AI Will Convert Space Telecoms From Science Fiction To Reality

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We all know that artificial intelligence is transforming every industry. One industry which is nascent today, but will be critical to us all in the future, and which could hardly exist without AI, is space telecoms - or Non-Terrestrial Networks, as participants prefer to call it. At a conference on NTNs in Riyadh last month, industry leaders discussed how to ensure its potential benefits are realised, including global connectivity, better understanding of our planet, and progress towards a multiplanetary future.

One reason why NTNs are so important is that they will bring true connectivity to the whole planet. Delegates at the second "Connecting the World from the Skies" international forum in Riyadh last month, a conference co-hosted by the International Telecommunication Union and Saudi Arabia's Communications, Space ⁘ Technology Commission, heard that in the last two years, the number of people with no reliable internet access fell from 2.7 billion to 2.6 billion. A hundred million more people connected is a very good thing, but clearly there is still a long way to go.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids sovereign claims over extra-terrestrial territories, which makes the commercial exploitation of space a tricky business. But the extraction of resources is a grey area, and Xavier Lobao Pujolar, head of the future projects division at the European Space Agency says that with initiatives like the Artemis Accords, leaders are preparing for a future in which the supply of rare earths and other valuable materials can no longer be monopolized, or controlled by a handful of countries.

There is a lot of talk these days about how re-usable rockets will allow us to establish colonies on Mars. This is sometimes criticised as a waste of resources that could better be deployed taking care of people back here on earth. But the logic of making humanity multi-planetary is powerful. The Earth is vulnerable to man-made damage, and also to threats from outside, like asteroid impacts. We literally have all our eggs in one basket, and that is a risky position. For humanity to become multi-planetary, we need NTNs.