exploration. He authored the book “Radio Science Techniques for Deep Space Exploration (Wiley & Sons, 2022). He received three NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and a Space Ops Exceptional Achievement Medal for creating a system that has transformed space operations during critical events.

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Keynote Speaker 2

DIFC Courts: Courts of Space

About Courts of Space

The DIFC Courts and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) embarked on a Courts of the Future initiative, Courts of Space.

The launch of the project signals to the international space community the intent of the UAE to play a leading role in advancing its judicial systems to specifically direct capacity and capability to commercial space-related disputes.

The Courts of Space initiative has three (3) main objectives. As a first step, an international working group of public and private sector bodies and experts were tasked with exploring space-related legal innovations and providing an outlook on potential outcomes of scenarios revolving around space-related disputes.

Since the launch of the initiative, two (2) editions of the Space Disputes Guide (SDG) were launched, encompassing a set of guidelines to support such space-related disputes, with the parallel training of judges to become space-related dispute experts after having received courses on space regulations by international bodies and regional agencies

Amna Al Owais

Chief Registrar, DIFC Courts

The Emirati lawyer became the chief executive and registrar of DIFC Courts in 2017, after being the deputy chief executive of the Dispute Resolution Authority in 2014.Al Owais has played a major role in the development of DIFC Courts, particularly in creating the Dispute Resolution Authority and the Pro-Bono Programme, the first of its kind

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