David Mitlyng for Xairos

Who Owns Time?
The government... for now.
The time you see on your phone is synchronized to a clock at the US Naval Observatory, delivered via GPS satellites through your local cell network.
The US Government has been the reluctant supplier of time to the world since the digital era began.
But can it (or should it) be privatized?
Ask William Shatner.
At 90 years old, Capt. Kirk wasn't likely to qualify for the NASA astronaut program.
But fortunately for him, private industry has taken over roles once thought the exclusive domain of governments: space travel, earth observation, space surveillance, lunar exploration, and even missions to Mars have been democratized in the New Space era.
Not only are they making warp-speed (pun intended!) advancements in these once-stagnant areas, but they are making money in the process.
It is time for time to have a new owner.

Last Week's Theme: A Brief History of Time (Synchronization)

• Three interesting virtual conferences highlight advancements
  • “Time & Sync in Vertical Industries - Data Centers” virtual webinar with great insights on the value of timing from Facebook, Google, and NVIDIA.
  • "Quantum Investment Summit 2021" had some great quotes about the crazy amount of investment going into quantum hardware startups.
  • "Quantum in the City and Quantum in Europe" webinar highlighted funding and quantum initiatives in the UK and Europe. The panelists highlighted how there is more government support for startups to make up from the lack of investor funding.
• Working on an agreement with quantum research lab at a major university as well as proposals for National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA and Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) solicitations.
• Tanya Ramond has moved on to a new role at Analytical Space. She was instrumental in developing our commercial go-to-market strategy and we wish her well!
• Working on setting up new partnerships, hires, and an Advisory Board to help our company grow.

• 2021 Value of Space Summit, October 19 - 20
• Inside Quantum Technology - November 1 - 5, New York, NY
• Quantum Information and Measurement VI (QIM) - November 1 - 5, Virtual
• Global Conference on Timing and Synchronisation Across Networks, November 1 - 4, Brighton, UK
• Catalyst Accelerator City-Wide Space Community Days, November 3 - 5, Colorado Springs, CO
• SPIE Photonics West, January 22 - 27, San Francisco, CA
• Satellite 2022, March 21 - 24, Washington DC
• Space Symposium, April 4 - 7, Colorado Springs, CO
• Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems, May 9 - 12, Denver, CO

• The Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation (RNTF) just released a White Paper exhorting the US government to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) "to procure foundational precise timing services which can support a wide variety of public and private applications across the nation" as part of a National Resilient Timing Architecture.
• Also pushing for this critical need is the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), which sent letters to US Congressional leaders stating “the urgent need for funding the deployment and adoption of Alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Systems in U.S. critical infrastructure, including the U.S. telecom industry.”
• CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) released their Quantum Technology Initiative (CERN QTI) including a roadmap defining its quantum research goals and strategy.

What is the value of time synchronization for a large data center?
Ask Facebook, Google, and NVIDIA. They recently described the challenges and opportunities they are facing to improve time synchronization for distributed databases.
The panel discussed how critical time synchronization is for data integrity, coherence, and efficiency within data centers.

To learn more, please email us or schedule a meeting here.