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Start-ups Using Space Tech to Tackle Climate Change
It’s World Space Week 2024 and this year’s theme centres on space and climate change.
While not always obvious, space science and space technology play a key role in helping us understand and act against climate change.
ESA BIC UK is proud to support an array of space start-ups whose innovations are helping to collect climate critical data in our oceans, reduce carbon emissions in the shipping industry, and support a smarter, greener aviation industry, to name just a few impacts.
Revolutionising Access to Climate-Critical Ocean Data – Oshen
Oshen is revolutionising ocean data collection by developing autonomous micro-vessels, enabling the collection of Met-Ocean and environmental data in a way that replaces traditional approaches such as sensors and buoys which can often become lost or damaged at sea, relaying limited or inaccurate information.
Designed to work in networked fleets, the 1-metre scale of these self-navigating micro-vessels enables en-masse deployment to capture high-density, climate-critical data across diverse environments, providing data on areas such as the sea state, water quality, meteorological activity, and sea and bird life.
Oshen joined the ESA BIC UK programme at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory in November 2022 and continue to take the industry by storm.
Find out more about Oshen on their website.
Reducing Carbon Emissions in the Shipping Industry – Smart Green Shipping (SGS)
Smart Green Shipping (SGS) is using space technology to develop new methods of propulsion for commercial vessels, in order to reduce fossil fuel consumption and meet the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) target to cut emissions by 50% by 2050.
SGS aims to build 100% renewable powered ships by using their knowledge in retrofitting its marine engineering solutions such as ‘FastRigs’ – intelligent, autonomous wingsails onto existing ships, and their satellite derived digital prediction, measurement, and monetisation platform ‘TradeWind’, prototyped with the ESA BIC UK.
Smart Green Shipping are a graduate of the ESA BIC UK, having joined back in 2019 working with STFC’s additive manufacturing facility and ESA BIC UK alumni Gazooky Studios.
Read the case study to find out more about how we supported SGS.
Supporting Smarter and Greener Aviation – Satavia
SATAVIA are making aviation ‘smarter’ and greener by providing environmental data and analytics that can be used by aircraft operators, manufacturers, and maintenance companies to reduce damage to aircraft engines and components.
Its DecisionX platform enables operators to modify flight plans to extend engine lifetimes, and manufacturers to optimise engine performance and maintenance operations, saving millions of pounds per engine and reducing carbon emissions.
Satavia are a graduate of the ESA BIC UK, having originally joined at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) on the Harwell Campus.
Read the case study to find out more about how we supported Satavia in their innovation journey.
What is ESA BIC UK?
We provide the support and funding that start-up companies need to turn their ideas into profitable products and services using space technology, or to develop technologies for use in space.
Other benefits of the programme include:
- A cash incentive for developing your business of over £59,000
- Access to STFC’s test facilities, laboratories/workshops, and technical expertise, including up to 40 hours of expert support and 40 hours per year of access to lab facilities
- Hands-on business development support/advice
- Access to a range of funding, investment, networking and collaboration opportunities.
Interested in the programme? Our next application round will open in early 2025. Follow us on LinkedIn and X to stay up to date with programme announcements.
Sources:
How space science can help us combat climate change – UKRI
Oshen | Remote Ocean Sensing (oshensail.com)
From sea to space: Oshen – European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre UK (esa-bic.org.uk)
