One of the Earth Observation highlights from Space4Climate members at the UK Space Conference was the arrival of the first satellite images from Open Cosmos’s Mantis satellite.
Launched on November 11th it took just 9 days for the first quality images to arrive, just in time for the opening of the conference in Belfast on Tuesday, November 20th.
The image, of the landscape north of Los Angeles, was displayed on Open Cosmos’s stand, alongside a model of Mantis. Open Cosmos, based on Harwell Space Campus, in Oxfordshire, is building a global, shared EO satellite infrastructure – OpenConstellation – which gives customer organisations of all sizes access to data from up to three satellites covering a defined geographical area, via its cloud-based platform, DataCosmos. More satellites are in the pipeline for OpenConstellation.
The conference was held at the International Conference Centre, November 21st-23rd, with a wide range of exhibitors and a busy programme of plenaries, panels and showcases.
Space4Climate Climate Services Development Manager, Krupa Nanda Kumar, joined a panel led by Professor Anu Ojha OBE, of the UK Space Agency with Rushanka Amrutkar, of the Environment Agency, Kristina Tamane, University of Edinburgh and Martin Coates, founder of Orbex to discuss how developments in Space can make a step change for a sustainable planet?
In a constructive debate, supported by audience questions and comments, Krupa said: “The industry realises that they cannot be part of the problem they are trying the solve… the consciousness and willingness are definitely there.” She went on to add that communicating the part that satellites play in managing climate change is crucial, adding: “There is no climate science without satellite data and we’re taking that message to COP28.”
Rushanka said: “Using Earth Observation provides information for sustainable decisions and policies on the ground, providing visual displays based on satellite imagery and using EO to follow compliance and regulatory requirements, leading to better farming practices.”
Kristina suggested there is a ‘public misunderstanding’ of space infrastructure and stressed the need to explain the impact of satellites in the context of the impact of data gathered by planes and lidar. Martin, referencing the compromises that Orbex had to reach in developing its inland spaceport, commented: “There is a need for a level playing field, wider than our sector.”
Space4Climate’s new version of the S4C App displayed on the PufferTouch interactive display globe was previewed on the Space Park Leicester stand, ahead of its official launch at COP28 in United Arab Emirates on November 30th.
Other announcements were made to coincide with the conference including:
- Open Cosmos also celebrated the announcement that it will build a new pathfinder satellite for the Atlantis Constellation, with £3m funding from the UK Space Agency. It will further strengthen the UK’s national capabilities in Earth observation technology and complement the UK’s contributions to the EU Copernicus programme, European Space Agency and bilateral missions.
- It also announced by the UK Space Agency that the Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) has awarded more than £47m for 12 projects which will be doubled by match funding from the sector.
- And as part of the Autumn Statement, the Government committed to increasing UK subscriptions to four ESA EO programmes (FutureEO, TRUTHS, InCubed & GDA) with a total value of £41.71m.
- S4C Board members Telespazio UK celebrated their acquisition of UK space systems engineering and consultancy group, e2E, who also had a stand at the conference.
