Space Domain Awareness and Debris Mitigation & Removal

Dr. Bryan Benedict serves as Senior Director of Innovation & Spacecraft Programs at SES Government Solutions. During his career he has worked extensively within both the DoD and US Civil Agencies to socialize the advantages of hosting imaging payloads on commercial spacecraft.  Additionally, Dr. Benedict has been a key advocate in the commercial industry for the use of space robotics for both recovery and life extension of geosynchronous satellites.

Prior to his current position Dr. Benedict served as the Product Line Manager for Commercial and Civil Hosted Payloads at Intelsat General Corporation, Director of Hosted Payloads at Intelsat, Director of Engineering for Satellite Bus & Launch Service Acquisitions at PanAmSat and was a System Engineering Manager at Hughes for the BSS601HP product line.

Dr. Benedict started his career as a chemical engineer in the petroleum industry – inventing and patenting several catalysts still used for stabilization of jet fuels.  Dr. Benedict earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1986, where he conducted research on the stabilization of high energy materials within crystalline lattices.

Dr. Benedict has been awarded a number of patents throughout his career – the latest for delivery of microsatellites to orbit piggybacking on the nadir deck of geosynchronous communication satellites.

Dan cofounded LeoLabs to accelerate the new commercial economy in LEO, protect satellite assets, and preserve the space environment. LeoLabs is the first commercial data source for tracking satellites and mapping LEO. Prior to co-founding LeoLabs Dan was a Program Director at SRI International where he supervised the Allen Telescope Array and developed advanced radar imaging technologies. Dan holds a Ph. D. from U. C. Berkeley in electrical engineering.

Dr. Lyon (Brad) King is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Orbion Space Technology;  he is also the Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professor of Space Systems Engineering at Michigan Technological University.  Dr. King is a recognized expert in the field of spacecraft technology and he has served on numerous NASA, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and NSF advisory panels, and has published more than 100 papers on space propulsion systems.  Dr. King earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Martin joined Astroscale U.S. in August 2019 as SVP of Operations and Programs. She brings many years of space technology management, operations, and engineering expertise to the Astroscale team.

Dr. Martin previously held the position of the Director, Orbital Solutions at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). She was responsible for the management and technical performance of the engineering staff and delivery of projects, including planning and managing technical and programmatic solutions to ensure quality, business, and financial objectives were met.

Prior to joining GA-EMS, Dr. Martin was the Chief Operating Officer at Surrey Satellite Technology US, where she led the Surrey project management and engineering teams. As a member of the Surrey Satellite US executive team, Dr. Martin managed the bidding, negotiation, and execution of projects, and was responsible for ensuring the company’s cost-effective methods were appropriately applied to the execution of programs.

Dr. Martin joined Surrey Satellite US from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the United Kingdom, where she held several positions including the Head of Telecommunications and Navigation business unit, encompassing the Galileo payload programme. Prior to Surrey, Dr. Martin was a project manager and scientist at QinetiQ.

Dr. Martin earned a Master of Science in astrophysics and a Doctorate in mathematics and computational sciences from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Ahsun Murad is the President and CEO of Optimal Satcom, which he co-founded as a spin-off from Lockheed Martin and Comsat in 2002. Over the last 18 years since its founding, Optimal Satcom has grown to support a large segment of the satellite industry with products and customized solutions that help its customers run their business – over 15 satellite operators, 20 of the largest satellite service providers, and major US Government DoD and civilian agencies use Optimal Satcom products and systems today. As a world expert in satellite communications technology, Mr. Murad advises satellite companies and governmental agencies on satellite system design, application of emerging technologies, and formulating policy decisions.

Mr. Murad has worked for over 25 years in various positions across the satellite communications industry. Immediately before founding Optimal Satcom, he held management positions at Lockheed Martin and COMSAT Laboratories. In these positions, he headed the development of products for transmission planning and satellite capacity management and was the lead system architect for a number of commercial SATCOM and MILSATCOM projects. Before joining COMSAT Laboratories, Mr. Murad worked at the NASA Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks where he was involved in research and development related to hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile communications systems, and complex multi-satellite systems. Mr. Murad graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.