BQ2 Scotland Special Report by We Are UMi

2 BUSINESS QUARTER SCOTLAND: Special Report - Space

The final frontier

Scottish Enterprise’s Gordon Venters explains the opportunities in space

Space debate Live discussion on Scotland’s future in space

Out of this world Interview with the man behind Scotland’s first satellite

Reach for the stars

An exploration of Scotland’s exciting and growing space sector

E N T R EP R E N E UR I N T E R V I E W S

SPACE U P DAT ES

IN SIGHT

LIV E D E BATE

RAPIDLY REFRESHED SATELLITE-BASED DATA MARITIME WEATHER AVIATION CUSTOM

Dreamed up in Silicon Valley Built in Glasgow Solving Global Problems

EDITOR’S VIEW SPECIAL REPORT: SPACE Scotland has a rich history when it comes to the exploration of space. Mathematician James Gregory invented the first practical reflecting telescope, while James Clerk Maxwell’s theories on electricity and magnetism and William Thomson’s discoveries relating to heat under-pin much of modern astronomy and astrophysics. That strong heritage continues to this day, with scientists and engineers at universities throughout the nation continuing the quest for knowledge about the heavens, from the search for planets orbiting other stars through to hunting for the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein. Space isn’t just an academic subject in Scotland though. The country’s entrepreneurs are involved at each and every step of the journey, from designing and building the satellites that are sent into orbit through to processing and analysing the vast amounts of data they capture and then applying them to applications throughout the economy. In this BQ2 special report, we join with our partners from both the private and public sectors to reveal how Scottish companies are helping their customers to harness the full potential of the space industry. Together, firms based in Scotland can offer an end-to-end service by not just helping their clients to capture data in the first place but also then apply that information to grow businesses in a vast array of fields. Companies such as Clyde Space and Spire are putting nanosatellites into orbit, generating vast amounts of data with a wide range of applications, from monitoring ships and aircraft all the way through to improving weather forecasts. Orbital Access is developing new ways of putting hardware into the heavens, while Telespazio VEGA UK offers a range of systems and services straddling many aspects of the space sector. Back on Earth, firms like Astrosat and Ecometrica are helping their clients to harness satellite data, using information collected from above the atmosphere to grow businesses beneath the clouds. Many of Scotland’s upstream and downstream services are being supported by consultancies such as Jumpstart, which helps its customers to use research and development tax relief, and by public sector agencies like the Satellite Applications Catapult, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications and the UK Space Agency. When it comes to Scotland’s space sector, the sky is definitely not the limit. Peter Ranscombe, Editor, BQ Scotland

S PAC E P I O N E E R

JOINED UP THINKING

L AU NC H PA D

SLINGSHOT EFFECT

MAPPING CLIMATE CHANGE

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE

WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

S PAC E O P P O R T U N I T Y K N O C K S

JUMP S TAR T R+D FUNDING

LIVE DEBATE

MADE IN THE IDEAS FACTORY

READ ONLINE BQ Magazine is available to read online at bqlive.co.uk for when you are on the move

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CONTENTS

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Interview with the man who put Scotland’s first satellite into orbit

How Space Network Scotland is bringing people together

Orbital Access is aiming to launch people and equipment into orbit

Data collected in space helps businesses on earth

Ecometrica helps tackle a global threat

The Scottish Centre of Excellence bridges the divide

How satellite data helps the renewables industry

Interview with Scottish Enterprise’s Gordon Venters A company that helps businesses claim research and development tax relief How can our space sector build on success and become a leader Astrosat takes data from space to solve problems on earth

L I S T E N I N G F RO M S PAC E Spire Global’s Theresa Condor explains how satellites are changing our lives

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS How the global space industry is good for Scotland

CONTACT S BUSINESS QUARTER Bryan Hoare Managing director e: bryan@bqlive.co.uk @BQBryanH

EDITORIAL Peter Ranscombe Editor e: peter@ranscombe.co.uk @peterranscombe1

SALES David Townsley Account director e: dave@bqlive.co.uk t: 0191 389 8513

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@DaveTownsley99

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Steve Jessop Production manager e: steve@bqlive.co.uk Sarah MacNeil Head of design e: sarah@bqlive.co.uk Craig Hopson Designer e: craig@bqlive.co.uk

DIGITAL Leanne Elliott Head of digital e: leanne@bqlive.co.uk Bryce Wilcock, Suzy Jackson

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PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk Nicky Rogerson www.kgphotography.co.uk

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Business Quarter, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT. www.bqlive.co.uk. Business Quarter (BQ) is a leading national business brand recognised for celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship. The multi-platform brand currently reaches entrepreneurs and senior business executives across Scotland, the North East and Cumbria, the North West, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and London and the South. BQ has established a UK wide regional approach to business engagement reaching a highly targeted audience of entrepreneurs and senior executives in high growth businesses both in-print, online and through branded events. All contents copyright ÂŠ 2017 Business Quarter. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All content in this BQ2 should be regarded as advertorial. All information is correct at time of going to print, January 2017.

BUSINESS UPDATE Astrosat appoints Georgy Dean as interim COO Astrosat, the Musselburgh-based space services and management company, has appointed Georgy Dean, previously its head of operations, as its new interim chief operating officer. Dean, a former teacher, joined Astrosat in 2015 after completing her master’s degree in space science and engineering. She met Astrosat chief executive Steve Lee at a careers fair in Leicester, where he was a speaker, and approached him for advice on starting her own space sector business. After seeing her enthusiasm and knowledge, Lee hired her on the spot. She initially worked remotely for the company as a senior project engineer but was quickly promoted to head of operations. “Georgy has done outstanding work for the business in the past while operating remotely, and I’d always said if she was here at Astrosat HQ in Edinburgh, I’d make her COO on the spot,” says Lee. “I’m delighted to have secured the opportunity to make good on that.” Dean adds: “There’s always been an attitude,

rightly or wrongly, that girls struggle in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects because they feel greater societal pressure not to be wrong, and STEM subjects are very much right-or-wrong answers. “I think the world is full of women who are perfectly capable of having a very successful career in space, or other fields in STEM, and I want to show that. “Astrosat is a great example of how we can show the way.”

Air traffic control via satellite moves a step closer The European Space Agency (ESA) and British satellite firm Inmarsat have completed their first trials to use satellites in air traffic control. The partners are developing high-capacity secure digital data links via satellite for airground communications for cockpit crews over European airspace under ESA’s ‘Iris Precursor’ programme. By 2019, Iris Precursor aims to provide air-ground communications for initial ‘four dimensional’ flight path control, pinpointing

Astrosat appoints Georgy Dean as interim chief operating officer

an aircraft in latitude, longitude, altitude and time. The system is designed to enable precise tracking of flights and more efficient management of traffic. An aircraft from the Netherlands Aerospace Centre carried a prototype Iris terminal connected to Inmarsat’s next-generation SwiftBroadband-Safety satellite service as it took off from Amsterdam. During four flights to destinations in Europe, the connection between the aircraft and ground networks was tested extensively and air traffic control messages were exchanged. The connection was maintained even when the aircraft switched satellite beams. Captain Mary McMillan, Inmarsat’s vice president of aviation safety and operational services, says: “As air traffic volume continues to increase, the digitisation of the cockpit is one of the ways to alleviate current congestion on traditional radio frequencies and optimise European airspace. “Using the power and security of satellite connectivity through Iris clearly changes the game in comparison to the ground technology in use today.”

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Strathclyde staff win European satellite contest Three members of staff from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow have won the European Satellite Navigation Competition. They were presented with their prize at the awards ceremony, held in Madrid, and will benefit from business support to commercialise the idea. Their idea – ‘A Global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) monitoring system for airfields using passive radar observations’ (GUAPO) – is a ‘silent lookout’ system that uses low-cost sensors and satellite navigation technology for the early detection of UAVs, better known as “drones”, and aims to address growing concerns over public safety, security and privacy. Carmine Clemente, Domenico Gaglione and Christos Ilioudis from the sensor signal processing and security laboratories at Strathclyde’s space institute developed the idea with support from the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA). The team is working on a passive radar system using GNSS signals for micro-UAV detection, classification and tracking. The passive bi-static radar (PBR) works by “exploiting sources of electromagnetic energy to accomplish radar tasks such as target detection, parameter estimation and recognition”. The system is being designed to avoid collisions and to help stop drones being used in terrorist attacks. The ‘silent lookout’ system could be deployed as a perimeter around a football stadium or open-air concert venue with the sensors creating a ‘detection arc’ at a distance that would allow authorities enough time to take appropriate action.

English firm in £8.5m Prestwick airport expansion Manchester-based Chevron Aircraft Maintenance is investing £8.5m to create an aircraft engineering, maintenance and training centre at Prestwick airport in Ayrshire. The centre is expected to create 82 jobs and help the company to increase its turnover from £9.6m in 2016 to £19m in 2021. The project has been supported by a £2m regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise. Paul Lewis, managing director

Barcons to succeed de Zeeuw at ESO Xavier Barcons has been named as the next director general of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which operates telescopes at three sites in Chile. He will take over from Tim de Zeeuw on 1 September. Barcons has been a research professor with the Spanish Council for Scientific Research since 2002. He served as president of the ESO’s council between 2012 and 2014. “I feel very honoured to take on the leadership of ESO at this exciting time,” Barcons said. “I look forward to seeing the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) come to fruition and overseeing the further development of the Very Large Telescope, Atacama Large Millimetresub-millimetre Array (ALMA) and many other projects at ESO.” De Zeeuw added: “The scope of ESO’s programme has expanded a lot and the future looks bright — ALMA is producing fascinating science, the E-ELT is under construction and new projects and member states are on the horizon. “But there are also undoubtedly many challenges to come, and I can’t think of a better captain to steer the ship than Xavier.” The ESO was founded in 1962 and brings together 15 European nations and Brazil.

at Scottish Development International, said: “This investment is a fantastic boost to the aviation engineering industry in Scotland, which is an ideal location for Chevron’s centre of excellence. “Chevron will now join the many international investors who benefit from our competitive business environment, strong skills base and effective support network, which help make Scotland the top performing location for inward investment after London.” Neil Morris, managing director of Chevron

Aircraft Maintenance, said: “This is a very important project to us and we have greatly valued the support we have received from Scottish Enterprise in helping us achieve this investment. “Over the past three months, we have worked closely with the airport team to promote the facility, beginning by exhibiting the new capability at the MRO Europe Amsterdam Conference, resulting in two aircraft operators contracting maintenance from January to April.”

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30 apps created by European Union project Data from the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) has been used by small businesses, research institutions and individuals to create 30 environmental and social innovative apps. The apps were unveiled in Brussels in December as the culmination of the two-year MyGEOSS project, which aimed to develop smart internet applications using the open data. Software created as part of the project included: eQUOS, a health app that suggests whether to perform a specific outdoor physical activity in a given area based on the environment qualities, such as climate, water, coastal areas, and atmospheric composition; Caliope, an air quality and weather app that provides 48-hour forecasts for Europe; FaceBee, which aims to raise awareness of the threatened bees species in Europe; and Loss of the Night, which was developed to make sky-glow data collected by citizen scientists easily accessible and to provide them with some basic tools to visualize the data they have collected. MyGEOSS was managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and carried out by the commission’s Joint Research Council. The JRC also presented three apps developed in-house: Invasive Alien Species in Europe to identify invasive species threatening European environment; MyNatura2000 to raise awareness of nearby nature reserves and their threats; and SenseEurAir on local air quality.

Ecometrica named in Deloitte Fast 500 Edinburgh-based Ecometrica was named in the prestigious Deloitte 2016 Technology Fast 500 list covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) list. The sustainability software and data company posted a 132% rise in sales during its past financial year to nearly £2.8m. Ecometrica is ranked 394th in Deloitte’s list, which ranks the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in EMEA. The winners were selected based on percentage financial-year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015. Deloitte said Ecometrica grew at an average 294% over the period. Gary Davis, chief executive of Ecometrica, said: “With important new agreements with NASA, the UK Space Agency, and our partners in the commercial and academic worlds, 2016 has been a great year for Ecometrica. “It is very satisfying to see adoption of our technology growing and the Ecometrica platform being used to tackle a variety of environmental challenges facing business. “Being named on Deloitte’s Fast 500 is the icing on the cake. “We more than doubled our research and

development budget this year, so we are investing now in technologies that will keep our growth rate high for years to come.” During 2016 Ecometrica became the first gold software partner for climate change, water and forests programmes with global group CDP.

£5m paint facility for Prestwick airport Spirit AeroSystems has invested £5m in opening a paint and finishing centre at Prestwick airport near Glasgow. The company – which lists Airbus and Boeing among its customers – received a £450,000 regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise to open the centre. Seventy-five jobs will be safeguarded as a result of the investment. Adrian Gillespie, managing director of growth companies, innovation and infrastructure at Scottish Enterprise, said: “We are delighted to support Spirit AeroSystems in the development of this new finishing centre. “This significantly enhances capability at the site and demonstrates their continued commitment to developing their operations here in Scotland.” Scott McLarty, vice president for the UK and Malaysia at Spirit AeroSystems, said: “This new finishing centre allows us to better meet the needs of our customers as production rates

Clyde Space wins Canadian contract Canadian satellite services company Kepler Communications has chosen Glasgow-based Clyde Space to build two 3U spacecraft. The devices will be used to launch Kepler’s novel software defined radio (SDR) and antenna array. The Clyde Space nanosatellites will support Kepler in deploying its in-space telecommunications network, which will use nanosatellites to relay data in real-time for devices deployed in terrestrial, remote operations and satellites deployed in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft will be built and tested in Glasgow and are due to be ready for delivery in the autumn. Mina Mitry, Keplier’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “We are excited to work with Clyde Space. “Its reputation and experience in the space industry, plus its ability to meet challenging on-board power system requirements within our projected timelines, made it the perfect partner for this venture.” Clyde Space chief executive Craig Clark added: “Kepler is a great example of the kind of forward thinking, innovative organisation that we love to work with. “It has a fantastic concept for solving problems of low latency, reliable machineto-machine communications and we are absolutely delighted that Kepler has selected Clyde Space to help realise its objectives.”

increase for single aisle aircraft. “We are grateful for the investment by Scottish Enterprise and its partnership with us. “This finishing centre improves our competitiveness as a world-class manufacturer and presents us with new opportunities to continually improve the quality products we deliver for our customers.” The company has also recently been awarded a £1m Scottish Enterprise training aid grant, which supports the creation of 16 jobs and safeguards a further 52 posts.

AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

The UK Space Agency is responsible for all strategic decisions on the UK’s civil space programme, providing a clear, single voice for UK space ambitions. We are a small agency with a big remit and, as director of growth, my team and I are responsible for ensuring that the UK has the right conditions to support the growth of the sector. It is particularly important to me that industry, the academic community and decision makers at every level of government should understand how space technology and data give us a unique perspective and improve our daily life. Space brings people together in a way that few other things can. No other topic has the same capacity to inspire and engage, and provide the information we need to better understand our universe and our changing planet. But space is a critical infrastructure for our economy as well. The UK space industry is a high-performing growth sector and is also an enabler: our global television broadcasts, home shopping deliveries and the world’s financial markets all rely upon satellite technology. In 2010, the space sector launched its first innovation and growth strategy – highlighting the success of the UK’s space activities and outlining an ambition for the UK to grow its share of the global space market from 6% to 10%, creating a UK sector worth an estimated £40bn a year. The global space sector is changing rapidly – with more commercial players entering the market and a drive to smaller, lower-cost satellites operating in constellations numbering hundreds of craft providing data at greater frequency. We believe that Scotland is well positioned to benefit from these changes, making a significant contribution to the UK’s growth aspirations. Scotland has strengths in industry and academia, strongly supported by our partners in Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE). The latest figures show that 18% of the UK space sector’s employees are based in Scotland – and the proportion of Scotland’s workforce employed by space organisations is the highest in the country at more than twice the UK average. The largest part of the Scottish space sector is

REACHING FOR THE STARS Catherine Mealing-Jones, director of growth at the UK Space Agency, explains why space is not simply a growing sector but can also help companies working in a wide range of industries to expand

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ing growth sector and h-perform is also g i h a an ena y is r t s u bler: o nd i e c c i a n ur glob l a markets a rld’s fin pa o w s e l al television broadcasts, h l t K r e d l U y n a u e s p e o i h n r satelli “T ive te tech g del n i p nology op h s ’’ e m ho

focused on the manufacture and operations of spacecraft. A major player in this ‘upstream’ part of the sector is Glasgow-based Clyde Space, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of ‘cubesats’. The UK Space Agency commissioned Clyde Space to build its first British – and first Scottish – satellite, the technology demonstrator UKube-1, which launched in 2014. Since then, Clyde Space has ramped up production and in 2016 has been manufacturing an average of six flight-ready satellites per month. Success is breeding success – and our chief executive was pleased to meet some of the growing number of companies establishing in Scotland when she visited Glasgow in November. The UK’s impressive heritage in space science and engineering puts us in a unique position to make the most of new opportunities. One such opportunity is the drive for larger constellations of smaller satellites, like cubesats. Not only is the UK leading the field in developing small satellite technology, but the need for dedicated low-cost launch systems to put these smaller satellites into orbit raises new opportunities for a UK launch capability. The UK Space Agency is trying to get the commercial and legislative framework right to enable both small-satellite launch and

sub-orbital flights, with a dedicated team to help capture our share of the market. There are several potential launch sites around Britain – including some very interesting Scottish facilities. With more small satellites in space and technology improving satellite capability, there is a new wave of data pouring down from orbit. Most growth over the next 15 years in the UK space sector is predicted to come from applications of space-derived data and services. Satellite applications can come in surprising forms: Scotland’s financial services sector uses time stamps from navigation satellites to pinpoint when transactions are made; a project is underway in Scotland to use satellite data to help map the risk of contracting Lyme disease; and millions of people across the globe have been using satellite navigation services on a daily basis without realising it – to chase after Pokémon. Satellite applications provide a significant opportunity for Scotland – but many companies do not know that space is relevant to them, or where to learn more about what services are available. Space Network Scotland, funded by Scottish Enterprise, and the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications – led by the University of Strathclyde and funded by the UK Space Agency, Satellite Applications Catapult

and HIE – are already helping connect businesses to the expertise and funding opportunities that they need to develop new products and services. Space start-ups can also find support at the new Higgs Centre for Innovation – a business incubator being established by the Science & Technology Facilities Council’s Astronomy Technology Centre at Edinburgh. These organisations will work closely together to provide joined-up support. As the sector grows, we expect it to create thousands of jobs that will need to be filled. Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the International Space Station provided an excellent vehicle – no pun intended – to inspire the next generation about careers in space. Our Principia education programme engaged more than one million school children – and it was truly inspiring to be at the National Museum in Edinburgh on 15 December, 2015, as part of Scotland’s celebration of the Principia launch. We hope that students and families across Scotland who engaged with Peake’s mission will now take that enthusiasm and find a way to be a part of their growing space sector. Scotland has set itself ambitious targets to further develop its thriving space sector – and working together, I think the future for the UK’s space sector looks bright. n

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If the race into space is a galactic gold rush, then Craig Clark is handing out the spades. With industries as varied as communications, health, energy and environmental monitoring looking skywards for answers to some of their most perplexing questions, the commercial value of data mined from outer space is only beginning to take off, and that data is collected by satellites. Clark’s company, Glasgow-based Clyde Space, designed and manufactured Scotland’s first spacecraft, a ‘CubeSat’ for the UK Space Agency that was launched in July 2014. Since then, his business has been focused on further bringing down the cost of going into space by producing high numbers of small standardised systems, rather than far more expensive custom-built satellites. “When you are building by hand, there is very much a limit to what you can do in bringing down costs, and quality control is also an issue,” Clark says. “The challenge for a company like ours is to scale up fast enough to meet the demands of our customers within the timeframes that they require. To do that we have invested heavily in our manufacturing processes.” Clyde Space is currently developing a ground station to control its low-orbit CubeSats – fully-functional satellites that are roughly the size of a loaf of bread, and which reach space by ‘piggy-backing’ on existing launch solutions or are deployed from dedicated launchers such as Rocket Labs, to minimise costs and increase versatility, boosting the commercial viability of space access. Supported by a research and development grant from Scottish Enterprise, the ground station is soon due to be operational. Within its facilities at Skypark in Finnieston, Clyde Space also boasts in-house vibration and thermal vacuum testing equipment, with 12 identical integration stations. “We have the full ability to design, test and very soon perform on orbit operations,” Clark says. “That is potentially a unique capability – most companies have to go somewhere else for at least some of their testing.”

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The father of Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s satellites Craig Clark tells Kristy Dorsey about his exciting journey from setting up Clyde Space through to putting Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first satellite into orbit

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This is key in keeping down price points, which will help fuel the space race. But with clients spanning the commercial, academic, civil and military sectors, reliability is equally crucial. With this in mind, Clyde Space recently appointed its first chief operating officer, Jennifer Riddell-Dillet. Previously a senior executive with multinational optical specialist Daysoft, her experience in an industry with high performance and safety demands is expected to assist Clyde Space on its continuing journey into mass production. The appointment of Riddell-Dillet was announced alongside that of Will Whitehorn, the former president of Virgin Galactic, to the post of non-executive chairman. Currently on the board of a number of UK firms and organisations – including his chairmanship of the nearby Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (SECC) and SSE Hydro in Glasgow – Whitehorn had a long career within Virgin that included brand and corporate affairs director of Virgin Management between 1987 and 2007. During that time, he helped grow the brand globally, and acted as a spokesman for Sir Richard Branson. He was then president of Virgin Galactic up to December 2010, heading efforts to establish space tourism flights for the paying public. Born in Edinburgh, he is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and holder of the 2010 Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for his contributions to the industry. Clark says the combined experience of the two will help the transition of Clyde Space into supporting growing demand for production of high volumes of advanced small spacecraft. “They have a wealth of knowledge that will keep us on the correct course for the future,” he adds. “That will be invaluable as our markets continue to grow and mature.” The company now employs more than 80 people who are collectively helping to turn out an average of six satellites per month from the clean rooms at Clyde Space. Clark’s ambition is to up that to “tens of satellites” per month. Turnover in the latest financial year to 30 April 2016 reached a record £5m, up about £2m on the previous 12 months. It’s been a lengthy yet worthwhile journey for Clark, a long-time advocate of the potential of CubeSats. Raised in Cumbernauld, he studied electrical engineering at the University of

“I had no real inkling of starting a business here, or anywhere else for that matter,” he recalls. “There was no grand plan”

Glasgow before earning his master’s degree from the University of Surrey, where he afterwards began his career. Returning to Scotland in 2005, there were no space industry jobs to be had. A friend suggested he should start up his own business, which he quickly did, building upon the 11 years he spent as a power systems specialist with Surrey Satellite Technology. Clyde Space is today held up as a shining example of the potential impact the industry could have upon Scotland’s fortunes. Clark says space-related work is a “hidden gem” within the economy, but admits that he initially had no particular notion of becoming a maverick in an emerging field. “I had no real inkling of starting a business here, or anywhere else for that matter,” he recalls.

“There was no grand plan. “When you start a company you only think in terms of two or three years, or at least I did. You don’t really have time to think beyond that about some much bigger picture.” The turning point for Clyde Space came in 2014 with the successful launch of UKube-1, the first satellite ever to be fully assembled in Scotland. It went up on the Russian Soyuz-2 rocket launched out of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. UKube-1 has now completed its primary mission for the UK Space Agency, celebrated its second birthday on orbit and entered its next phase of operations. “It was a very intense period,” Clark says. “We invested money in it, and it was ultimately successful, and since then we have gone from strength to strength. Our annual growth has

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been around 65% during the last three years.” A voluntary member of the Space Industry Advisory Group since April 2016, Clark has further high hopes for the sector amid impending plans to set up the UK’s first spaceport. This dedicated base for space-planes will give the UK industry end-to-end control of the entire value chain – making it less reliant on the launch capabilities of other countries – and has a good chance of coming to Scotland. The UK sector as a whole has been growing at 6.5% per annum according to a recent report from the UK Space Agency. Total exports in the latest year under review soared to £5bn, or 36.4% of total income, up from 31% in the previous 12 months. Export values are an even bigger story at Clyde Space, which generates about 90% of its income from outside the UK. One of its largest customers is Californiabased Spire Global, which provides world-wide, round-the-clock weather information for clients in meteorology, global trade, shipping and air traffic control. The strength of the relationship between Clyde Space and Spire has led the latter to open a centre in Glasgow to allow closer collaboration between the two. “I guess you would say that we are not exporting to them anymore,” Clark says. “They are just across the hall from us.” In response to demand from its US client base, Clyde Space is currently exploring its options in that country, having announced last year its incorporation of Clyde Space Inc and intention to set up its first overseas subsidiary. It is a “logical step” for the company, says Clark, as about 40% of its business comes from the US through the supply of sub-systems to companies such as Spire, as well as organisations ranging from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) and the US Air Force. “We also supply full spacecraft to the University of North Carolina Wilmington,” he adds. “Establishing a US company will put us in a position to attract more work from the American government, including in areas where we are currently restricted.” The subsidiary will initially focus on developing sales, but the plan is to quickly expand into manufacturing, replicating the base in Glasgow. This was determined to be the best option following a review of joint venture possibilities. The biggest question at the moment is location.

The Scottish, UK and US governments are all providing Clyde Space assistance in selecting the right place for setting up shop. The San Francisco Bay area – from where Spire hails – is “very interesting”, says Clark, while Seattle also has an active space technology community. However, an east coast location could make more sense in terms of the time difference with the UK. “It is quite a complex thing to set up,” Clark says. “We are looking at a few options. At the very latest we will be operational over there by the end of this year.” Closer to home, Clyde Space is adding to its string of high-profile government and agency contracts with the recent announcement that it has been commissioned by Innovate UK and the Satellite Applications Catapult to build four CubeSats for a £1.5m pilot programme offering quick, regular and more affordable access to space. The satellites will eventually be launched from the International Space Station (ISS) in an “inorbit demonstration”. The launch opportunities from the ISS are being provided by NanoRacks via its Space Act Agreement with NASA’s US National Lab. Other current projects include a £1m deal to build three CubeSats for American global broadcaster Outernet, which is aiming to provide free internet content globally from outer space. Other prestigious orders include a contract with the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, which studies the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere of Earth and other planets. Clark remains the largest shareholder in Clyde Space with a roughly 40% stake, having set up the business with the proceeds from a house sale and investment from friends and family. The company received further backing in 2010 from Coralinn, the investment vehicle of Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Stewart, and Nevis Capital, the private equity group owned by John and James Pirrie. Additional support for recruitment during the company’s recent rapid expansion has come from a regional selective assistance grant of £480,000 from Scottish Enterprise, which has hailed Clyde Space for its “growing influence” in the international field of space technology. Despite the high proportion of graduates in Glasgow with experience relevant to the

industry, Clark says the company must plan carefully to keep ahead. “Due to the need for highly skilled staff to service our customer needs, it can take time for us to recruit and embed new members of the team,” he explains. “Given how fast our market and company are growing, we really need to recruit ahead of time.” Looking even longer-term, Clyde Space hopes to inspire school children to take up science through events such as the October visit by Major Tim Peake, who became the first UK astronaut to make a spacewalk during last year’s ‘Principia’ mission. Children from Baljaffray Primary School and Bearsden Academy got the opportunity to meet the Major and question him about his historic six-month stay on the ISS. “That was great,” Clark says. “It was really good of him to stop in, given some of the other places where he went on his post-flight tour of the UK.” On the commercial front, much of the excitement at the moment around the small satellites in which Clyde Space specialises is focused on start-up firms leveraging cheaper access to orbit to exploit new business ideas. But further down the line, Clark expects large incumbent operators to have the biggest impact once they begin using constellations of CubeSats to track things such as the movement of oil pipelines, pollution, crop growth or the outbreak of diseases. Clyde Space has already held discussions with large companies interested in using small satellites to get applications into orbit much faster than the timelines often associated with larger geostationary devices. CubeSats, he adds, are “ideally placed” to support the rapid expansion of the downstream space data sector. “I often come across people who see the space industry as not a serious business market, more suited to scientists and technology geeks,” Clark explains. “However, with the space market showing sustained growth at almost 10% over the past few years, and our specific market segment of small satellites growing at close to 40% per year, it’s clear there is an excellent business case. “We are creating multiple high-skilled jobs here in Glasgow – I think the space industry is a hidden gem in the UK economy and I’m delighted we’ve managed to bring the space industry to Scotland.” n

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Bringing internet access to the world Clyde Space chief executive Craig Clark explains to Kristy Dorsey how the company’s ‘CubeSats’ are being used to broadcast content from the internet to hard-to-reach locations Where the internet has so far failed in reaching as many as five billion people around the globe, there are a number of forward-looking companies hoping to fill the void by replacing cables, telephones and power lines with satellite-based communications. They include high-powered outfits such as business magnate Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Google’s Project Loon and work on the internet.org project driven by Facebook. Another in the mix is New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), the financial muscle behind the free Outernet content distribution system aiming to bring basic web access to every corner of the world. It works through a combination of geostationary

and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, as well as the miniaturised cube satellites or ‘CubeSats’ produced by companies such as Glasgowbased Clyde Space. The Scottish firm has just completed construction of four CubeSats due for a pilot launch out of New Zealand early in 2017; if successful, up to 200 would be required for full-scale deployment. “It would be great if this goes ahead,” says Craig Clark, founder and chief executive of Clyde Space. “The idea behind it is that we could provide a very vital service to large parts of the world that have no access or limited internet access. It is certainly an interesting mission from that point of view.” Outernet’s goal is to provide free, anonymous

educational information to those cut off from the wealth of data available online. Its target markets are those regions around the world facing government censorship, and those without the infrastructure needed to access the web. The catch is that in order to get Outernet’s content to as many people as possible efficiently and cheaply, the connection only goes one way. The system uses a combination of datacasting and user datagram protocols (UDP), one of the most basic forms of internet protocol, invented back in the 1980s. UDP is very similar to conventional over-the-air radio or television broadcasts in that data is beamed from its source to any device that’s within range, with no

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guarantee that it will be received. Datacasting, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like: a wide area broadcast using radio waves rather than physical media such as cables or power lines. This new-age version of conventional radio is sent from Outernet’s headquarters across a variety of wavelengths until it hits a suitable receiver. But rather than relying on terrestrial radio stations, the Outernet bounces its signal up to a series of satellites, then back down to one of its receivers, which doubles as a wi-fi hotspot. It connects to a computer or mobile device and transfers the received data as a digital file. Since there is no two-way communication, the system requires much lower bandwidth and is therefore much cheaper to operate. Clark believes this was a crucial element in winning the contract to supply Outernet with CubeSats, as Clyde Space has been focusing for the past few years on improving its production methods to bring down costs. “I think it would be fair to say that we were more forward-thinking than our competitors on that front,” Clark says. Syed Karim, chief executive of Outernet, says the company wants to solve the ‘information access problem’ as quickly as possible, and one of the ways to do that is by cutting costs. While those who enjoy speedy internet connections expect to communicate with friends, publish their own sites and comment on the work of others, the fact remains that a huge part of the online experience is simply consuming content. Outernet aims to make a selection of the most useful content available to those lacking that basic capability. Billed as ‘humanity’s public library’, the company is building a core archive of knowledge based on information from more than 5,000 Wikipedia entries and initiatives such as Project Gutenberg, the voluntary effort to digitise and archive cultural works to encourage the creation and distribution of ebooks. Meanwhile, the service’s ‘queue’ provides international and local news, crop prices, disaster relief and similar emergency communications. To help provide relevant regional news in local languages, Outernet is working with indigenous radio stations, newspapers and other media companies to source suitable content. The service is free, and anyone with the proper equipment can pick up Outernet broadcasts.

The company will soon begin shipping Lantern, its ready-made portable receiver, while its do-ityourself kit retailing at as little as £63 has been available for some time. Outernet and others such as internet.org have faced criticism for offering selective access to the web, which in the case of Outernet includes the opportunity for organisations to pay to prioritise their content in the queue. For example, Dutch broadcaster RNW has paid for delivery of its news briefs into Syrian refugee camps, while groups such as the United Nations and UNICEF have explored options for distributing their material over the network. Such initiatives are aimed at helping listeners by giving them access to useful information that promotes health and trade, but raises questions about the neutrality of the material they are presented with. But with estimates putting the global reach of the traditional internet a minimum of 15 years

out, Karim argues that selective access is better than no access at all. At any rate, he adds that Outernet does not represent itself as an internet provider, but rather as a broadcaster – and the option of selecting one piece of content over another has always been a basic function of broadcasting. Outernet could therefore prove to be a valuable stop-gap service until conventional internet access is viable in these remote or censored regions. And like Ceefax in the UK or Minitel in France, this first glimpse into a global information network will likely spark demand for full internet access. Clyde Space, which designed and manufactured Scotland’s first spacecraft, could therefore be in on the outset of another historic development in the new era of satellite-driven development. “It’s very exciting to be part of something with such significant social ramifications,” Clark says. “This will make a huge difference in the lives of many people around the world.” n

“I think it would be fair to say that we were more forward-thinking than our competitors on that front”

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Ask the average person on the street to picture how a satellite is sent into orbit and they’ll immediately imagine a massive rocket standing on a launch pad. As the countdown reaches zero, a plume of smoke begins to shoot out of the rocket’s boosters before it lifts off the ground and propels its payload through the atmosphere and up into space. But that’s not the only way to get a satellite into orbit. The process can also take place at ‘spaceports’, facilities for sending payloads – and potentially people – into space but from a horizontal instead of a vertical start. Orbital Access, a space services company set up at Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire in November 2015, is developing plans for a service that will launch small payloads into orbit from a global network of horizontal take-off spaceports. The company’s Orbital 500R system will put satellites into space using a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, a widebody jet airliner based on the familiar three-engine DC-10 model. The MD-11 will take-off from a runway like any conventional aeroplane, carrying a launch vehicle attached to the bottom of its fuselage. When it reaches the right altitude, the launch vehicle will detach and propel the payload into orbit, with the first stage of the vehicle returning to Earth so it can be reused. The system is designed to carry payloads of up to 500kg, making it ideal for the manufacturers of small satellites, which currently must be launched from sites in Russia or the United States by hitching a ride alongside military satellites. The company’s system could be ready for testing as early as 2020, with the first commercial flights pencilled-in to begin later that same year. “The UK has the opportunity to enter this market and become the global leader in the field,” explains Stuart McIntyre, founder and chief executive at Orbital Access. “There are currently only ten

Getting ready for take-off

Stuart McIntyre, chief executive at Orbital Access, is creating a space services company that will launch equipment and people into orbit from a global network of spaceports, as BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe finds out

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“Companies are increasingly using nanosatellites for a whole range of applications, from monitoring aircraft and shipping movements, through to weather forecasting and studying the effects of climate change on the environment”

spaceports licensed in the world and they’re all in the US. “At the moment, the active spaceports are only involved in the testing of vehicles, like the Mojave spaceport in California, where Virgin Galactic is carrying out its tests. No spaceport is operating commercially yet, so the UK is in a very strong position.” The UK Government wants Britain’s first spaceport to open by 2018 and has shortlisted six possible sites. Campbeltown, Prestwick and Stornoway are in the running in Scotland, along with Newquay in England and Llanbedr in Wales. “We’re looking to operate from a network of spaceports around the world,” says McIntyre. “That will allow us to service customers at whichever location is most suitable.” Looking further ahead, Orbital Access also has far reaching plans for services it can offer beyond its Orbital 500R system. In July 2016, the company was awarded a £250,000 grant from the UK Space Agency to lead the Future UK Small Payload Launcher (FSPLUK) project. FSPLUK brings together the Sabre technology of Reaction Engines, the aeronautical-design expertise of BAE Systems and the hypersonic research, trajectory design and optimisation capabilities of the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde to develop a new system for launching equipment into orbit. The project aims to bring a viable launch system into service by 2020 and then introduce a fullyreusable system in 2030. Other partners working on the design include Fluid Gravity Engineering and the UK Government’s Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Glasgow-based small satellite maker Clyde

Space and Surrey Satellite Technologies are also involved with the project because they could be potential customers for the service. McIntyre says it is essential that the needs of industry are taken into account when designing the payload launch system. The project was launched as part of the UK Space Agency’s £1.15m investment in developing a spaceport. Along with four other projects – led by Airbus, Deimos, Lockheed Martin and Virgin Galactic – the agency wants to explore topics such as: understanding and building the regulatory environment for safe, commercial operations; creating the operational model for a commercially-viable spaceport; quantifying the market needs for small satellite launches from the UK; analysing the potential to grow a high-value supply chain around launch and sub-orbital spaceflight systems and engaging with these suppliers; building the technology and business roadmaps in support of launch and sub-orbital spaceflight systems; and developing a detailed understanding of how overseas launch and spaceflight systems can be adapted for operation in the UK. The investment is part of the UK Government’s efforts to grow the value of Britain’s space sector from £11.8bn in 2014 to £40bn by 2030. The latest figures from the UK Space Agency valued the industry at £13.7bn during the second half of 2016. “There is a growing demand for satellite launch systems,” adds McIntyre. “Companies are increasingly using nanosatellites for a whole range of applications, from monitoring aircraft and shipping movements, through to weather forecasting and studying the effects of climate change on the environment.

“This is a global market with demand coming from the Far East, India, the Middle East and the US. The UK has a tremendous opportunity here to be at the forefront of this industry.” The Orbital 500R system and its FSPLUK are important parts of Orbital Access’s work, but the horizontal take-off projects are not the only tricks that McIntyre has up his sleeve. The chief executive has been looking at the wide range of services that will be needed by his company’s customers. During July 2016, the business signed a memorandum of understanding with American manned space launch vehicle designer XCOR Aerospace at the Farnborough air show. The deal could open up exciting opportunities for both firms. XCOR is developing its two-seater Lynx spacecraft to send people into the atmosphere. The company is competing to send the first tourists into space with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Zero 2 Infinity, a Spanish firm that uses stratospheric balloons instead of aeroplanes. While space tourism may have captured most of the deadlines, McIntyre points out that there are also industrial applications too. He highlights demand from biotechnology companies that may want to study the effect of zero-gravity on their drug targets and from materials manufacturers that could use a zero-gravity environment to create new structures for their products. That industrial demand also underpins Orbital Access’s plans for a zero-gravity flying service, in addition to flights using XCOR’s Lynx spacecraft. The company’s zero-gravity programme would involve flying conventional aircraft in extended

ENTREPRENEUR Orbital Access

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

parabolic flightpaths, which would produce a long period of zero-gravity in the cabin, giving up to 20 or 30 seconds of weightlessness. While the periods of weightlessness produced by zero gravity flying wouldn’t be as long as those experienced by passengers aboard a sub-orbital spacecraft, they would still allow scientists and engineers to carry out experiments. McIntyre plans to use the Avro RJ series short-haul aircraft for the service. “Zero gravity flying is likely to be one of the first services that we’ll be providing,” he says. “The aircraft we will use will have to be specially modified – for example, the fuel and oil systems will need to be positively pressurised so that they continue to function in zero-gravity.” When they’re not being used for zero gravity flying, McIntyre plans to get his money’s worth out of the Avro RJ jets by using them to ferry passengers between the UK and Europe for clients in the aerospace industry. For customers looking to move heavy equipment around the world, he will also press his modified MD-11 long-haul aircraft into service, when they’re not busy being used by his horizontal take-off service to put satellites into orbit. Offering such services to the aerospace sector will help to develop Orbital Access’s skills and experience in preparation for the longerterm aims of introducing service with XCOR’s Lynx and its own payload deployment flights. Orbital Access’s partnership with XCOR is also helping Prestwick to develop links with Midland spaceport in Texas. In December 2016, the airport also signed a memorandum of understanding with Houston spaceport in Texas. Under the deal, the two organisations will share information about licensing and operations. The agreement marks the start of a process to develop global ‘best practice’ for commercial space launch activities, safety and environmental standards. It will also allow Houston spaceport to work with Orbital Access, while Prestwick will benefit from Houston’s existing agreements with the US National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), enabling it to use Nasa’s technology, research and resources in a commercial environment.

“Being away had given me experience of management and running major international projects, which I’ve found very useful”

Prestwick began life as a flying school in 1935, with the site’s favourable weather conditions making it a suitable training centre for Royal Air Force pilots. During the Second World War, the airport became the main landing strip for transatlantic flights, with the US Air Force sending its troops and equipment through the airport to Europe. After the war, Prestwick became one of the hubs for the fledgling airline industry, with the inaugural flight to Belfast leaving on 28 January, 1946. Passenger numbers soared from 11,000 in 1992 to more than 2.4 million in 2015. One of the airport’s more unusual claims to fame is that it’s the only place in the UK that was visited by popstar Elvis Presley. The ‘king of rock and roll’ was returning to the US from Germany when his US Army troop transport aircraft landed at Prestwick on 3 March, 1960, to refuel, a date that’s still celebrated locally. One man more than any other was involved in the creation and growth of the airport, both before and during the war – David McIntyre, Stuart’s grandfather. On 3 April, 1933, David and the Duke of Hamilton became the first aviators to fly over the summit of Mount Everest. Both men were members of No 602 City of Glasgow Auxiliary Air Force Squadron and founded the airfield at Prestwick. After opening his flying school, David was station commander at RAF Prestwick during the Second World War and was instrumental in its post-war expansion. His grandfather clearly had a big influence on McIntyre’s choice of career. After studying aeronautical engineering with management at the University of Glasgow, he became a market analyst at Caledonian Airmotive, before joining British Aerospace Regional Aircraft as head of market analysis at Jetstream Aircraft Prestwick. McIntyre’s career took him overseas with British Aerospace, which then became BAE Systems. He

returned to the UK in 2004 and was a member of the joint management team at Fleet Support Limited, the company that ran Portsmouth naval base using both civilian and Ministry of Defence staff. He then gained experience outside the aerospace industry at Hampshire-based healthcare device maker Microsulis Medical, first as managing director of oncology and later as shareholder and chief executive. The company’s technology was bought by Nasdaq-listed AngioDynamics in 2013. McIntyre returned to Scotland the following year to become the bid leader for Prestwick to become a spaceport. The airport had been bought from New Zealand infrastructure firm Infratil at the end of 2013 by the Scottish Government. “Coming back after two decades away really did feel like a homecoming,” he remembers. “Being away had given me experience of management and running major international projects, which I’ve found very useful. “I sadly never met my grandfather because he died in 1957, before I was born, but my father has worked very hard to keep my grandfather’s legacy alive. The stories about his grit and determination and entrepreneurialism were very inspiring to me as I was growing up. “It’s not passed me by that there are parallels between what David was doing in the 1920s and 1930s and what we’re doing now, nearly one-hundred years later. He was an aviation pioneer – he was flying before terms like ‘airfield’ and ‘air passenger plane’ had even been coined. “We’re doing the same things now – we’re working out what infrastructure and services will be needed to allow people and equipment to be flown up into space. It’s very exciting to be following in his footsteps.” n

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On the launch pad BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe hears from Spire Global launch manager Jenny Barna how nanosatellites built in Glasgow are being sent into orbit around the Earth Scotland has a proud history of producing some of the most famous ships that have sailed the seas. From the Cutty Sark and the Discovery through to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mary, the shipyards of the Clyde, the Forth and along the East Coast have launched boats that have ruled the waves. Now Glasgow is becoming known for creating a somewhat smaller breed of vessel. Nanosatellites, a type of orbital vehicle thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s small enough to fit in a bread basket, are being built in the city and then blasted up through the atmosphere into orbit around the planet. And the person in charge of getting many of those satellites safely to their celestial destination is Jenny Barna, launch manager at Spire Global, a satellite-powered data company based in San Francisco, which has a major base in Glasgow. Spireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team of engineers in

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the city create equipment for a wide range of applications, from tracking aircraft and ships through to monitoring weather patterns. It’s down to Barna to find space for those satellites to make it up into orbit. “My job is to know who’s launching all over the world, when they’re launching, who they’re launching with, how much extra capacity there might be, what orbit they’re going into and whether they’re willing to take secondary payloads on that launch,” she says. “There is a pool of around 100 rockets being launched into space each year, but there are only a handful with room on them for nanosatellites. Some of those rockets will be operated by governments or the military and will be unable to take commercial secondary payloads, while other launches will be into orbits that we can’t use or will come from countries like China, which we can’t work with. “One launch a month is ideal for Spire. We have 70 launch slots booked for 2017 across 18 rockets. In the middle of 2015, our manifesto for 2016 was to launch once every single month, but unfortunately delays are a big part of this industry and so only three launches actually took place during 2016. “All those 2016 launches have now gone into 2017. It should be a very busy year for us.” Some of the risks associated with sending satellites into orbit are obvious – the polite word that’s used in the industry is an ‘anomaly’ when a rocket blows-up on the launch pad or while it’s climbing up through the sky. Even the Russian Soyuz rocket, the reliable backbone of the industry, has suffered anomalies. Other risks are less obvious. A large part of Barna’s job is working out how realistic a company’s launch schedule really is – will it

go on the date it is supposed to go or will it be delayed? Launches can also fall foul of geopolitical instability. Russia’s ability to import components for rockets has been affected by sanctions imposed following its military incursions into Ukraine. The way Barna manages those risks is to use a broad range of companies to send Spire’s satellites into space and to place those satellites into a wide range of orbits around the Earth, instead of relying on every object being on a polar or equatorial flight path. “We are launching with everybody – wherever we can get a ride, we’ll try,” she explains. “We’ve launched with Japan, India, Russia and a couple of companies in the United States. “We’ve launched on Atlas V rockets with Lockheed Martin and Boeing’s joint venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA), we’ve launched on Antares rockets, which Orbital builds, and we’re booked on Space X launches and other vehicles. We launch with virtually everybody. “As a secondary customer, we have no control over the launch schedules. All we can do is sit and wait. “The primary customer could have delays, the launch vehicle could have delays, or there could be business reasons why a launch is delayed for a year. You could be waiting for six months, or a year, or two years, for a launch. “I spend a lot of time on schedule intelligence in my job. Trying to know whether a launch date is ‘real’ – that factors into whether we book a launch, whether we think it will really happen when they say it will happen.” Barna adds: “We launch as often as we can and we launch in small quantities – that’s very different to other companies running constellations of satellites. By spreading our launches across many different vehicles and many different orbits, we aren’t as heavily

affected if there’s an anomaly or a delay.” Before joining Spire in September 2014, Barna worked as an engineer with first Orbital and then Space Systems Loral (SSL). Her career has given her an insight into the workings of both ‘old space’ companies, which produce massive pieces of very expensive hardware, and ‘new space’ companies, which are more agile in their operations. “The pace at which new space companies move is totally incomparable to old space companies – it’s a whole different ball game,” Barna says. “We can build a satellite in days, run a whole launch campaign within a week and then turn around and do it again and again and again. “Having a launch every month is something that we’re capable of doing because we’re so quick and so nimble. We don’t have the mission assurance requirements that are built into government or military legacy programmes. “We’re building very cheap – almost disposable – satellites that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of millions of dollars, so we can afford to take risks and move a lot quicker. If one satellite out of one hundred fails then it shouldn’t affect the performance of our constellation of satellites. “Most legacy companies are building one satellite that may cost upwards of half a billion dollars. They may have been working on it for up to five years and they may have booked a whole launch vehicle, which costs a further hundred million dollars, so all-in, you’re approaching one billion dollars, so that spacecraft must absolutely work. “It’s the difference between ‘perfect’ and ‘good enough’. It’s a real luxury to be able to move fast and take risks and keep innovating. We don’t have to spend six months reviewing every tiny change to a spacecraft – if it’s a good idea then just do it.” n

“The pace at which new space companies move is totally incomparable to old space companies – it’s a whole different ball game”

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Ecometrica executive chairman Richard Tipper and chief executive Gary Davis tell BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe about how the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technology is helping to tackle climate change

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Mapping out a solution Businesses and governments have long been aware that their working environments, both at home and globally, are changing. Thinking beyond our homes and offices, these environments extend to the farms that produce our coffee and barley, the forests that provide timber, house most of the world’s animals and take carbon out of the atmosphere, and the vast lakes, rivers and oceans that provide us with most of our fresh water and the air we breathe. A changing climate creates risk and uncertainty in all these environments, and organisations need to be increasingly quick to react. One technology company in Edinburgh is at the forefront of helping global businesses and governments to reduce the time it takes to gather and understand this data from months to mere hours. Ecometrica has developed end-to-end environmental software-as-a-service (SaaS) that allows companies to account for their use of energy, water and other resources and enables governments to use satellite data to monitor forests, farms and other locations on a landscape scale. “Our platform is a bit like Netflix – we produce some of our own content but there is also other third-party providers’ content on our platform too,” explains executive chairman Richard Tipper, who co-founded the company in 2008. “That could be publicly-available free information or it could be commercial information. “We’re not trying to produce all the content ourselves. Instead, we work with the best experts in each area and see how they can package up their expertise and content and transmit it over our platform to end users.” Chief executive Gary Davis, one of Tipper’s cofounders, adds: “That’s where our strengths lie. There’s a lot of complexity involved in the chain of taking data from a satellite and turning it into something usable that can be interpreted in a web browser.

“We take away all of that complexity and give our clients – whether they’re governments or corporates – a solution that they can access in a web browser without having to be an expert. You don’t have to go to university and learn how a geographic information system (GIS) works to use our platform and get answers out of it. “These days, people are familiar with Google Maps and similar applications, so that provides some kind of level of familiarity with an interface such as ours. When you see one of our maps, you intuitively know how to interact with it and get insights from it. “We have hidden away all the complexity that’s required to get that information to you so you don’t have to know how it works. It means decision makers can use a web browser to get really important, detailed insights into their landbased assets from anywhere in the world.” That information and those insights can come in all different shapes and sizes. For companies, the mainstay of Ecometrica’s work is to help them account for their GHG emissions, their use of energy, water and other resources, and their impact on the natural world. “GHG accounting is now mandatory in the UK for quoted companies,” explains Davis. “Requiring corporates to report their emissions has driven change. “Companies are competitive – they want to do better than they did last year and are competitive with their peers. To drive down GHG emissions, you need to reduce energy or other consumption and that in turn reduces costs. “We specialise in providing the accounting systems to enable companies to account for

their environmental performance, including GHGs. From that they will take on initiatives themselves internally or with the help of experts like ourselves to work out reduction strategies. “Most companies will have some form of reduction strategy, whether they know it or not, because they will always be looking to take costs out where they can. Quite often you’ll see the carbon efficiency or energy efficiency of a company increase over time. “The amount of GHG produced per thousand pound of turnover will be going down over time. Business has made a lot of progress in this area and it’s a business imperative to do so. “By accounting for those GHGs, you can tell that story at the same time. One of the things we do is help our clients to tell that story.” Ecometrica has worked with a roster of bluechip clients over the years, including Associated British Foods, oil giant BP and transport group National Express. Overseas customers include CSA Group, formerly the Canadian Standards Association, and mining firm Iamgold Corporation. When it comes to the public sector, the company can help governments to monitor whether their policies and programmes are being effective on a landscape or regional scale. Its technology platform takes Earth observation (EO) data from satellites and uses in-built tools to analyse the information, giving users the answers they need. “For example, as part of its climate change commitments, the UK spends about £200m a year to support developing countries to help reduce deforestation, improve forest management and restore forests,” says Tipper. “The effectiveness of that revenue stream needs

“You don’t have to go to university and learn how a geographic information system (GIS) works to use our platform and get answers out of it”

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to be monitored. “Working with the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) and other partners, we developed a system that allows EO data to be used effectively. We worked out which EO data could be used to study different types of forests and how that information could be combined to deliver the useful information that the programme evaluators need to produce their metrics of effectiveness. “We’re now starting to take the model that we assembled for forests and replicate it in other areas. We’re already starting in agriculture through engagement initially with Rothamsted Research and a Wales-based specialist agricultural monitoring company to look at how we can get better information about how agriculture in the UK and other parts of the world is doing, particularly through a combination of environmental performance and the performance of different crops, along with adherence to rules and regulations. “Another area that’s related to agriculture is the monitoring of soil moisture, water-logging and run-off. We’re using a combination of satellite data and other meteorological information to understand which areas of the country and which parts of the water catchments are becoming saturated and how flood extents or surface water are changing over time so we can have a much-better understanding of how water moves within a catchment and when different types of vegetation are becoming saturated. “That can be partly for flooding but also there are lots of other related issues around the runoff of nitrates affecting water quality, surface water contamination and the cost of water treatment – it’s all related to this idea of soils in the upper end of the catchment becoming saturated and material running off those fields into water courses.” Expanding from forestry monitoring into agriculture represents something of circle being completed in Tipper’s career. He initially studied agricultural sciences at the University of Edinburgh before advising farming organisations in Mexico. After a master’s degree in technology management, he completed his doctoral

“What we’re trying to address in our new approach is that data is often gathered and utilised in a very fragmented and project-specific way” research on the economics of contemporary Mayan farmers before going on to develop the Plan Vivo system of payments for ecosystem services, subsequently gaining commercial investment to put the theory into practice in India, Mexico, Mozambique and Uganda. There aren’t many entrepreneurs who have a connection with the Noble Peace Prize, but Tipper is one of that select group. He was the lead author on two reports written for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the organisation that shared the 2007 prize with former United States vice president Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the

foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. “The EO data is a fantastic source,” explains Tipper. “It doesn’t do everything in isolation, but it often works very well with ground-based data. “There’s a growing abundance of EO data. One of the things we found in our previous company and what we’re trying to address in our new approach is that data is often gathered and utilised in a very fragmented and project-specific way. “Datasets are assembled for a specific project to answer a specific question then they’re bundled up together and packaged into an answer in a report. But they’re not used systematically or built into a longer-term process, so there’s a

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“We’ve always been pushing at the barriers of what’s possible and that will continue apace” huge amount of wastage and inefficiency. “If someone later wants to get access to that data then it may have been siloed on a desktop computer or a GIS somewhere that people may find difficult to access. And when they do access it then they may find it difficult to understand what version of the data it was. “That whole process of working in a fragmented project-by-project way is very inefficient and so we felt that there’s a tremendous opportunity for a step-change in the efficiency and the strategic value of the information if you can have much more systematic measurement and if it’s planned and continuous and on a large scale and is of consistent quality. “Those datasets then become large – bigger

than what could be handled on a desktop computer system – and so we need cloud computing-based architecture to handle it. We also need a whole set of other tools around that architecture to be able to make that information available to non-experts. They need to be able to pull the information out without having to download the data, so they can request reports on specific areas of interest.” Tipper also points to the complexities surrounding the ownership of data, with some information being publicly available, but other material being classed as proprietary or confidential. His system is designed to deal with such complex intellectual property (IP) issues, allowing the user to simply concentrate on

getting answers to their questions. “The level of innovation here is incredibly high – Richard has been innovating in this field since before I was working for him – he measured Ford’s European carbon footprint back in 1996 when I was still a lad,” laughs Davis. “We’ve always been pushing at the barriers of what’s possible and that will continue apace. “There’s a world out there that will be consuming environmental information. For the people going through school and university now, it will be normal business for them to have environmental sustainability data alongside financial data when they’re looking at companies or any organisation. “That process is just starting now, but when you look back in 20 years I think some of the work that we’re doing now will be seen as the starting point, particularly on the mapping side.” Much of that innovation takes place at the company’s head office in Edinburgh. It also has sales offices in Boston, London and Montreal and is expanding into South America, where its services are in demand to monitor the health of the tropical rainforests. The company’s headcount has doubled over the past three years to 35, while its turnover over the same period has soared by 179% to £2.25m. The growth in revenues led to Ecometrica being listed as the second fastest-growing small business in Scotland in a recent league table. Looking ahead, Davis highlights the international agreement to tackle climate change signed in Paris as a big opportunity for the business. “When you look at the funds that have been committed globally to reduce emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation, $100 billion a year globally is obviously a large sum of money,” he says. “You need to judge how effectively that money is being spent so the monitoring systems we’ve put in place with government agencies and aid organisations are exactly what’s required for the global climate fund. There’s a huge opportunity to put in place global monitoring systems for the money being spent and we’re leading the way on that in the UK, so that’s a big opportunity. “It remains to be seen what will happen in the Trump era, but there will still be a lot of good work going on globally and a lot of opportunity for us to help organisations monitor the effectiveness of the money they’re spending.” n

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BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe finds out how Edinburgh-based technology company Ecometrica is using its environmental software to help protect forests around the globe

Seeing the wood Some of the statistics surrounding the world’s forests are simply staggering: scientists estimate that there are around three trillion trees on the planet, more than 400 times higher than the number of people. Together, those trees cover a massive four billion hectares, roughly the size of four billion rugby pitches or the equivalent of about 30% of the Earth’s landmass. Those forests play a key role in protecting the planet against the effects of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that global carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 20% if humans avoided chopping down trees in the tropical

rainforests and could fall by more than 30% if trees were replanted in areas of forests that have already been felled. Tropical forests alone hold more than 210 gigatons – or 210 million tonnes – of carbon, around seven times as much as is being emitted by humans each year, illustrating the crucial role trees fulfil in the atmosphere. As any high school biologist will explain, plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and give out the oxygen that humans need to breathe. Trees don’t just play a role in protecting the climate though. They also provide homes for 80% of the world’s terrestrial wildlife, with each

square kilometre of tropical forest potentially holding more than 1,000 species. That’s not to mention the humans who rely on forests either. Some 1.6 billion people are dependent on forests to earn their living, while 300 million have carved out their homes among the trees. Yet despite their importance for humans, animals and the atmosphere, Earth’s forests are under threat from all angles. Between 46 and 58 million square miles of forest are destroyed each year. The Amazonian rainforest, the largest on the planet, has lost more than 17% of its cover in

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for the trees the past 50 years, while the island of Sumatra in Indonesia has been stripped of 85% of its forests. Borneo has lost a similar amount of cover. From palm oil plantations in South-East Asia to cattle ranching in South America, the world’s forests are coming under pressure like never before. Logging, quarrying and other industrial activities are adding to the devastation. The first step towards saving the world’s woods is to understand which areas are currently covered by trees, how much forest cover is being lost and how the remaining plants are performing. Once scientists measure

the extent of the problem, governments and environmentalists can start working on solutions. Step forward Ecometrica, a sustainability software company based in Edinburgh. The firm has developed a technology platform that allows users to see and analyse masses of data from the satellites that orbit the Earth. The firm has been awarded a contract worth £14.2m by the International Partnership Programme (IPP) run by the UK Space Agency. Under the deal, Ecometrica will lead a consortium of international experts to monitor forests in six countries.

The Forests 2020 project is designed to help countries to improve the management and protection of around 300 million hectares of tropical forests – around 12 times the size of the UK. The contract is the largest to be awarded under the UK Space Agency’s £150m IPP. “This will help to establish Ecometrica as a leading international provider of digital infrastructure for earth observation (EO) services,” explains executive chairman Richard Tipper, who co-founded the company in 2008. Tipper was the lead author of two reports for the IPCC, the organisation that shared the 2007 Noble Peace Prize with former United

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States vice president Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. Tipper says: “Working with several organisations in each of the six countries, including research institutions, non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and conservationists on the ground, this project will help improve the capacity to implement effective forest and ecosystem monitoring services. “It is estimated that improved monitoring systems, which enable a more targeted approach, could help prevent the loss of four to six million hectares of forest over the next

“It is estimated that improved monitoring systems, which enable a more targeted approach, could help prevent the loss of four to six million hectares of forest over the next decade” decade – that’s an area more than half the size of Scotland, or two to three times the size of Wales. “We all know how important tropical rainforests are to the survival of the global ecosystem, but most people are only just waking up to the fact that we need to use technology to make sure conservation efforts are effective. Our EO platform will ensure threats such as fires and illegal logging are detected sooner, and make

the response on the ground faster and more cost effective.” Launched in 2016, the IPP brings together British space knowledge, expertise and capability to “provide a sustainable, economic or societal benefit to undeveloped nations and developing economies”. Grants were available for both academic and industrial partners. As part of the project, Ecometrica is bringing together experts from the University of

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Edinburgh, the University of Leicester, and fellow Edinburgh-based company Carbomap, a specialist in forest mapping using light detection and ranging (Lidar). Lidar is similar to radar but instead of using radio waves it uses laser light to measure the distance to an object. Carbomap was spun-out from the University of Edinburgh in 2013. Its chief executive is Professor Iain Woodhouse, who co-founded Ecometrica with Tipper and chief executive Gary Davis and who served as a non-executive director between 2008 and 2012. The Forest 2020 project will involve setting up EO laboratories in Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya and Mexico to assess threats to rainforests and help conservationists to direct their resources in the right directions. The programme is expected to be completed in 2020. Ecometrica already has an enviable trackrecord of working to protect forests. In 2015 and 2016, the company led a project as part of the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Space Programme (IPSP). The IPSP project created a network of virtual EO labs in various regions within Brazil and Mexico. Ecometrica’s partners were the El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur), a multidisciplinary research centre in South-Eastern Mexico, and Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Ecosur and INPE have used Ecometrica’s system across a broad range of applications. In Mexico, Ecosur has studied mangrove swamps on the Chiapas coast and forest monitoring in Campeche, Chiapas and Marques de Comillas. INPE’s ‘Inland’ project displays data about the various ecosystems across Amazonia, including the distribution of various types of vegetation, while its emissions model looks at the discharge of greenhouse gases around Brazil. “Forests 2020 builds on our expertise of applying satellite data to situations on the ground, and will allow us to tackle technological challenges relating to the detection of changes to forests, the measurement of risk, and the digital infrastructure needed to use the data in the field,” says Tipper. Ecometrica’s system is based on cloud computing, allowing satellite data to be accessed and analysed from any computer connected to the internet. This approach means that data isn’t locked away on individual desktop computers, which would make it

“The state-of-the-art cloud-based system means huge amounts of data can be shared, allowing applications to be built combining satellite images with studies, models and information gathered on the ground” harder to access. Using a cloud-based system also means the data can be updated at the click of a mouse, removing any uncertainties over the accuracy or timeliness of information. Ecometrica’s technology platform is also packed with analysis tools that mean non-experts can begin to examine and understand the data, pulling off reports without requiring knowledge of the inner workings of a geographical information system (GIS). “Our model for an EO lab is one that can be established within an existing research, business or administrative organisation,” Tipper explains. “The core components are cloud-based data and software, so there is minimal requirement for physical infrastructure. “Each EO lab will serve specific themes relevant to its region. For example, in the case of Southern Mexico, there are specific forestagriculture interactions that are of importance for forest protection, biodiversity and social development.” Tipper is no stranger to Mexico. Having studied agricultural science at the University of Edinburgh, he worked as an advisor to farmers’

organisations in the country and later completed his doctoral research on the economics of contemporary Mayan farmers. “There are many local, national and international stakeholders who would like access to EO-derived information,” he adds. “A regional lab should support coordination and collaboration between these stakeholders to move away from fragmented, compartmentalised mapping and monitoring to build information products that aim for continuity, wall-to-wall coverage and consistent quality. “The state-of-the-art cloud-based system means huge amounts of data can be shared, allowing applications to be built combining satellite images with studies, models and information gathered on the ground. When you combine data with other models it starts to become ever more interesting and reliable, and by working with a variety of stakeholders we have been able to create unprecedented levels of usable information, initially on the forests of Brazil and Mexico and we’ll eventually add many other aspects of the environment.” n

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The appliance of science The Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications acts as a bridge between entrepreneurs and academics, as Malcolm Macdonald tells Kristy Dorsey Back in October 2015, a rocket from the Hebrides missile range in the Western Isles became the first vehicle to lift off from the UK and leave the Earth’s atmosphere. It was, as Malcolm Macdonald has described it, the “leastheralded event” of the year, taking off as it did as part of an international military exercise in the Atlantic. The Terrier-Orion two-stage rocket was playing the part of a ballistic missile and, as chance would have it, it took off from the vicinity of Macdonald’s historic family croft. As the head of the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), Macdonald hopes to help usher in an era where vehicles are regularly launched into space from UK – and more specifically Scottish – soil. According to a report published last year by London Economics and Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish space industry’s main strengths are in manufacturing, which is the assembly of craft, subsystems and components such as those produced in Glasgow by Clyde Space. At the other end of the value chain there is burgeoning activity in space applications, which include companies such as Astrosat and Ecometrica that use space data to offer value-added services to end-users. In between is the actual operation of equipment going into space. UK firms have traditionally

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Exploring the opportunities presented by space satellite technology is the next natural step for many companiesâ&#x20AC;?

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had to rely on the launch capabilities of other countries, which brings with it extra costs and logistical difficulties. For example, the launch of Clyde Space’s UKube-1 – the first satellite ever fully assembled in Scotland – out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was delayed for various reasons by nearly 12 months. Only 11 countries currently have launch capability but, like others in the sector, Macdonald says plans to establish the UK’s first spaceport before 2020 will be a massive boost for the sector. “There is that bit in the middle that we are not able to do and have no control over, and we are dependent on other people for that,” he explains. “The spaceport programme will close that middle bit, bringing a lot of added value and cutting down on delays and costs.” A site anywhere in the UK will bring benefits for firms north of the Border, but the odds on the first spaceport opening in Scotland appeared to narrow in December after Glasgow Prestwick Airport signed an agreement with Houston Spaceport to share best practice on commercial launch activities for space ports. It was seen as a major boost for the South Ayrshire airport, as its US partner already has a licence to operate horizontal space launches from its site at Ellington Airport in Texas. “It shows how far work has progressed at Prestwick, and the maturity of the concept,” Macdonald says. “It also validates the value of what Prestwick is doing. There is value going both ways – it is not just Prestwick getting something out of this, because Houston also sees advantages as well.” As important as that link is, Macdonald’s remit at SoXSA is far more wide-ranging. Set up in 2014, the Scottish hub at the University of Strathclyde is one of five centres of excellence that are delivery partners for the Satellite Applications Catapult, the others being in Durham, Leicester, Portsmouth and the Goonhily Earth Station in Helston. Its aim is to look ‘end-to-end’ into developing new concepts for the exploitation of space and the betterment of life. Opportunities span sectors such as energy, sustainable cities, smart grid, agriculture, marine, life sciences and transport. Towards that end, SoXSA is hosting the

“I’ve probably always been interested in space to the degree that most people are, but never in a really geeky way” inaugural Data.Space conference in Glasgow on 1 and 2 February, with government speakers and representatives from organisations such as the European Marine Safety Agency and the UK Space Agency. Chief executives and founders from firms such as Spire and Descartes Labs will also be on hand, along with a host of smaller businesses. Macdonald explains that the idea is to pull together data and service providers with users to identify opportunities that exist today. This includes areas where existing data can be used in new ways, or by going back through the chain to discover how new technologies, platforms and payloads can generate fresh data with a commercial punch. As the author of The International Handbook of Space Technology, Macdonald literally wrote the book on the sector. However, his professional aspirations were not always aimed beyond the atmosphere. Raised in Glasgow, he did his undergraduate and doctoral work in aerospace engineering at the University of Glasgow where he then spent two years on a research contract. His main interest was in traditional aircraft, though this would eventually lead to loftier ambitions. “There was no grand plan to have a career

in the space sector,” Macdonald says. “I’ve probably always been interested in space to the degree that most people are, but never in a really geeky way. “What I was interested in was engineering. After that it was just a matter of following the opportunities that were in front of me.” He took the chance to join information technology (IT) services provider SciSys in 2005, where he became part of the company’s space division based out of Bristol. During his three years there, he worked on the control software for both the ADM-Aeolus and LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, plus a number of other research and development studies. Getting out of academia allowed him to discover the traditional way that spacecraft are built in large-scale programmes. “It was a good chance to use what I had been studying for nine years at university in a handson, commercial environment,” he says. “It was quite a change to get out and build stuff that was actually going to fly.” He returned to Scotland in 2008 as a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde and from there progressed into his current role at SoXSA, which provides a link between the university and local businesses.

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The space sector in Scotland employs about 7,000 people and had an estimated turnover of £131 million in 2014-15, according to last year’s study from London Economics and Scottish Enterprise. That represents 1.1% of the total UK space economy, a figure that is expected to grow as increasing commercialisation drives a ‘New Space Age’ of applications. Macdonald cites the example of the oil and gas sector, where very small movements of structures such as pipelines can be detected by satellite before they become a major problem. Doing this via spacecraft gives a wide and rapidly repeating view. “You can get global coverage in a few days, and there is no other way to do that except from space,” he says. Funded in part by the Satellite Applications Catapult and the UK Space Agency, SoXSA’s budget is also supplemented by grants and contracts undertaken by the centre. One recent example was the award of roughly £98,000 of European Union funding as part of the two-year ‘Technology for Self-Removal of Spacecraft’ (TeSeR) programme being led by Airbus Defence and Space. According to NASA, more than 500,000 pieces of space debris made up of everything from non-functional craft to abandoned launch vehicle stages are currently orbiting Earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour. TeSeR is looking into the development of a cost-efficient but reliable removal module to clean up this space junk. Parts of large spacecraft can survive re-entry and need more careful handling than smaller satellites that burn up upon entering the atmosphere. TeSeR is working to develop at least one but perhaps as many as three prototypes with the emphasis on removing smaller spacecraft of less than 500kg that operate in low-Earth orbit. Being part of the network of hubs set up by the Satellite Applications Catapult allows SoXSA to offer a range of support to Scottishbased businesses that would not otherwise be possible. “We each have our complementary skills as well as our own geographic area to look after,” Macdonald explains. “For example, the East Midlands has a very strong history in navigation.”

Scotland boasts the upper hand in small satellites, which has led to the University of Strathclyde heading up a project to bring space technology opportunities to emerging nations. The programme offers researchers, entrepreneurs and established companies the prospect of gaining scientific insight or securing a new space market over shorts periods – a few months or years – without the extensive investment required for a traditional space mission. It will build on lessons learned from UKube-1, which was developed by Clyde Space with support from Strathclyde. The collaboration will establish a missions’ laboratory in Mexico in partnership with the Universidad Autonomia de Chihuahua and government development agency MXSpace. Known as NANOBED, its formation will benefit from experiences of Clyde Space, the CubeSat specialist widely regarded as the founding father of Scotland’s emerging space cluster. “What we have got in Scotland is certainly a different kind of space sector when compared to the rest of the UK, where there is a much more traditional kind of space industry,” Macdonald says. Smaller, lower-cost satellites are leading to the ‘democratisation’ of space, he argues, which used to be dominated by superpowers wielding vast budgets and large populations. And just as social media has turned the internet into a twodirectional highway of information, in the future there will be much more interaction with these space assets. “It is not just about having the technology, but what you can do with the technology,” Macdonald adds. To spread these benefits as widely as possible, SoXSA and the Satellite Applications Catapult have teamed up with Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) as part of a two-year programme to help businesses in the North of Scotland to capitalise on the satellite technology sector. Announcing the partnership in June, HIE business development director Charlotte Wright said firms in sectors such as healthcare and marine renewables will increasingly seek to “make more of space”. “Exploring the opportunities presented by space satellite technology is the next natural step for many companies,” she said. “This could be to

boost their existing trade through improved market reach or indeed by developing products and services for the growing space satellite industry itself.” But just as the possibility of becoming home to the UK’s first spaceport presents huge opportunities, Scotland’s space sector also faces certain threats. As in most other industries, one of the biggest unknowns is the potential fallout from the UK’s decision to split away from Europe. Although Brexit will have no direct impact on the UK’s relationship with the European Space Agency, there are concerns that Scottish companies and researchers could face disadvantages when competing for funding through programmes such as Horizon 2020, the EU research programme with £67 billion to spend over its seven-year lifespan. How that might play out remains to be seen, though it is worth noting that, since the vote, researchers from the University of Strathclyde were named the overall winners in the latest European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC), Europe’s biggest space technology innovation competition. Their system for the low-cost early detection of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was selected from more than 500 entries from 17 countries. The free movement of the top talent on which the industry relies is another worry. “That is something the space sector has taken for granted,” Macdonald says. “If serious restrictions were to come into place, that would be a real challenge for the industry.” On many of those questions, the only answer is to wait and see. But despite the uncertainties, Macdonald emphasises that Scotland’s space sector remains vibrant, and will be well-placed for the future whatever the eventual outcome of Brexit negotiations. “When you ask who can benefit from the data we are able to gather from outer space, the answer is almost everybody and anybody,” he says. “The commercial opportunities are vast, and as costs come down that will enable more innovation and more growth. With our foundations in lower-cost, smaller satellites, Scotland is in the seat to drive forward the new space movement.” n

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Winds of change The Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications is working with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to use satellite data to help the renewables industry, as Kristy Dorsey finds out At the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), it’s all about bringing space technologies down to Earth, and doing it in a way that makes the planet a better place to be. Possibly the best example of this is the centre’s collaboration with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the UK Government-backed innovation and research centre dedicated to creating sustainable wind, wave and tidal industries in UK waters. SoXSA director Malcolm Macdonald says bridging the gap from space to subsea might seem a massive task, but the environmental upside is potentially enormous. “We can monitor things from space in a way that is difficult or even impossible to achieve otherwise,” he explains. “We already understand some of the benefits, but there’s still much more to explore.” SoXSA – one of five centres of excellence set up by ORE’s space equivalent, the Satellite Applications Catapult – has been working with the nearby Glasgow hub of ORE for a couple of

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years on ways that data from on high can drive efficiency in alternative offshore energy. The partnership is a natural one in a couple of contexts, one being the shared ethos of two groups both rooted in the catapult programme aimed at driving innovation to promote economic growth. The other is proximity – both on George Street, the Glasgow hubs of SoXSA and ORE are less than a two-minute walk apart. The pair have already jointly funded a six-month internship for a researcher who looked at the availability of satellite data over ocean sites. Coverage of these areas is patchy, as most monitoring from space is focused on land, particularly population areas. Andrew Macdonald, senior innovation manager for the ORE Catapult, says that will be followed by a two-month secondment of another researcher who this time around will look at how data from space can help wind farm developers determine the best positioning of their turbines. Meanwhile, monitoring of weather conditions and wave heights could similarly improve decisions on when to access structures for maintenance. “There are a number of different opportunities we are looking at,” says Macdonald at ORE. “They have yet to crystallise into any concrete projects, but we have a number of avenues to explore.” Some space-based technologies such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) already have a proven track record in other fields, and are therefore primed for transfer into offshore renewables. SAR is used to help manage and protect marine environments, and to detect illegal logging in tropical rain forests. It has further been deployed to aid in disaster relief. SAR uses the motion of its antenna over a target region to provide finer spatial resolution than

is possible with conventional beam-scanning radars. It is usually mounted on a moving platform such as a spacecraft or aircraft. The distance the SAR device travels over a target creates a large ‘synthetic’ antennae aperture. Usually the larger the aperture is, the higher the image resolution becomes, regardless of whether it is a physical or synthetic aperture. In this way, SAR creates high-resolution images with relatively small physical antennas. It can detect slight movements of just a few millimetres, is resistant to weather and can pick up features through cloud or rain. As such, it seems an ideal method for monitoring wind turbines and other offshore energy structures. Very small shifts in buildings and landscapes are difficult to detect, but SAR’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ images are compared by computer algorithm to spot where even minor movement has occurred. In the case of offshore wind turbines with concrete bases, this could be used to detect subsidence, which is exacerbated by the vibration of the turbine. As SoXSA’s Macdonald explains it, if even a bit of movement occurs in an offshore turbine, there is a problem. Early detection means complications can be dealt with quickly, limiting damage and bringing down the expense of maintenance. “It’s all about making the best possible use of our natural resources, which could ultimately help bring down the cost of energy for endusers,” he says. “Everybody wins.” In addition to that, the technology should be capable of more quickly detecting fallen pylons in remote areas than would otherwise be possible. It could also enhance the efficiency of network monitoring at a time of growing global demand for energy, as well as supporting the cost of using the technology in future humanitarian programmes.

ORE is working with small and medium-sized businesses in its sector to help them access funding from a variety of sources to develop products and services in the arena of space. One important source of money is the European Space Agency (ESA), Europe’s ‘gateway to space’ founded in 1975. Offshore energy is seen as a key market for satellite applications and, to that end, ORE announced in September 2015 that it would host ESA ‘ambassadors’ in an effort to identify and facilitate offshore energy needs that can be met by space assets. The initiative is part of the ESA’s broader platform of ambassador programmes, which is aimed at all aspects of the offshore industry, not just renewables. But supporters of the renewables industry point to the strong synergies between ORE and SoXSA, both of which are looking to secure economic value for the UK by building capability that has crosssector applications. For its part, ESA points out that Earth has never been more energy-hungry, though new technology is required for supply to keep pace with demand. Innovations for space missions – including power supply and management systems – are helping the terrestrial sector as it works to serve its customers in a more environmentally-friendly manner. “The interesting thing is putting the two industries together,” says ORE’s Macdonald. “With installed capacity of UK offshore wind turbines set to double in the next few years, satellite applications have the potential to significantly reduce on-going inspection and maintenance costs. The extension of these applications is, to be honest, probably a secondary cost driver, but could have a big impact on the long-term viability of offshore renewables.” n

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The sky’s no longer the limit Scottish aerospace companies, their suppliers and a host of new technology firms are looking at the opportunities that the space sector represents. BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe caught up with Scottish Enterprise’s Gordon Venters to find out more The skies above Scotland have been the backdrop for some of the aerospace industry’s key moments: Scapa Flow in Orkney was home to the first aircraft carrier, the converted Cunard ocean liner Campania, during the First World War; the UK’s first domestic air mail service flew between Inverness and Orkney; and Britain’s first air ambulance ferried patients between Kirkwall and the outer Orkney Isles. Now, Gordon Venters and his team at Scottish Enterprise want to help businesses north of the Border to become the pioneers of the space sector too. A report compiled by London Economics for Scottish Enterprise showed that Scotland has the potential to grow its role in space from a fledgling industry today to a £4bn industry by 2030, as part of the wider UK aim of quadrupling its revenues to £40bn over the same period. Thanks to its strong presence in the existing aerospace market, there’s real potential for Scotland to extend its reach up further into the atmosphere. “The space industry is important to Scotland because we have a long history of aerospace activity and great companies located here,” explains Venters, who is head of engineering at Scottish Enterprise. “We also have an emerging space industry a growing cluster of very good specialist companies – the question is how can that be harnessed and transformed into a big industry? “The market opportunity splits broadly into two components – upstream and downstream. Upstream covers all the equipment and systems

required to get satellites into space and to launch space vehicles. Downstream activities are all the applications of the data that can be supplied by space-based systems, which can inform a number of very different market opportunities – everything from what we’re used to on our mobile phones in being able to use location services, through to farmers using space data for precision farming to fertilise and seed their fields in the most accurate and efficient way, and to monitoring marine activity around the coast. “The range of space-based applications is wide. In some ways, it’s similar to the early days of the computer industry, with ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. There’s a lot of hardware required to run the software, but the growth potential of the software side of the space industry is absolutely huge. “Our ability to compete for that opportunity is strong but it’s an opportunity that many countries that are good at software-based applications could also compete for. We have a particular edge in Scotland with our aerospace background to add a hardware component too – such as developing and manufacturing satellites and launch systems – and the combination of the two creates a chance for large and small companies to collaborate to harness those opportunities.” Venters’s remit as head of engineering covers a broad range of sectors, including the aerospace, defence, marine and security industries. As well as the opportunities for aerospace

companies to get involved in the upstream arena and for technology companies to use the data produced for downstream applications, there are also openings for companies from outside the ‘traditional’ space sector. Precision engineering firms and other component suppliers have the chance to provide the advanced technologies that will help the big boys to put their vehicles and satellites into orbit. “This is a fledgling industry, but one that can grow quickly,” Venters points out. “If you look at the companies that are in the supply chain for the aerospace industry then some of them are already active in this area. “Every business asks itself where it should invest its money to get the strongest returns. We’ve got some very large companies in the defence sector that have been quietly working away in the space industry for a long time – they’re now looking with a keen eye to the commercial development of the space opportunity to provide further diversification. “If those companies enter the commercial space market then their size and scale will be very beneficial to the smaller companies in the supply chain, which will be able to see routes to significant amounts of business. I think those large companies are going to become increasingly active on the commercial side of space.” When it comes to filling all those jobs that could be created in the space sector, Venters thinks that Tim Peake’s space mission could help to inspire a generation of budding engineers to

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work in the industry. Peake became the second British astronaut to orbit the Earth when he arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on 15 December, 2015, spending six months in space. His mission with the European Space Agency (ESA) has captured the imaginations of thousands of school children and their parents. Venters is now looking forward to the knock-on effect. “Space is a really attractive industry for young people to think about,” he says. “It’s very exciting. The space agency’s work around Tim Peake’s mission – and how visible it was – has been incredibly helpful. “The incredibly growth of companies like Clyde Space is starting to attract other businesses to Scotland. There’s an increasingly-strong cluster of companies starting to operate here and that’s providing inspiration and opportunities for young engineers. “The Scottish Government is also keen to see the gender balance improving in the engineering sector. We’re already seeing that coming through with Primary Engineer and other programmes in schools and similarly with skills-based activities in the universities. Space is becoming a reality for people instead of something that feels out of reach.” Clyde Space has pioneered the construction of small satellites – or ‘cubesats’ – and its expertise has helped to attract other businesses to Glasgow. San Francisco-based Spire Global co-located with Clyde Space in the city, bringing with it added expertise in not just building nanosatellites but also harnessing the data they produce for a range of applications, from monitoring aircraft and ships through to improving weather forecasting models. “If you ask anyone in the space industry then they will know of Clyde Space, they will know of Glasgow, and so they will know that Scotland is of interest to them,” says Venters. “There are other activities around the sector that are not as visible but are by no means any less important. “We want to attract all the components of the supply chain; all the way from the elements required to build the launch systems and launch vehicles – which are a clear extension of the

aerospace industry – through to building the satellites and other payloads they will carry, and running the applications that will be needed by satellite operators. “Joining all of that up is wider than simply growing indigenous companies on their own. There are a number of Scottish companies that can and will grow as a result of the expansion of the space sector and there will be new entrants, but we would be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity to attract international investors to our emerging and growing cluster. “Not long ago, I met with Katherine Courtney – the chief executive of the UK Space Agency – and she was very impressed when she visited Glasgow with the strength of our cluster here in Scotland. That’s something we want to develop, both through helping indigenous companies to grow but also by attracting more inward investors.” Scottish Enterprise has been playing its role to help grow the industry by setting up and funding Space Network Scotland, an organisation that helps to integrate the demand side of the market with the supply side. Through a series of networking events, the body has helped to instil a sense of community within the space sector. The economic development agency is also involved with the Aerospace, Marine, Defence & Security (ADMS) Industry Leadership Group, which brings together representatives from large and small companies. The industry leadership group published a strategy in March 2016 and set up a sub-group to focus on space. “That shows the maturity of the industry in Scotland,” Venters says. “Much of the current activity is focused on fostering collaboration between the companies we have in Scotland. We’re working to bring together companies in the aerospace industry with the industry leadership group and with businesses that could join the supply chain, all to help build the cluster. “In the past, space has been about exploration – now it’s becoming more focused on the commercial opportunities. That’s why it’s a natural progression for the industry leadership

group to be looking at the opportunities in this area.” Venters highlights the work being done by Prestwick-based Orbital Access on the Future UK Small Payload Launcher (FSPLUK), a project funded by the UK Space Agency. He points to the FSPLUK as a prime example of collaboration in action, with Orbital Access teaming up with other companies within the sector and also with academics at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. The growth of the space industry fits into wider plans to expand the ADMS market in Scotland. The latest figures show the sector consists of 825 companies, which together generate revenues of more than £5.5bn a year, employ more than 38,000 highlyskilled people and add £1.7bn of gross value to the economy. The industry leadership group’s strategy wants to see growth of between 6% and 10% by 2030, which would involve adding £500 million of revenues each year and creating or securing 3,000 jobs. The strategy also involves reducing the industry’s effect on the environment by cutting the amount of carbon dioxide its companies emit into the atmosphere. “From a personal perspective, my experience of working in the space industry today is that there are some terrific people, terrific companies and terrific opportunities, but it’s a little bit fragmented,” he adds. “I think the question for Scotland is how can we bring that together so that, as a small country operating on a world stage, we can punch above our weight when it comes to our potential to take a share of the space industry? “My sense of that is we will have to bring some focus around what Scotland can be really good at. It’s a bit early to make predictions, but I think there are some indicators already around the expertise in cubesats and their applications, and secondly the opportunity if we can offer access to space through developing a space port and providing launch vehicles that can reduce the cost of accessing space. Those two aspects taken together could become a really compelling competitive proposition for Scotland.” n

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The question for Scotland is how can we bring that together so that, as a small country operating on a world stage, we can punch above our weight when it comes to our potential to take a share of the space industry?â&#x20AC;?

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“In other industries, you have to stop and ask yourself ‘Has this been done before?’, but space has an almost infinite range of possibilities across size, complexity and volume”

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It’s time to give research and development a jump start Jumpstart has helped its clients to reclaim nearly £100m in research and development tax relief and is now preparing to aid its customers in raising finance too. BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe catches up with the consultancy’s managing director, Brian Williamson, to find out more When it comes to Scotland’s fledgling space industry, carrying out research and development (R&D) is all in a day’s work. While other sectors of the economy may only be able to innovate now and again, companies working in the space sector need to come up with creative solutions to problems every day. “Space is one of the few areas in which you can say the sky is not the limit,” says Brian Williamson, managing director of Jumpstart, an Edinburgh-based consultancy that’s at the forefront of helping companies across a broad range of sectors to claim R&D tax relief from HM Revenue & Customs. Gordon Brown introduced R&D relief on corporation tax in 2000 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The scheme was designed to encourage businesses to invest in R&D. “There has to be a global advance in science and technology to allow a company to claim R&D tax relief,” explains Williamson. “Everything is so new in the space sector – in other industries, you have to stop and ask yourself ‘Has this been done before?’, but space has an almost infinite range of possibilities across size, complexity and volume. “Over the past seven years, there’s been an acceleration in the number of advances being made. Our prediction is that, in the space

industry, that acceleration is going to get even faster.” Williamson points to the ‘internet of things’, the concept that each and every piece of technology in our homes, workplaces and public spaces will be connected to the world-wide web. Already, Centrica – the owner of the British Gas and Scottish Gas brands – is offering customers the chance to use Hive, a system that allows them to control their central heating from their smartphones, turning the thermostat up remotely if they’re on the bus home and feeling a wee bit chilly. The next step is the ‘internet of everything’, in which artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role, from fridges that know when they’re running low on milk and can reorder such groceries for delivery from the local supermarket, all the way through to litter bins in public parks that will tell the refuse workers when they need to be emptied. “The internet of everything may be firmly grounded on Earth, but it’s satellites through which all of this data is going to pass,” Williamson says. “There will be plenty of opportunities for innovation when it comes to developing the processing technology that will be needed to handle these vast amounts of data and information. “This technology will also be needed to meet the requirements of the ‘big data’ users. We’re already seeing products like Aviva’s app for monitoring customers’ driving habits, rewarding safe drivers with lower premiums, and soon the Fitbit on your wrist is going to be tied in

with your health insurance policy, giving you discounts if you exercise or charging you higher premiums if you don’t look after yourself properly. “All those big data applications will also need innovative new technologies to handle and process all the information they will generate. New software and hardware is going to be needed. “The information generated by big data applications and the internet of everything will also trigger the need for physical assets – not just cheaper satellites but also systems for putting them into orbit and for handling the data back on the ground. The power-to-weight ratio will be key – it’s like the trade-off between having the world’s strongest man who’s also the world’s fastest marathon runner – they’ll have to have a huge capacity but will also need to be super-fast.” Jumpstart knows all about innovation. The company was launched in an attic in 2008 by founders Richard Edwards, Don Galloway and Stuart Wyse, with Williamson coming on board in the early stages as a consultant and then taking over as managing director in 2012. Wyse had been running an R&D tax relief consultancy in Canada and was one of the first people to bring the idea to the UK. Since then, the company has helped its clients to reclaim nearly £100m in tax relief, a landmark figure. “We measure our success in the amount of money we’ve been able to claim back for our clients – not how much money we’ve earned from our clients,” Williamson points out.

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“The money that our clients claim back from the taxman is used for a whole variety of purposes. “I visited one of our customers in Glasgow recently and he pointed to an enormous piece of capital equipment. He tells everyone that visits his site that he was able to buy that piece of equipment using the money Jumpstart had claimed back for him.” The firm helps its clients to navigate the path towards filing an R&D tax relief claim. It sits down with customers to work out which activities qualify for which schemes, a crucial step as understanding the rules is important and can affect the amount entrepreneurs can claim. “If a company receives a grant for a core piece of technology – for example, from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme – then it flips that company from the small scheme into the large scheme,” says Williamson. “That would generally reduce the amount they can claim by two-thirds. “However, for one of our clients, we identified 12 projects they were working on and we were able to technically isolate their grant funding to just one of those projects. They were able to put a claim through for one project under the large scheme and managed to retain the other 11 projects under the small scheme. The best way to do that is to get involved with the client at the earliest stage possible, when they’re putting in their grant applications.” Another factor that businesses need to consider is whether they can claim R&D tax relief if their parent company is based overseas. “If you’re eligible to pay corporation tax then you can still claim,” Williamson says. “Another factor that may have an impact comes with the ownership structure. If an overseas company owns less than 25% of the shares then it’s classified as an investor, but if it owns more than a quarter of the shares then a percentage of the headcount of that company has to be taken into account – and that’s often enough to flip the claim into the large scheme instead of the small scheme.” One of the key drivers for Jumpstart’s own growth came in 2014 when it raised £3.4m in equity funding from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), the £2.5bn investment vehicle launched in 2011 by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group,

Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered. BGF initially invests between £2m and £10m into a business in return for a minority equity stake and a seat on the board. The companies it backs are privately-owned or listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and typically have revenues of between £5m and £100m. Now, Jumpstart is preparing to help other businesses access a new source of funding. “We’re in the middle of discussions with a finance house about not only advancing money to clients for claims that have already been made or are about to be made, but advancing money to clients before any R&D work has actually taken place,” Williamson reveals. “For example, if a company is going to do a lot of innovative work in the space industry in 2017 then we could come in and do some due diligence work to examine their plans. A finance company may then be prepared to lend that company money based on our assessment of what they could claim back in tax relief in 2018. “Ultimately, that’s what companies require – it’s fine to get a reward based on what you’ve spent, but you have to be able to spend that money in the first place. It would be great if we could advance companies money ahead of that.” Another key factor will be for the UK Government to pull the economic levers at its disposal to stimulate investment. Williamson highlights the opportunity to tailor R&D tax relief. “At the moment, R&D tax relief is uniform – so you can receive the same rate whether you’re a baker making muffins or a technology company producing satellite components,” he says. “With no disrespect to our bakers, the UK isn’t going to become the leading country in the world for muffins, but we do have a very real opportunity to become a world leader in satellite technology and in the processing of all the data produced by satellites. “Ministers have managed to do it before, using techniques such as the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) to stimulate interest from the financial community. It’s one area that could also become even easier post-Brexit because we’ll only have the constraints that we put on ourselves and not have any from outside bodies such as the European Commission.”n

“It’s fine to get a reward based on what you’ve spent, but you have to be able to spend that money in the first place”

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The issue: “How can the Scottish space sector capitalise on its success and what must we do to ensure we position Scotland as a global leader within the sector?” Satellites have an impact on almost every aspect of our daily lives explained Laura Gordon at the start of the latest BQ Live Debate. The chair listed many of the ways in which space technology played a role in her activities, from tracking her morning run through her Garmin device through to powering Sky News on her television set or directing her satnav unit on her drive to work. Yet, despite the sector underpinning many of the services that consumers take for granted, many entrepreneurs will not understand how data from satellites could be used to revolutionise their business. With that in mind, Gordon invited each of the debate’s participants to introduce themselves and highlight some of the challenges lying ahead for the sector. Malcolm Macdonald, director of the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), questioned whether defining a ‘space sector’ was helpful. He suggested companies might get further if they don’t think of themselves as being a specific sector but instead as part of the wider business community.

Robin Sampson, head of business development at Glasgow-based nanosatellite maker Clyde Space, asked what the sector needed to do to raise its profile internationally. He also wanted Scotland to show it was a competent user of space data and then market that competency internationally. Steve Lee, founder and chief executive at Musselburgh-based space services outfit Astrosat, said his firm was famous for Earth observation but that it was focused on problem solving in a broader context. “We want to provide space as service in the same way that software is provided as a service these days,” he added. Callum Norrie, the integrator at Space Network Scotland, which acts as a focal point and resource for the sector, said: “My broad wish is to get out the message about how competent companies and academics are in Scotland, that we have a unique combination of skills that when brought together can be immensely powerful, and I’m wanting us collectively to have more confidence in what we can do.”

Collaboration was top of the agenda for Siobhan Rieley, a newly-appointed business analyst at Spire Global, a San Francisco-based satellite-powered data company that has its European base in Glasgow. Richard Tipper explained that, when he cofounded Edinburgh-based Ecometrica, he didn’t think of it as a space company, but as the firm’s expertise moved from consultancy to software, he found there were immense opportunities in the space sector, combining Earth observation with other forms of spatial data. “The strength of the Scottish sector is that it can serve and respond in a much more agile way than other places that people might go for a combination of services,” he said. “I would like to see Scotland get to the stage where it can offer complete end-to-end mission capability, where someone could come over from South Africa or Argentina, say they want to monitor their agricultural sector better, spend two weeks in Scotland and by the end go away with a nearly fully-formed idea about how they could design and deploy that mission.”

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Scottish Enterprise’s head of engineering, Gordon Venters, said he was focused on how companies could create jobs and grow the economy. “Frankly, today, the space sector is relatively small, but there’s great potential for growth within this industry – I want to hear about the handful of things that we need to do to be successful, rather than trying to be everything to everyone,” he added. Colin Baldwin, space gateway programme manager at the UK Space Agency, is involved in helping the space sector to grow throughout the nations and regions of the UK. He said Scotland was already punching above its weight, but questioned how it could be shaped to benefit the whole of Scotland, not just Edinburgh and Glasgow. Brian Williamson, chief executive of Edinburgh-based research and development tax relief consultancy Jumpstart, explained that his firm had around 1,100 claims on the go at any one time – “from muffins to microelectronics”. “There’s a great opportunity for the UK Government, both pre- and post-Brexit, to skew the legislation in favour of industries that will have a greater economic impact, and I think this industry could have a great impact,” he said. Jimmy Slaughter explained how he had recently moved from the Satellite Applications Catapult to SoXSA, working within the innovation team at Highlands & Islands Enterprise. He pointed to comments made by Lee at a conference in Newcastle, in that the sector has the right technology and understands how to use it, but the sector isn’t getting it right when it comes to commercialising and selling it, so different commercial models need

to be considered. Stuart McIntyre introduced himself as one of the newest members of the space sector, explaining that his company, Orbital Access, was building on Scotland’s aerospace engineering heritage to fill a gap in launch capability. He highlighted how the growth of companies such as Clyde Space and Spire was driving demand to launch small payloads. In contrast, Hina Bacai, the innovation lead at SoXSA, described herself as one of the “older” members of the space sector, having been involved in the industry for “more years” than she cared to remember. She asked how Scotland’s strengths could be tapped into to exploit innovation, such as the oil and gas industry, which is only using space data to a limited extent at present. Peter Young, chief executive of space services company Telespazio Vega UK, said his company was excited about working with small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) and universities and was “not far away” from investing in Scotland. “There’s not a big enough domestic market in either Scotland or the UK, so exports are key,” he added. Gordon asked Young what was missing from Scotland’s space sector. “There’s an opportunity to work together as a coalition here in Scotland and promote that,” he replied. “There’s definitely something special about the Scottish space sector,” Tipper added. “The traditional space model is big missions led by agencies like NASA that spent years in the planning and cost tens of millions of dollars; now there’s a global transformation based around much smaller spacecraft running quicker

TAKING PART Hina Bacai, innovation lead at the Scottish Centre for Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA) Colin Baldwin, ‎UK space gateway programme manager at the UK Space Agency Steve Lee, chief executive at Astrosat Malcolm Macdonald, director at SoXSA Stuart McIntyre, chief executive at Orbital-Access Callum Norrie, integrator at Space Network Scotland Siobhan Rieley, business analyst at Spire Global Robin Sampson, Head of Business Development at Clyde Space Jimmy Slaughter, solutions architect at SoXSA Richard Tipper, executive chairman at Ecometrica Gordon Venters, head of engineering at Scottish Enterprise Brian Williamson, chief executive at Jumpstart Peter Young, chief executive at Telespazio VEGA UK Also taking part: Dave Townsley, group account director, BQ In the chair: Laura Gordon, Glasgow chair, Vistage Taking notes: Peter Ranscombe, editor, BQ Scotland Venue: The Bonham Hotel, 35 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, EH3 7RN BQ is highly regarded as a leading independent commentator on business issues, many of which have a bearing on the current and future success of the region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

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and lower cost projects, using cloud computing instead of supercomputing. “That allows more businesses and institutions to participate. We can be agile and responsive to those opportunities. We don’t need a big government programme to organise us – we as an industry can do that – but what we do need is government support to land the landmark contracts.” Lee praised Tipper’s agile plan and picked up on his idea that Scotland could offer a “one-stop shop” for companies or institutions wanting to capture and analyse space data. “One of the reasons Scotland’s space sector nexus is succeeding is because it’s like a high street – you can walk from one end to the other and buy your services,” he said. “It’s a natural fit for us to stick together because we can offer a shorter walk up that high street. But high streets get taken over by the likes of Tesco coming on board – I don’t think we’ll have many new companies opening on our high street and so the fear I have is that if we want to keep that high street alive then we must keep the Tescos out of those partnerships. “We’ve got to make sure we can consolidate together rather than outsiders coming in and consolidating without us because then we lose our unique selling point (USP). My solution is to setup joint ventures and partnerships and contracts all over the world that we can do

together.” Sampson pointed to Spire founder Peter Platzer’s comments about the “land grab” to find new applications for space data. “It’s important that we wave a flag together to say to the world ‘No matter what application you might have, we’re the place to do business and we have the supply chain and skills and knowledge to service it – and cost effectively.” “I’ll admit Astrosat is running out of ideas,” Lee added. “We’re not pushing innovations in profits, because we’re now focusing on business plans and partnerships.” Bacai said: “Not a day goes by when people don’t approach us with new opportunities and challenges. One of the keys issues for us is who do we take those inquiries to because the small business community is already running at full pelt.” “The high street analogy is really strong,” said McIntyre. “The way to protect that high street is to consolidate the unique keys that mean people will come to our high street instead of other high streets. “We talk about the land grab for applications but there’s a step-shift in access to space from large government-funded launches to small agile commercial launches. The locations for those launches and the systems for those launches are going to be few and discrete and so to protect our high street we must make sure

“One of the reasons Scotland’s space sector nexus is succeeding is because it’s like a high street – you can walk from one end to the other and buy your services”

we have control of access. “We have to capture an idea from a customer – which doesn’t care at all how it’s fulfilled or whether it’s fulfilled from space – and quickly digest it and then create that solution through an integrated process within our industry, from application design, spacecraft design, launch provision, data acquisition, process and delivery, the whole spectrum – that’s one of the unique keys to our high street.” Gordon asked about the potential business that could come from customers that don’t understand the space sector. “If it’s a high street then how do you market it – what do you put up in your window?” she questioned. Slaughter responded by pointing to the incremental innovations within the car industry – it innovates through how people buy cars instead of the cars themselves. “How we commercialise it is important,” he said. “Most of the inquiries I get can be solved using technology or techniques that have been developed for other applications. The challenge for us is to resell and repackage existing solutions.” “As the only academic in the room, I must disagree – you need fundamental research,” said Macdonald. “A lot of innovation will come from doing what we do today but in a better way. Clyde Space’s Seahawk spacecraft is a prime example of that – the previous version of that spacecraft was 500kg, but the one they’ve built now is 4kg.” “There’s an ebb and flow in small companies; you innovate then commercial then commoditise then you have to innovate again,” said Lee.

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“One of the things we can do as a Scottish industry is find a way to maximise our collective presence at international venues and forums” “That’s the cycle we’re in – we’ve not stopped innovating, we’re just on hiatus here.” He said academic institutions needed to innovate when small businesses were busy commercialising and commoditising. He said the same was true when it came to being evangelists for the space sector. McIntyre argued that staff will leave some of the existing companies to setup their own businesses. Lee countered that it would be much harder for them to do so in the present climate. “We’ve started a policy of third-party partnerships to try to support people setting up their businesses,” he added. “A key part of this is how do we bring business into this high street,” McIntyre added. “Shaping my business has come from being out in places like Houston, Washington, Mexico and the Middle East talking to people and getting feedback. That’s what triggers the innovation. “One of the things we can do as a Scottish industry is find a way to maximise our collective presence at international venues and forums. Every bit of feedback can be a new trigger for innovation or piece of business. We’ve got to promote that high street.” Dave Townsley, BQ’s group account director and a director of the North East Satellite Applications Catapult Centre of Excellence, asked what were some of the barriers to promoting Scotland’s space sector on a global

scale. Macdonald replied with an example of an American company he’d met at a conference, which had come over to visit sites in England. “Coming to Scotland had not been mentioned to them, so myself and a colleague from the UK Astronomy Technology Centre sat with them for half an hour and gave them a hard sales pitch for Scotland, which resulted in them cancelling a trip to Germany to visit Glasgow instead. They’ll be back in the country shortly. “I don’t want to sound like the Scot with a chip on his shoulder, but why had the UK Space Agency only mentioned locations in the south of England to them?” he added. Lee pointed to an upcoming deal for Astrosat with a company in Indonesia, which was introduced to him by a member of the GlobalScot network. “We need to leverage networks like that,” he said. “I like the high street analogy,” said Venters. “But if the industry’s forecasted growth is right then I don’t see a collection of business plans from companies operating in Scotland today that will generate that level of growth. “It’s not just about the number of companies on the high street – or in the emerging cities – it’s about how do you scale-up the companies that are already here. What I fear is this high street of companies being taken out by investors waiting in the wings for the day when commercial

returns are available from this market. “I don’t see a clear plan that helps us to understand how we can support scaling up. I see too many requests for too many different things.” Townsley asked: “Will this growth come from establishing a lot of satellite-enabled service companies or will it come from getting out into other industries and getting companies to think about the possibilities of using satellite data to innovate within their businesses? For example, when you go to local authorities and talk to them about space technology then it goes over their heads, but when you give them real-life examples of how space data can be used then it leads to the lightbulb moment.” Lee said: “Engineers are terrible sales people. We need to market ourselves like other industries do. Collectively, it’s going to cost a lot of money, but marketing will be the key to getting people to come to Scotland.” “If we look at Malcolm’s example of why that company was looking at England then it’s because of the cluster of space companies at Harwell, which has a globally-established brand,” offered McIntyre. “We need to realise the simplicity of that concept and establish an element of that in Scotland. Until we have that brand in place to take people to it – wherever that may be, and I have ideas – then it’s hard to create that single concept of what it means to come to Scotland.” Young said: “In terms of the high street analogy, we’re not Tesco and don’t have aspirations to be Tesco. There’s a paradox here – the commercial reality is that the companies

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around the table are individual companies and their self-interest has to come first. Contributing to the health of the wider space sector comes second – that’s the reality. “It’s a bit of a cliché, but the Scottish space sector has to work out what it’s going to be famous for. You have to develop a compelling story that says ‘This is Scotland’ and ‘This is what we’re good at’ and ‘This is why you should come and speak to us’.” Lee said: “Richard is the first person to put that down on paper with his agile plan. This agile end-to-end solution is what we should market. It happens in other countries.” Venters introduced the concept of ‘wolfpack marketing’, which is used by Causeway Aero in Northern Ireland to promote the aeronautics sector. “Membership of that organisation is based on non-competition, but the member companies actively market each other collectively and they make sure market intelligence is shared,” he explained. “It’s possible that something like this could be part of the way to get the scaling up we all want to have.” Lee said it sounded like putting a “wrapper” around what the industry does, while Norrie said it was about “professionalising” what the industry does. “It’s about being able to respond quickly to inquiries,” he added. “You wouldn’t want to restrict it to Scotland if you wanted best-of-breed.” “This is a business problem rather than a technical problem,” Williamson pointed out. “If this was a company and we were all departments then this would be the equivalent of having a bi-annual strategy session over dinner. “Collaborating in sales and marketing is easy. Proper strategy sessions is where the investment is needed.” “You’ve got the right scale here in Scotland,” said Baldwin. “There’s a stronger space presence in Scotland than there is in Harwell – it’s just not sold as a brand. Through Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, you could take a much more strategic approach into how the sector engages with other sectors to take advantage of the market opportunities that have been identified – and take the leadership across the UK.” Lee asked: “How did you create the Harwell brand?”

“The Scottish space sector has to work out what it’s going to be famous for. You have to develop a compelling story that says ‘This is Scotland’”

Baldwin pointed to the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC), which was the forerunner of the current Satellite Applications Catapult. “There’s a perception that there’s an over-arching strategy for Harwell, but it’s not there,” he protested. Young added: “The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) gave Harwell a very strong science base.” Lee pointed to the vision of Richard Holdaway, the director of RAL Space. McIntyre highlighted the number of very good sales people at Harwell who were out promoting the brand. “When people come in, they get a

sharp service; there’s no lack of speed,” he said. “That’s driven by coordination on the ground and not direction from above,” Baldwin offered. “The Harwell cluster is not a directed cluster.” Hacai said: “It was rooted in the science that was already there. We have that in Scotland – we have world-class research capabilities, which can drive through to the skills we need for industry.” “We need to make the decision about whether we’re going to go for it – and whether it’s going to be centred around the Higgs Centre for Innovation in Edinburgh or the Technology &

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Innovation Centre in Glasgow,” Lee suggested. “It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” argued Hacai. Tipper said: “Before we ask the government to step in with money we need to have a clear message. You can then put it out through your networks – not just your CEOs, but also your sales and marketing teams. I would like Scottish Enterprise to help reinforce that, but there’s a lot that the industry can do for itself. “Harwell has strengths but Scotland has different strengths that will appeal to other people. If you go to Harwell to do a project then you need a very big chequebook – in Scotland you can get something going and have a different kind of discussion.” “How do we facilitate that then?” asked Venters. “Every company I meet with gives me a different view of what the future of the industry looks like. What’s missing is clarity on the voice of the industry for Scotland. If it’s about agile service, if that’s the message and everybody can get on board with that, then we’re sitting ready to support that.” “Agile end-to-end – that might be our unique selling point,” suggested Lee. “We need to collaborate and come together more as an industry and be clear on what the strategy is going to be and have a discussion about marketing the brand,” summarised Rieley. “Take Scotland Food & Drink for example – they get the branding right. They’ve upped the reputation for Scotland internationally. Is that something we could do?” “Scotland Food & Drink is a perfect example of where we want to go if we were building that marketing presence,” agreed Sampson. “Our engineering heritage is something to be excited about.” “Has anyone around the table been in a situation where they’ve created a brand like this?” asked Lee. Young said: “ISIC was the precursor for the Catapult. It was a group of people and became a membership organisation – that was the key to it. We all had to put money into it, along with assets, intellectual property and people that could all be used.” “I’m in,” declared Lee. “If someone puts it together then I’ll put in the first £25,000 membership fee.” Hacai said: “The idea of the cluster is really strong so that should be part of the selling

point for Scotland.” “Scotland Food & Drink is a good example because it focuses on promoting the industry worldwide and doesn’t get involved in developing new products or processes or anything like that,” said Venters. “It’s a marketing and sales operation on behalf of the industry. “A lot of these things start being publiclyfunded but they need to become self-sufficient over time. The issue is this sector is relatively small, so the price per capita for each company would be relatively high.” Gordon rounded off the debating by asking where the Scottish space sector would be in 2020? “All the major geographical universities around the world will have one of our Earth observation laboratories,” says Tipper. “That will have resulted in three or four constellations of satellites being built by Clyde Space being put up there, with technology inputs from a range of other Scottish companies.” Rieley said: “We want Spire to keep growing and internationalising and coming up with ideas for how it can use data to solve big problems. We want international markets to ‘Think of space and think of Scotland’.” “I want Scotland’s space sector to be known throughout Scotland and known throughout the world,” added Norrie. “Three years from now, I’ll be waiting for Stuart to bring some kind of spaceplane back to Prestwick to get a payload installed from Clyde Space and ATC because I need it up there real

quick because Richard needs some forestry stuff figured out and I’ve got some disasters stuff that needs dealing with,” said Lee. “In three years, Clyde Space looks like a global network of SME-sized subsidiary companies feeding a large manufacturing centre in Scotland,” predicted Sampson. “We’ll see Scotland reproduce what Estonia has done with its internet technology – Scotland will be ‘the’ place in Europe for new ideas and there will be substantially more start-ups growing,” said Macdonald. “At least some of the people around this table will be running ‘unicorns’ – billion dollar companies – which will then feed back into the ecosystem to create the next generation of companies.” “It’s not unreasonable to multiply Scotland’s space revenues by 1.5 or two times,” said Young. “On a company note, we may finally make our long-talked about investment here in Scotland.” Bacai said: “I would like SoXSA to be delivering key solutions into those industry areas like offshore renewables and oil and gas that will take up the slack and allow people like Astrosat and Ecometrica to go through their commercialisation stages while we drive innovation.“We’ll be an operational aviation business supplying global logistics to the space sector and other aerospace players, with a foothold in upwards of half-a-dozen spaceports and a core location in the UK,” said McIntyre. “We’ll be in the early stages of testing an indigenous small payload launch capability” Slaughter said; “I’d like to see a satellite built in Scotland, launched from Scotland, with data being used by companies in Scotland to provide global services.” Williamson said: “By 2020, I’d like to see all the lobbying I’m doing of HM Revenue & Customs and the Treasury leading to a skewing of the benefit from R&D tax relief so that perhaps for every pound you invest in R&D you get £1.50 back.” “The UK will have a network of globallyrecognised space clusters – it’s not just Harwell, it’s Scotland, it’s the South-East, it’s the NorthEast, it’s wherever – and those clusters work effectively both as units and together to grow the UK economy,” said Baldwin. “I would love to see the majority of Scottish schoolkids clambering to work in the Scottish space industry,” smiled Venters. n

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Step inside the ideas factory

Chief executive Steve Lee founded Astrosat as an ‘ideas factory’ to take data from space and use it to solve problems back on Earth, writes Karen Peattie It’s still dark and Steve Lee, en route to Oxford from Musselburgh, is languishing on the M6 motorway, hoping things start moving soon so he can fill up at the next service station. “I wish I could find a solution in space to keep the traffic moving,” he laughs. “Seriously, though, we left at 1.30am and there’s a real danger we’re going to run out of petrol.” Lee, chief executive at Astrosat, is heading south of the Border for a meeting. His travelling companion is the East Lothian firm’s chief technical officer, Alan McLarney, so the conversation is in no danger of drying up – unlike the fuel. Asked why the pair are on the road rather than in the air, he deduces that – given the time it would take to get to Edinburgh, wait for the flight, hope it’s on time, fly to Heathrow or Birmingham then hire a car – “it’s much easier this way and in theory shouldn’t take any longer”. Astrosat – or Stevenson Astrosat (Astro Science and Technology) to give the company its Sunday name – is a bit of an upstart in the space technology world, and has turned the industry on its head in much the same way that BrewDog has with beer. To do that, however, requires a considerable amount of travelling – “one of the downsides” – and it involves Lee spending long periods of time away from his wife and son. Established almost five-and-a-half years ago, Astrosat is essentially an ‘ideas factory’ that specialises in taking data

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“We’re driven by the belief that every problem has a space solution. We are problem solvers and go out into the world to find a way to use space technology to solve a particular problem.”

gathered by satellites and creating something that can be used commercially across a broad spectrum of industries. “We’re driven by the belief that every problem has a space solution,” says Lee, an astrophysics graduate from the University of Edinburgh. “We are problem solvers and go out into the world to find a way to use space technology to solve a particular problem.” Lee makes it sound simple. “Space is the nuts and bolts of our toolkit,” he goes on. “Space is a service like software is a service. We merge satellite and ground-based data to provide valuable information to a wide range of sectors. It all starts with ideas.” His back story is a well-trodden one and his telling of it colourful, from playing gigs in the local pub to help him through university and fund a technology start-up back in 2003. “When I left university, there was nothing happening in the space industry and the European Space Agency (ESA) wasn’t recruiting,” says Lee. “I’d already decided that academia wasn’t for me and I was thinking about joining the RAF and becoming a helicopter pilot.” Instead, Lee went to Boston where he set up a geo-spatial mapping company. After selling his part of the business he came back to the UK but still found a “desert of a space industry”. Falling back on his music – he’s an accomplished guitarist and fan of country and western – he played gigs again. “Then I met my wife and life started to get serious,” he says. “What I really wanted to do was start using my physics and to do that I had to launch my own company. Round about that time, the space industry was waking up and

looking for new thinkers and innovative start-ups to work with. ESA opened up access to satellites so with my credit cards and gigging I set up Astrosat to develop commercial astronautics, space technology and Earth observation products. “My wife became pregnant around the same time so there was a lot going on and I won’t say it wasn’t stressful,” he recalls. “She told me to get a move on and get the company started before my son was born and we did that with a couple of months to spare. We managed to buy some data and get things up and running – and even make some money. There was no looking back.” That data – thermal information that morphed into ThermCERT, a carbon emission reduction spin-out – was a pivotal point for Astrosat, sending out the message loud and clear that this small Musselburgh-based entity was capable of making a major contribution to the space industry. ThermCERT uses space-based technology to plan and track investment in heating systems, a technology described as “a thermal and hyperspectral Google Street View”. ThermCERT went on to win ESA recognition in the form of the prestigious Copernicus Award. It’s been developed and demonstrated through ESA contracts and is on the verge of some very exciting commercial success. Astrosat has continued on its stellar prizewinning trajectory with other major ESA Masters Awards for its products WaveCERT, WinterVision and RoadTask, along with the 2015 Copernicus Masters Smart Cities and Intelligent Transport Challenge, sponsored by the Satellite Applications Catapult, for its eXude urban flood monitoring application.

The eXude system provides an advanced flood-monitoring tool that makes use of the latest in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and radar altimetry data-processing techniques for flood identification and mapping, including in urban areas. Coupled with the ability to receive additional data sets, the system provides information on drainage capabilities and hazard assessment, or infrastructure failures within flood management infrastructures, both during events and in post-event analysis. Last year and for the foreseeable future, the company has stopped competing for awards and is instead sponsoring the prestigious Copernicus Masters annual competition, setting an end-to-end challenge for contestants. After much deliberation, the eventual winner was the National Space Centre in Ireland, which came up with a proposed sensor suite designed to monitor seaweed growth, entitled Seaweed Crop Assurance, Monitoring, Prospecting, & Ecological Resource (SCAMPER) management. In 2015, the UK Space Agency awarded Astrosat one of seven contracts to work with international partners to develop satellite technology in emerging economies. The Recovery and Protection in Disaster (RAPID) involves working with partners including the Vietnam Ministry of Science & Technology. The system provides a vital link between critical satellite imaging information and ‘in the field’ emergency responders making crucial decisions during and in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Huge amounts of data are produced by satellites that can be used to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural disasters – not only the direct threats to the general public’s immediate safety but also the damaging effects

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“Much of what we do involves working with other partners – that’s what makes things happen, when you all throw your ideas into the mix”

on a nation’s economy in the aftermath. RAPID is designed to get this information to where it is needed and to who needs it, allowing the right decisions to be made in order to protect lives and get the local economy working as soon as possible after an event. Along with the other six projects, it was funded through the UK Space Agency’s International Partnerships Space Programme (IPSP), and demonstrated how UK satellite or space technology can provide societal and economic benefits to countries that do not currently have such capabilities. Fast-forward to 2017 and Lee’s boyish enthusiasm hasn’t waned in the slightest. New contracts mean turnover this year will be between £4 million and £5m and the 25-strong workforce – or “crew” as Lee likes to call his team – will rise by another eight in the coming months and “probably reach around 50” by 2018. In December 2016, Astrosat was one of the youngest and ‘lesser known’ companies to win three contracts as part of the UK Space Agency’s £150m International Partnership Programme (IPP), which followed on from the IPSP pilot scheme. The programme uses people’s space knowledge and expertise to provide a sustainable, economic or societal benefit to undeveloped nations and developing economies – in other words, to address real-world problems. One of the contracts, worth £2.5m, follows on from the IPSP work, further developing RAPID in Vietnam. Under the two-and-a-half-year project, Astrosat is acting as the prime contractor and is working with Telespazio Vega, Vietnam’s Ministry of Science & Technology, and the Vietnamese Space Committee to support typhoon landfall prediction, assessment of critical infrastructure during floods, flood extend mapping, and humanitarian and disaster response situational

awareness. Another contract, FMAP, is helping to fight the illegal removal of timber from fragile rainforests in Guatemala. The £6m deal – a major coup for Astrosat, which again is acting as the prime contractor – involves the firm developing a ground-breaking “CCTV in the sky” system in partnership with UK and US-based company Earth Observation to monitor forests and detect illegal activity. Other partners in the three-year FMAP project are Deimos and Telespazio Vega, along with several organisations in Guatemala, including the Guatemalan National Forestry Institute and ARCAS, a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation formed in 1989 by a group of Guatemalan citizens who became concerned as they saw their precious natural heritage – especially their wildlife – rapidly disappearing before their eyes. The third contract is for the £11.4m EASOS project in Malaysia. Astrosat is part of a wider consortium, with its share of the project worth around £1m. There’s no doubt that Scotland’s space industry is booming. Research issued by London Economics on behalf of Scottish Enterprise has shown that Scotland has the potential to grow its role in space from a fledgling industry to a £4 billion industry by 2030, as part of the wider UK aim of quadrupling its revenues to £40bn over the same period. Lee highlights seed funding support for Astrosat in its early days from Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International and says the firm would not have been ready for big support from the UK Space Agency and ESA without it. “You can’t do it all on your own,” he points out. “Much of what we do involves working with other partners – that’s what makes things happen, when you all throw your ideas into the

mix. The space industry is like a big family and we’re very much part of that family.” Astrosat itself is also a ‘family’ with Lee and Alan McLarney long-time friends, colleagues and collaborators. McLarney specialises in astronautics and aeronautics and has an “uncanny skill for developing new concepts and products”. He leads the technical team as well as providing input into the strategic thinking and technical direction of the company. “We’ve got really wide experience in the crew, which is important because everyone has ideas and that’s what we’re about,” says Lee. “We’ve got engineers, software developers, a geoscientist, oceanographer, our Earth observation and hydrodynamics specialist – we’ve also brought in ex-armed forces personnel. Having many different people from different backgrounds is really important in any business.” With its focus on Earth observation, satellite communications and technology transfer, the company certainly needs a wide range of skills and Lee is keen to inspire the next generation of space leaders. Like others in the industry, he alludes to the “Tim Peake effect” and shares the view of others that the high-profile astronaut’s time on the International Space Station will inspire young people. Astrosat supported last year’s Careers Hive, the new project by Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF) aimed at encouraging pupils in their first three years of secondary school to take science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Lee spoke to 3,000 pupils about the opportunities available in ‘new space’ for those pursuing careers in STEM, focusing on the challenges of space faced by scientists and engineers in a booming industry. “It’s getting the message across that space isn’t just about walking on the Moon and finding

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life on Mars,” he points out. “Space can have an impact on us every day in areas that seem quite ordinary, from switching on the TV to making a phone call. Our work can benefit local authorities, emergency services, environmental agencies, power stations and infrastructures operators. “Earth observation can be a highly useful tool for smart decision-making,” he continues. “When you know what is happening, even in the most remote locations, decisions that save a lot money can be made. With satellite communications you can find solutions to all sorts of problems on Earth and technology transfer helps identify

technologies that can be used commercially for everyone’s benefit, particularly when it comes to helping undeveloped nations and developing economies. “Space is amazing,” he goes on. “It really isn’t rocket science – we’re solving problems by finding solutions in space for bolstering the long-term infrastructure of our energy, transport and communications systems, tracking climate change. I’m only just scratching the surface. “We love science and it’s really satisfying to be able to do what we love and be at the forefront of the space industry – and still be based in Scotland.” n

“Space can have an impact on us every day in areas that seem quite ordinary, from switching on the TV to making a phone call”

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Listening from space Theresa Condor, the Glasgow-based executive vice president of corporate development at Spire Global, explains to BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe how satellites in space are changing lives back on Earth “I’m pretty sure my parents think I’m dead,” says Tin Lin Tun, a 25-year-old enslaved fisherman rescued from a vessel off the coast of Indonesia. He is one of more than 2,000 fishermen saved in the country’s waters during a period of just six months in 2015 – and he has tracking technology to partly thank for his freedom. Human trafficking and forced labour are directly tied to the US$23.5bn (£18.5bn) illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing industry, which affects every sea and ocean on the planet. Spire Global, a satellite-powered data company based in San Francisco, is tracking the movements of fishing boats in order to help the authorities with enforcement. “We have the largest ship-tracking network of nanosatellites in orbit,” explains Theresa Condor, executive vice president of corporate

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development and a member of the board at Spire. “We collect data where no-one else can. “The information we assemble can only be collected by nanosatellites. Our users need it on a global basis in high volume. “We perform many of the tasks involved with designing, building and operating nanosatellites, but at the end of the day we provide a data service to customers. We collect our data by ‘listening’ to the Earth through radio frequency signals, as opposed to ‘looking’ at the Earth by observing visual images or ‘talking’ to the Earth through communication satellites. “The type of data we collect is for areas of the world that are covered by the oceans or are remote. That means ship tracking, plane tracking and weather data.” Condor has been working with Spire since its earliest days. The company was founded in 2012 by chief executive Peter Platzer, payload architect Jeroen Cappaert and technical architect Joel Spark. The trio met at the International Space University in France and launched the business through Lemnos Labs, a technology incubator in San Francisco. The idea for the company grew from the thesis that Platzer wrote for his master’s degree, which involved looking at the business ecosystem for nanosatellites. “Nanosatellites are on an exponential technology curve and there’s a gap between people’s perception of the capabilities of nanosatellites and their actual capabilities,” says Condor. “Looking at that gap, there’s a business opportunity in there.” Condor joined the company in 2013, having been involved informally with the creation of the business. She was part of the team that raised some of the early seed funding for the business and in recruiting some of its first customers. Having cut her teeth on microfinance initiatives in Bangladesh and shipping in the Mediterranean, Condor joined Citibank in New York where she worked in trade finance for emerging markets in Latin America. Her role involved financing the commodities and goods

“Access to talent is crucial for us and so we were attracted to Glasgow because it has great universities and great engineering universities”

that were loaded onto ships and sent around the world. “One of the things we do at Spire is shiptracking, so we’re tracking a lot of the goods that I was financing at Citibank,” says Condor. “I know from my time at Citibank how difficult it could be to get accurate information about what’s happening out on the oceans.” Since those early days, the company has grown and now has four offices – in Boulder, Glasgow, San Francisco and Singapore – and around 115 members of staff. All the firm’s spacecraft are manufactured and tested in Glasgow, where the company has recently expanded into larger facilities at Skypark, the business centre in the city’s trendy Finnieston district, with about 40 engineers, satellite operators and business development staff working in the office. “Within six months of joining the company, I was already travelling the world and it became clear very early on that we would need a presence in Europe and in Asia,” Condor remembers. “Access to talent is crucial for us and so we were attracted to Glasgow because it has great universities and great engineering universities. “Engineers are a scarce resource in Silicon Valley. Having multiple locations gives us access to the best people anywhere in the world. “When we looked at Glasgow, we were impressed with the space infrastructure that already existed within Scotland and the UK and the speed with which other companies in the space sector interacted with us. Our staff love living in Glasgow too. “We want to get even more involved with the community in Scotland and want to create more jobs here. Everyone focuses on what goes on in

Silicon Valley but there are amazing things going on in the UK and Europe too. “Diversity is really important to Spire. We have a lot of women in senior positions and we want to encourage more women to think about careers on both the engineering and the business development sides. “Engineering is still a very male-dominated environment, as is Wall Street, where I came from. But, having been at Spire since the beginning, I think there are lots of opportunities for women to get involved with our company.” Condor points to the impact that satellite data has on people’s lives around the world, whether it’s tracking ships and aircraft or using nanosatellites to follow storms or assemble other weather data. Weather-related disasters cost US$95bn a year, highlighting the need for accurate forecasts. When it comes to shipping, ground-based monitoring systems can usually only track boats within 50 miles of port. Working with the existing hardware already installed on most vessels, Spire’s nanosatellites can track ships’ movements far out at sea, collecting data on their identity, position and heading. Oceans, deserts and other inhospitable places cover around three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, highlighting the opportunities available to Spire. Further international expansion lies ahead of the company. “Operating on a global basis – whether it’s working in our offices around the world or working with our customers around the world – is what excites me most about working with Spire,” adds Condor. “I’ve never been more optimistic or excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for our business. n

INSIGHT Spire

Making global connections Spire Global brand director Nick Allain gives BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe an insight into why Scotland benefits from being connected to the worldwide space industry

INSIGHT Spire

Few parts of the economy can claim to have such a global influence as the space industry. Sending satellites into orbit and then using the data they collect to solve everyday problems back on Earth touches the lives of people living throughout the world. Scotland is developing a growing reputation within the space industry, from the manufacturing firms that build nanosatellites through to the service companies that harvest and analyse the resulting data. But how does Scotland benefit from being plugged into such an international industry? “When a company establishes an office in a new country, it brings with it its connections and any future connections that it makes,” explains Nick Allain, brand director at Spire Global, a San Francisco-based satellite-powered data company that opened a major base in Glasgow in 2015. “Spire provides access to a new form of realtime global data that will be critical to ships, weather forecasting, and plane tracking for the next decade or more. “It simply won’t be possible to make good decisions in those industries without it. That data, coming from satellites built here in Glasgow, connects Scotland to every vessel, every weather report, and every flight.” Spire’s 40 members of staff in Glasgow are involved in many stages of the company’s operations. Its engineers assemble the nanosatellites that it uses and then puts them through their paces with a barrage of tests before they’re launched into orbit. “It’s not just jobs we bring – although that’s certainly part of it,” says Allain. “The talent available in Glasgow has been excellent. People work hard here.” Satellite controllers are also based in the city, along with business development staff. The company has been so impressed with the quality of the work produced by its Scottish team that it recently invested in larger office space and a testing lab in the city, utilising Skypark, a business centre in Glasgow’s hip Finnieston district. The company was attracted to Scotland after working in partnership with Clyde Space, which makes cubesats. Spire received a £1.5m grant from Scottish Development International, economic agency Scottish Enterprise’s overseas arm, to help it set up its base in Glasgow.

“Co-locating with Clyde Space has undoubtedly been great for both companies,” admits Allain. “We have both grown by leaps and bounds in the past year. “From the moment Spire first started building its products, it was clear that we would need a global presence. We had vendors across Europe and customers cropped up in nearly every time zone. “The UK time zone is helpful in overlapping with our Singapore office and United States offices. It helps us as a company to ‘work globally’. “Many members of our staff have calls, meetings, or messages in the morning with Singapore and with the US teams in the afternoon. It can be very exciting to come in in the morning to find that the work didn’t stop when you left. “It really echoes the customers that operate globally as well. That kind of understanding is a huge competitive advantage. Most of Spire’s customers are outside of the UK, making us as global as any large media firm or bank.” The satellites designed and built by the team in Glasgow are used to gather weather data, giving computer models many times more information than they’ve had before. By the end of this year that figure could rise to as much as 100 times as much information. Weather forecasting is big business. Experts have calculated that the weather has US$125bn (£100bn) impact on manufacturing and that companies lose around $2.8tn each year due to bad forecasts. A series of storms and floods last winter cost the UK economy £1.3bn, according to figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), while insurer Allianz estimates that routine variations in the weather cost the European Union’s economy about a400bn (£330bn) a year. Tackling the problems associated with weather forecasting isn’t the only issue on Spire’s radar. The company – which was founded in 2012 by chief executive Peter Platzer, payload architect Jeroen Cappaert and technical architect Joel

Spark, who met at the International Space University in France – is also involved in tracking ships and aircrafts. Instead of ‘looking’ at the Earth using visible light, the firm uses radio frequency signals to “listen” to the planet. It specialises in studying the three-quarters of the world that are covered by oceans, deserts and other inhospitable places. Usually, ships can only be tracked within 50 miles of port, but Spire can follow them out into the ocean, using its nanosatellites orbiting 270 miles above the Earth’s surface. The company has the largest ship-tracking network of nanosatellites in orbit. Following the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in 2014, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is ordering most aircraft traveling over oceans to report their latitude, longitude and altitude every 15 minutes, a task that will be impossible without satellites. Building on the success of ‘Sense’, its shiptracking product, Spire is preparing to launch AirSafe, its product for tracking aircraft. The first 25 aircraft tracking equipped satellites will be sent into orbit this year, with the service due to go into operation next year. The technology behind the system is already mandatory in many countries and will be adopted in the US in 2020. Making tracking systems compulsory is designed to speed up rescue operations if a plane crashes. When Air France flight 447 went missing in 2009, the search area covered more than 600,000 square miles. Using 15-minute satellite tracking, the search grid could have been slashed to just 65,000 square miles. “Spire is interested in tackling those global problems – the kind of things that you can’t solve with a phone call or an email,” says Allain. “They aren’t solved already because they’re hard, but we love hard problems like that because they have a global impact. They take hard engineering, software, and the right business leaders.” n

“The talent available in Glasgow has been excellent. People work hard here”

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The slingshot effect The Satellite Applications Catapult is helping businesses back on Earth to harness the data collected in orbit, as chief executive Stuart Martin tells BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe Britain has some ambitious targets when it comes to growing the size of its space industry – the sector wants to more than quadruple the size of the space-related economy to £40bn by 2030, creating around 100,000 jobs and giving the country a 10% share of the global market. And Stuart Martin is at the sharp end of turning those dreams into reality. As chief executive of the Satellite Applications Catapult, Martin and his team aren’t just helping to create more companies in the space sector but are also allowing businesses from throughout the economy to harness satellite data. He’s undaunted by the lofty ambitions laid out for the industry. “We’re on course to hit those targets,” he smiles. “The industry has grown by high singledigit or low double-digit percentages over the past six years, including in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.” His comments are supported by the latest data from the UK Space Agency. The biannual figures showed that the UK’s space-related economy grew by 6.5% between 2012-13 and 2014-15 and now has combined revenues of £13.7bn, adding £5.1bn of gross value to the UK economy. It’s not just a numbers game for Martin though. He’s passionate about the way that British companies can use the data being gathered in space to help improve life back down on Earth. Some of Martin’s first memories are of the Moon landings and the experience inspired him to pursue a career in the space industry. He spent 20 years with technology company Logica, latterly running its international space business, which gave him an insight into how Britain’s

overseas competitors operate. “The way the UK is growing its space sector is unique,” he says. “It’s different from how any other country is doing it. “Even the United States is interested in how we are using data from satellites to grow our wider economy. They think there are lessons that they can learn from us. “France is also very interested in what’s happening in the UK and has quoted British examples in many of its reports. It’s even set up centres that look a little bit like our catapults.” The catapult programme was launched in 2011 by Innovate UK, formerly the Technology Strategy Board, to help British companies benefit from emerging technologies. In the past, the UK has been at the forefront of scientific research, but has not always reaped the economic benefits of harnessing its breakthroughs. As well as satellite applications, there are now a further ten catapults operating throughout the UK, covering: cell and gene therapy; compound semiconductor applications; digital; energy systems; future cities; high-value manufacturing; medicines discovery; offshore renewable energy; precision medicine; and transport systems. The Satellite Applications Catapult is based at Harwell near Didcot in Oxfordshire, at the heart of the UK’s space industry. As well as its head office, the catapult also has a network of centres of excellence spread throughout the UK, including the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), which is hosted in Glasgow by the University of Strathclyde. “The network operates more as a mesh than a traditional hub-and-spoke model,” explains Martin. “The companies can interact with the

centres of excellence or with us at Harwell and the centres can interact with each other. Our work takes three main forms – energising the market, helping space companies to interact with customers and providing business enablement. “When it comes to energising the market, we want to help explain to companies that have never thought of interacting with the space sector how using data from satellites can help their businesses. We run workshops and other events to show how satellite data can be applied in their fields. “We also help companies operating in the space sector to speak about the products and services they offer. People already working in space like to talk about terms like navigation and Earth observation and communications, but when you explain that to potential customers in terms of logistics and situational awareness then they get a much better idea of how they could use that information. “We provide business enablement through our expertise and facilities. That includes helping start-up companies to grow and explaining to venture capitalists why they should invest in the sector.” Facilities available at Harwell include an operations centre that can act as ‘ground control’ for British satellites, a ‘satcomms lab’ in which companies can develop and test their technology, and a visualisation suite for displaying and analysing data. Each of the centres of excellence is also developing specialisms, with SoXSA focusing on small satellites and the use of orbital data to help develop projects to harness offshore renewable energy.

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“The most important facilities are based on cloud computing,” explains Martin. “They’re digitally accessible from anywhere.” Those cloud-based systems include the Climate, Environment & Monitoring from Space (CEMS) facility. CEMS not only gives companies access to Earth observation and climate change data but also provides tools to help analyse that data. “There are some great space companies in Scotland,” adds Martin. “The support structures are fantastic, so it’s a great place to setup space businesses and for attracting inward investment. Especially around Glasgow and Edinburgh, there are some top-notch UK companies. “I’m convinced Scotland has a big role to play in achieving the UK’s targets. The likes of Clydespace, Astrosat and Ecometrica are playing big roles in not only building the space hardware but also harnessing the data that comes back to the ground. “The founder of Bird.i, one of the first companies to spin-out from the catapult, has chosen to base himself in Glasgow because he found the network of support from Scottish Enterprise was going to be the best to help him grow his business.” The next step in the catapult’s development is to help British companies make that leap into orbit. The catapult is buying four small satellites from Clydespace and is looking for businesses that want to use the equipment to test their technology in space, with launches pencilled in over the next two or three years. “The four satellites will help firms to prove their concepts,” says Martin. “Companies need to demonstrate that their technology works in space so that they can win orders from their customers.” n

“The way the UK is growing its space sector is unique,” he says. “It’s different from how any other country is doing it”

Making the right connections

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Space Network Scotland is bringing together business people and academics to grow the industry north of the Border, as network integrator Callum Norrie tells BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe Collaboration is one of the most exciting aspects of modern business. You never quite know what’s going to happen when you bring together business people and academics. Big companies, small companies; public sector, private sector. Mix it all together and that’s when the creative sparks fly; that’s when the exciting innovations occur. Few industries feed off collaboration more than Scotland’s flourishing space sector, with more than 100 organisations engaged in space-related activities, the highest number outside the South of England. The 67 organisations that have their headquarters in Scotland had combined income of around £130m in 2014-15, according to the latest figures from the UK Space Agency. “Collaboration is really important because of the complexity of the systems involved in designing and building satellites then putting them into orbit and harnessing the data they produce,” explains Callum Norrie, network integrator at Space Network Scotland (SNS), the body set up in May 2014 to provide a focal point and a resource for the country’s space sector. “The model for constructing a satellite involves a company that leads the build element, called the ‘prime’, and then ‘tier one’ and tier two’ companies that support the building. Each satellite has a number of sub-systems, all made up of components, and innovation occurs throughout the design and construction process. “The sector is particularly open to the flow of technologies into the sector and out of the sector, mainly because the space sector isn’t as big as, say, the automotive sector or the aviation sector.” SNS stimulates those collaborations by holding quarterly events on topics of interest to companies in the space industry, along with opportunities for networking. Collaborations don’t just happen between companies though – they can happen between entrepreneurs and academics as well. “We have a very diverse space sector in

Scotland, covering each stage of the process,” says Norrie. “They range from ‘upstream’ companies – which design and build satellites then launch them into orbit and receive the data they collect – through to ‘downstream’ businesses, which offer services and technologies that harness the data produced by satellites. Our companies in Scotland also stretch from ‘traditional’ space businesses, which provide components and equipment for large satellites that cost hundreds of millions of pounds and take ten years or more to design and build, through to ‘new’ space companies, which produce and use satellites that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and take typically two years from design to launch, which are produced by firms like Clyde Space. “There are also interesting new integrated space companies – like Spire Global and Alba Orbital in Glasgow – that both build nanosatellites and then use the data to offer services to customers that want to do things like track aircraft or ships or improve the accuracy of weather forecasts. “Our universities also span that wide range. Some of the universities specialise in the upstream area – including Glasgow, and Heriot-Watt – while Edinburgh focuses on the downstream and we also have Strathclyde and Dundee universities that cover both.” The lower costs of small satellites mean that new funding mechanisms are emerging. While traditional infrastructure was funded by government agencies, the military or telecommunications investors, the new smaller satellites can be financed by commercial entities. Over the summer of 2016, SNS moved into its ‘second stage’, with Scottish Enterprise awarding the contract to continue running the service to the existing team led by Norrie and Gillian Mayman, a former director of Connect Scotland, a business network for technology start-up companies. The team will be supported by the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA) at the University of

Strathclyde and by the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, which will provide increased help for businesses that want to use data collected from space. Top of the agenda, is to help shape the right conditions to achieve the growth and profitability for the Scottish space sector and Norrie is well-placed to do this. While working for BAE Systems, he completed his doctorate in solid state lasers at the University of St Andrews, working under Professor Wilson Sibbett, who was made a commander of the order of the British empire (CBE) in 2001 for his contributions to science and who served as chief scientific advisor to the Scottish Parliament. Calum’s work led him to join the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands as a technology transfer officer before completing a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Edinburgh. His mix of science and international experience allows him to build bridges on behalf of companies based in Scotland. “The space community in Scotland has become more integrated over the past five years, with organisations working more closely together and helping each other to identify opportunities,” adds Norrie. “As the network integrator, I’ve got a role in helping with particular projects, but my main role is to help industry help itself. “SNS is here to provide a cultural framework as much as practical advice, helping the space sector in Scotland to develop its identity. The Scottish space community is very effective and fast moving and can help customers to meet the challenges and the issues they’re facing. “Developing the space community in Scotland is not about putting up a ringfence and separating ourselves off from everyone else. In fact, it’s the exact opposite – it’s about Scotland showing the world that we can offer a whole range of products and services and that we’re connected with the best people and working to the highest standards.” n

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Beyond your imagination Satellites in orbit are changing everyday life on Earth in ways that most of us donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even realise, as Telespazio VEGA UK chief executive Peter Young tells Karen Peattie

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“There are the everyday things we all take for granted – satnav, TV, smartphones, withdrawing cash at the ATM – but the way we use space, and specifically the data from satellites, is helping the world in ways that most people wouldn’t think”

If you have a smartphone, it’s unlikely that you spend much time marvelling at its capabilities – all you want to do is make that call, send that text or check something on the internet. Not quite sure how to get to your destination? Don’t worry – satnav will get you there. Each of these tasks is possible thanks to technologies that most people take for granted. As Peter Young, chief executive at Telespazio VEGA UK, explains: “All of these – and more – rely on space technology. Space technology is having a huge impact on our lives without us realising it,” he says. “There are the everyday things we all take for granted – satnav, TV, smartphones, withdrawing cash at the ATM – but the way we use space, and specifically the data from satellites, is helping the world in ways that most people wouldn’t think.” Satellites are increasingly offering solutions that have an impact on our everyday lives in a positive way – telecommunications, navigation and meteorology are just some of them. In the same way that a smartphone beams its data directly to and from satellites orbiting the Earth, the data gleaned from satellites can be used to benefit agriculture, marine, life sciences and transport. Data can be used to make the world more energy-efficient, help make cities more sustainable and also understand climate change. Young continues: “The work we do in space has created new markets and new technologies. Not only are these impacting on the way we live our lives, they are having a major impact on the economy and creating jobs in an industry that will become even more important in the years to come.” Luton-based Young, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh, has experience in the technology, aerospace and defence industries spanning 30-plus years. He joined

VEGA Group in 2001 and, while corporate development director, was responsible for a number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Following VEGA’s acquisition by Finmeccanica in 2008, he was responsible for its integration into Finmeccanica and subsequent merger with SELEX Sistemi Integrati. As business development and strategy director of the expanded company, in 2010 he was responsible for shaping the company’s space activities to create a new entity for sale to Telespazio, a joint venture between Finmeccanica and Thales. Young was appointed chief executive of VEGA Space in 2010 and the following year took on the role of senior vice-president of Telespazio’s satellite systems business unit based in Rome. It’s an impressive CV and his skills include the ability to explain what the space exploration industries are in a very easy way. Essentially, it breaks down into two categories – upstream and downstream. Manufacturing satellites and hardware comes under the upstream umbrella, while the downstream side of the space industry is about creating applications using data collected from space. “Downstream exploits technology such as financial services – including ATMs – and telecommunications for out-of-the way places such as cruise ships,” he explains. “Despite great advances, it’s still relatively new so it’s a tremendously exciting industry to be in just now.” Young’s organisation has been concentrating on downstream technology for the past five years, building a global reputation for delivering high-value, quality systems and services. It also specialises in geographic information systems (GIS), which monitor and analyse weather systems. “We’re involved in flood mapping in the UK, for example, and using data to understand

what happens when an area floods and implementing predictive analysis to help prevent it reoccurring,” Young explains. “The same technology can be used in other parts of the world. In Malaysia, illegal foresting has caused flooding and the data from satellite technology can help us understand what actually happens and how to prevent it.” Flooding is just one of the processes that the company analyses. Checking the weather forecast may be second nature for people going about their daily business but few will fully understand that modern weather forecasting applies scientific knowledge to predict future conditions and that space technology plays a significant role in predicting weather patterns. Just a few days into 2017 the press ran a story that may well have been missed as people returned to work. It highlighted a long-running rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica that had grown suddenly in December – only a final 20 kilometres of ice now connects an iceberg one-quarter the size of Wales to its parent ice shelf. So, what does this mean? In recent years, scientists have predicted that – due to the combination of summer ice melting, annual decrease in ice extent and ice pack drift driven by wind and current – there will soon be open water at the North Pole. In due course, the Arctic will be almost completely ice-free in the summer months. Evidence shows the poles are warming much more rapidly than the rest of the world as heat-reflective ice is replaced by heat-absorbing water. Some believe the warming poles are already affecting the weather, weakening and displacing the jet stream in the northern hemisphere – and perhaps even increasing the frequency and impact of extreme weather events. However, the flip side is that the melting

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“It shows that space continues to be a key infrastructure for the UK, supporting more than £250bn of output across the economy with telecommunications, navigation, earth observation and meteorology services”

Arctic is opening new, shorter routes for sea transport – shorter journeys are more economic because they require less fuel. The retreat of the ice is also opening new areas rich in mineral resources and oil. With this comes increased human activity with the need for remote sensing services to monitor, ensure safety, protect the environment and manage assets efficiently. Telespazio VEGA UK and companies in the Telespazio group are focused on developing and providing such services. COSMO-SkyMed, for example, provides a very wide field of view and multiple revisits to the Arctic gives it an unrivalled ability to image the North Pole. In 2012, a campaign was initiated by its sister company, e-GEOS, to monitor ice movement at the pole through the Arctic summer. Telespazio VEGA UK and its partners reacted by quickly developing an educational ice-charting smartphone application and associated website, providing daily updates combining a range of ice charts, radar images and science data targeted at interested members of the public and students. Developed from conception to going live in Apple’s app store in less than two months, the North Pole Watch app captured and brought to the public a daily update of record events as they occurred. As predicted, the ice retreated beyond the record set in September 2007 – a record broken towards the end of August 2012. The ice continued to shrink until mid-September that year, not quite reaching the pole but getting within a few hundred kilometres. This was recorded on the COSMO-SkyMed images with the public able to follow updates on the app, demonstrating the power of geo-information combined with modern smartphone and tablet delivery. Telespazio VEGA UK is also involved in the European Union-funded Galileo satellite navigation programme, which – when fully operational – will provide satellite services to a

wide variety of users throughout the world. It is also working on Copernicus, described as the “most ambitious Earth observation programme to date”. The aim of Copernicus, led by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), is to provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change, and ensure civil security. It provides a unified system through which vast amounts of data are fed into a range of thematic information services designed to benefit the environment, the way we live, humanitarian needs and support effective policy-making for a more sustainable future. These services fall into six main categories: land management; the marine environment; the atmosphere; emergency response; security; and climate change. In order to highlight the importance of satellite technology, Young makes reference to a YouTube post entitled “If there were a day without satellites” which offers a thoughtprovoking message about what could happen if signals were to be lost should a major solar storm hit Earth. People can’t access satellite news, the global positioning system (GPS) satellites that assist aircraft landing fail, and fisherman find that their satellite phones no longer work, leaving them cut off and out at sea. Electronic fund transfer systems shut down, banking systems around the world fail, access to the internet is lost. The shutdown inhibits weather forecasting, and government and defence communications fail. Billions of people are affected. But, in a few days, power grids come back online. Satnav and communications systems are recovered, new satellites are launched. The world returns to normal with warfare and major outbreaks of crime averted. Could it happen?

No-one knows, of course, but the most recent statistics from the UK Space Agency demonstrate the growth of the sector and how our reliance on satellite technology is becoming increasingly important for global economies. The agency’s latest survey – it is carried out every two years – revealed that the UK space industry is now worth £13.7bn to the UK economy. Produced by London Economics and unveiled in December, the ‘Size and Health of the UK Space Industry 2016’ report represents the definitive latest source of information on the UK space sector. It shows that space continues to be a key infrastructure for the UK, supporting more than £250bn of output across the economy with telecommunications, navigation, earth observation and meteorology services. The sector is now estimated to directly employ 38,500 people. With output per worker almost three times the UK average, the sector is highly productive and has a workforce that is among the most highly skilled in the economy, with three in four employees holding at least a primary degree. Firms are also positive in their expectations for the future. Seven in 10 of those that responded expect their income to grow over the next few years, and over half expect export sales to grow. Exports are an important source of income for the sector, accounting for over one-third of revenues in 2014-15. With a range of improvements to method and more than twice as many companies responding, this latest report provides the most robust evidence yet on the main characteristics of the UK space industry and on perceived challenges and opportunities in the future. Meanwhile, Young points to Scotland as an emerging player in the space industry, bolstered by the fact that leading industry figures from around the world are gathering in Glasgow in February for the inaugural Data.Space conference to deliver insights into the latest

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innovative products and services derived from space technologies. Hosted by the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA), this two-day international conference at the Technology & Innovation Centre in Glasgow is focusing on the use of satellite data and information in developing solutions. It brings together data and service providers with users and markets to provide a key networking platforms to identify opportunities. Collaboration, suggests Young, will play a pivotal role in advancing innovation in the future with events such as this also raising awareness of potential career opportunities, inspiring the next generation of space explorers. It’s an industry that needs scientists, engineers, software developers, astrophysicists, geophysicists, geologists – the list goes on. The nation was gripped when Major Tim Peake became the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station, launching in December 2015 and returning to Earth last June. During his six-month stint in space, he conducted a spacewalk to repair the station’s power supply, drove a rover across a simulated Mars terrain from space and helped dock two spacecraft. Peake also took part in numerous experiments for ESA and international partners with highlights including using the space station airlock to study his lungs, monitoring his sleeping patterns to learn how humans adapt to life without normal daylight, and recording how many calories he consumed to prepare for missions further from Earth. And who can forget him ‘running’ the London marathon from space on a treadmill? Peake’s adventure certainly grabbed the headlines, in much the same way that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did when they walked on the Moon in 1969, inspiring youngsters to discover more about ‘what

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lies out there’ and learn about space in what became known as the ‘Apollo effect’. A team from the University of York will be monitoring the impact of Peake’s high-profile mission. But will there be a ‘Tim Peake effect’? According to Young, the fact that a British astronaut has completed a successful mission can only be a good thing for the space industry. “He did a lot important scientific experiments and the mission received worldwide recognition,” Young points out. “If the UK can tap into that and if companies can benefit from the spin-off then it is definitely worth taxpayers’ money. Look at how engaged schoolchildren were with the mission – it’s also about inspiring the next generation and, while I’m not sure if we’ll see the ‘Tim Peake effect’, we’re certainly already seeing an upsurge in interest in schools. Ask kids what excites them and the answer usually includes dinosaurs and space. “Scotland’s universities have a world-renowned

reputation and that, in turn, creates a highlyqualified workforce with the skills our industry needs.” Back on the ground, Prestwick airport in Ayrshire has edged closer to securing a spaceport after signing a memorandum of understanding with California-based space launch vehicle designer XCOR Aerospace and space plane design and operating company Orbital Access. It has also signed a formal partnership agreement with Houston Spaceport. Other sites, including Campbeltown on the west coast of Scotland and Newquay in Cornwall, are also interested. The UK Government wants to establish an operational commercial spaceport by 2018. “Geographically Scotland is ideally positioned for this because it offers very good remote sites away from centres of population,” says Young. “It all adds to the interest around the space industry and the way companies are collaborating.” n

“While I’m not sure if we’ll see the ‘Tim Peake effect’, we’re certainly already seeing an upsurge in interest in schools. Ask kids what excites them and the answer usually includes dinosaurs and space”

Scotland: Scotland: More space than you can Scotland:

More space than you can possibly imagine. More space than you can possibly imagine. possibly imagine.

You’ll be in good company in Scotland with companies like STAR-Dundee, Clyde Space, Spire Global, Mapix Technologies, TomTominSoftware, Chemring Energetics UK, Harris Caprock andSpire COMGlobal, DEV. You’ll be in good company Scotland with companies like STAR-Dundee, Clyde Space, You’ll be in good company in Scotland with companies like STAR-Dundee, Clyde Space, Spire Global, Mapix Technologies, TomTom Software, Chemring Energetics UK, Harris Caprock and COM DEV. www.scottish-enterprise.com Mapix Technologies, TomTom Software, Chemring Energetics UK, Harris Caprock and COM DEV.

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