In this week’s Pathfinder pod, Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace and former President of the Portuguese National Space Agency, discusses the growing importance of space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management. Neuraspace is a Portuguese startup that is developing a software platform that provides satellite operators with risk assessments, maneuvering advice, and insights on space debris.

Chiara explains Neuraspace’s mission to tackle the challenges of space debris and why it's essential to develop better tools for managing space traffic. She also shares the story behind Neurospace’s founding, the company’s growth, and their innovative approach to automating satellite operations.

We also discuss:

The threat of space debris and its long-term implications
How Neuraspace integrates multiple data sources
The role of space situational awareness in the future of autonomous spacecraft
Differences in commercial and government customer needs
The long-term vision for making space a safer, more sustainable place for satellites and other assets

And much more...

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro

00:58 - What is Neuraspace?

02:14 - The founding vision

04:07 - Is space debris an issue?

08:18 - Unnecessary maneuvers

09:40 - Neuraspace's ecosystem

11:17 - Neuraspace's ground-based hardware

12:36 - Challenges acquiring the right data amidst competition

14:17 - Value chain of space situational awareness

15:26 - Benefits of having a company focused on intelligence

17:40 - How Neuraspace predicts collision events

20:22 - Challenges integrating different sources of data

22:00 - Automation and level of control satellite operators

24:37 - Scaling

26:39 - Catalysts for satellite threat detection

28:24 - Primary customers

28:53 - Expectations of governments vs. commercial clients

30:05 - State of orbital debris globally and how Chiara thinks it'll change

31:12 - Competitors today

32:25 - Revenue model

33:36 - Work Neuraspace does with regulatory bodies

34:20 - Funding

36:07 - Long-term vision for Neuraspace

• Show notes •

Neuraspace’s website — https://www.neuraspace.com/

Neuraspace’s socials — https://x.com/neuraspace

Chiara’s socials — https://x.com/chiaramanfletti

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

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Algorithmic Debris Management, with Chiara Manfletti (CEO of Neuraspace)