
Scalability and expandability of ground stations with SDR technology - with Terma
From The Space Industry by satsearch
November 28, 2025 · 34 min · Episode 85
About this episode
The episode discusses the scalability and expandability of ground stations using SDR technology with guest Hans Martin Steiner from Terma.
Episode 81 of The Space Industry podcast by satsearch is a conversation with Hans Martin Steiner, VP Institutional Space Business at Terma , about scalability and expandability of cutting-edge ground stations with SDR technology. Terma's space business provides mission-critical electronics, software, and services for space applications. In the episode, Hans and satsearch COO Prasad Nagendra discuss: 1. 💸 Scaling Shift - "Software Over Boxes": Traditional ground stations scale by adding costly physical modem hardware, a CapEx-heavy approach. Software-Defined Radio (SDR) technology flips this model, allowing operators to scale capacity instantly by adding compute power instead of new boxes, dramatically improving economic efficiency. 2. 🔄 Dynamic Adaptation and Flexibility: SDR technology empowers operators to dynamically change critical communication parameters, like frequencies or modulation schemes, post-launch via software updates. This capability is vital for optimizing spectrum use , mitigating unexpected interference, and extending a satellite's mission lifetime. 3. 🌐 Enabling Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS): SDR is the key driver enabling ground stations to operate…
People in this episode
Host: Prasad Nagendra
Guest: Hans Martin Steiner
Topics covered
- SDR technology
- ground stations
- scalability
- expandability
- communication parameters
- Ground Station-as-a-Service
- economic efficiency
Keywords
- Software-Defined Radio
- ground stations
- scalability
- economic efficiency
- dynamic adaptation
- spectrum use
- mission lifetime
- GSaaS
- throughput management
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Terma, satsearch
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