Episode 45: Satellite Communication: The Technological Foundation of a Nation, with Peter Garland

Feature Guest: Peter Garland On today's episode of The Star Spot we continue our highlights of the 2013 Canadian Space Summit. Justin Trottier is joined by Peter Garland, Vice President of Advanced Programs with MDA. The two discuss how satellite communication became the technological foundation that brought together a nation. They document the important milestones in communication innovations and the role they continue to play in connecting geographically expansive regions in our world. Garland concludes with stories of new and unique applications of satellite communications in fields ranging from telehealth, tele-education and even the criminal justice system. Current in Space Denise shares an exciting status report on our search to identify Dark Matter. And Justin discusses how new data from the Gaia-ESO project could answer long standing questions about the evolution of our galaxy. About Peter Garland Peter Garland is Vice President of Advanced Programs in the MDA Satellite Systems Division in Montreal, Canada. He has been involved at the leading edge of Satellite Communications for over thirty years. In the early nineties he led the Canadian Advanced Satcom team that performed early work on Ka Band systems and has subsequently led key Broadband developments, including the introduction of standard waveforms, working closely with both the Canadian and European Space Agencies. In his current work he is focused on applications that integrate new technologies in both the space and ground segments, particularly in the broadband mobile area.