Pere Mier: "At Open Cosmos we are building three satellites a week"

BarcelonaPere Mier (Figueres, 1952), a prominent figure in the technology world, with origins in the family business Mier Comunicacions and former president of employers' associations Ametic and Proespacio, among other roles, has been president for a few days of Open Cosmos, the company founded by a Majorcan, Rafel Jordà, and two Catalans, Aleix Megías and Jordi Barrera, and dedicated to the design, production, and operation of satellites. Mier explains from the company's headquarters in the Sant Andreu neighborhood of Barcelona that his role will consist of consolidating a group that is "among the fastest growing in Europe", based on "the democratization of access to space" to make it easier and cheaper. He adds that he will also play a role in the development of the defense and security industry within the Old Continent's objective of gaining strategic autonomy, because "space technologies are dual by definition".

What are his priorities?

— First, I would like to talk about Open Cosmos. It is a company that does much more important things than is known. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing companies in the space sector in Europe. It was founded by three aeronautical engineers from the UPC, one from Mallorca and two from Catalonia. It was founded in the United Kingdom for various reasons, and from the very beginning, it experienced very significant growth and great recognition within the sector. It has had a groundbreaking way of doing things, especially by trying to significantly shorten development and delivery times, reduce costs, and ensure that things work. These are the three pillars. It currently has headquarters in England, which is the initial one, in Spain, here in Barcelona, which is Open Cosmos Europe, in Portugal, and in Greece, and is in talks to open new ones in different locations. It was founded in 2015 and currently has more than 300 employees.

He said they are in talks to open in other locations. Can you be more specific?

— Not yet. We like to talk about what we have done, not what we want to do. And this is also a differential and important characteristic of Open Cosmos' way of doing things.

Can you define Open Cosmos in four data points?

— It is an authentic multinational. It was born with an absolutely multinational mentality in the best sense of the word. This company is born with this DNA. Wherever we work, we establish ourselves, we create employment... Here there are people of any nationality. And with a will for implantation, for rooting and for collaboration with the society where it is, with the professionals, with the governments... And another characteristic is explosive growth. And prestige earned because it delivers.

What kind of clients do they have?

— When we talk about satellites, normally –not necessarily, but normally– they are public entities, governments. One of the things that has been wanted to be done from the beginning is to democratize access to space, in the sense of making it easy and cheap.

How is this specified?

— So in the possibility of being able to carry out, nowadays, a whole mission, that is to say, to design, produce, launch and operate a satellite, with an accessible cost, which changes or varies according to complexity. Mostly, the clients are governments, which can be autonomous, as is the case of the Generalitat de Catalunya with Enxaneta or others, such as those of the Balearic Islands, Andalusia or the Canary Islands. In the case of the Atlantic Constellation, it is a joint program of the Spanish and Portuguese governments; there are also constellations for Greece, for the United Kingdom or for international agencies, such as the European Space Agency. Open Cosmos is a company that we Catalans should be very proud of.

What about it? For its characteristics?

— Because it comes from professionals trained at a Catalan university, because it has very important activities in our country, and because it is insufficiently known despite the importance of the things it does. The space has something very interesting: I have been working there for over 30 years and it generates pride when you see your colleagues, your professionals, the companies from your country, who are capable of doing things of this level.

With so many satellites flying, is there some kind of ordering, of traffic regulation?

— We are talking about a sector that is evolving a lot and, therefore, regulation is lagging behind. The first point of regulation is that the places where satellites can be placed are like territorial waters. They are the property of states, which have them assigned, especially if we are talking about orbital positions of those called geostationary, that is, that do not vary in relative position with respect to the Earth, or frequency bands and others. Therefore, this is perfectly regulated. There are international conventions that regulate it.

How many satellites are currently in orbit?

— At this moment, that are launched, 14 or 15, but we are building three satellites a week.

When we think of satellites, laypeople think of large spacecraft...

— This has changed a lot. The thing is that it also depends on what application they have. One thing, for example, is the International Space Station, where four or five people have to live for six months. But around the year 2010, two things happened that changed the space environment and generated what is now called the new space, the new space. There were two actions, above all. One, which was the most important, is that two professors from American universities, one of them Catalan, developed a new standard so that students could build a satellite during their academic work and launch it. Then they invented something that was CubeSats, a cube with a camera, with a battery. Then someone said:

And did this facilitate the democratization I was talking about?

— Open Cosmos has a strategy that allows deploying or designing, building, delivering, and launching satellites and operating them in a much shorter period than usual. In time and cost, too.

What else differentiates them?

— Open Cosmos does three things. One, launch and operate satellites or satellite constellations. Two, build images generated by Open Cosmos satellites or their constellations. And three, which is the novelty that will arrive in the coming years, create a constellation that will enable communications for different applications, for example the internet of things, or the possibility of having real-time images. This is very unique and very important, because Earth observation satellites have two essential characteristics. One is definition, and the other is time. You can have an image, for example, of here in Barcelona, and you have to wait for the satellite to pass by again. If you have a constellation and the satellites are linked, you can have your image of any of them when it passes where it suits you. And if, on top of that, you have them with a system that allows you to communicate with anywhere on Earth, you can have your images immediately. This is very important depending on the application. For example: for agriculture, whether you have the images now or in a week is not relevant. But it is if you want to have information about a flood, fires, or another risk situation...

When his appointment was announced, one of the things discussed was the possibility of seeking new business opportunities. We are now in a phase, in Europe, where we talk a lot about strategic autonomy. Does this also involve defense?

— At the current moment, and with all the geopolitical tensions there are, what we have at stake in the specific case of Europe is that nobody would want it not to be defended, in the same way that nobody would accept having Mossos who were not equipped to defend us.

Above all politically, sometimes the word 'defense' is even avoided...

— It must be understood well. I believe defending values is something no one is against.

But can Open Cosmos play a role in this sector?

— All companies with dual-use technology have a possible role.

And what does this mean?

— This means hospitals, people who make food, those who make clothes, obviously people who make technology. We are not aware of how important it is that we defend our values. We are talking about preserving the society we have built.

But, in principle, any company dedicated to technology can have two functions, one civilian and one defense, and Open Cosmos too, right?

— Space technologies are dual technologies by definition.

And this fits within what is strategic autonomy, too. Because they are in a strategic sector.

— Yes, of course. Absolutely. With the pandemic, we already discovered how important it was to have the capacity to decide or to do things at home. It's not about defending autarky, but about being able to react if necessary. And in the case of space, this is absolutely vital.

Sometimes being strategic is confused with the government's participation?

— Strategic means of global interest to society. By definition, a government must always be involved, in one way or another, in issues that are strategic for society. It can do so in one way or another. There are many ways to do it.

They must participate in projects jointly with others, and with states, or with autonomous governments, for example in the Atlantic Constellation...

— In the Spanish and Portuguese constellation, the main contractor, meaning, the one that drags the other companies, is Open Cosmos for the Spanish part and a good part of the Portuguese one.

And they also collaborate with the Generalitat, right?

— El Menut and l'Enxaneta are nanosatellites made by Open Cosmos.