The UK Space Centre, Leicester provided an extremely cool venue for this week’s Ignite Space event. Bringing together the UK’s most innovative space-focused SMEs and academic institutions, this event has already proved itself to be hugely popular.
The event, which is free to attend for delegates, enables small businesses to engage with new customers, collaborators and investors in the UK space industry and its supply chain. This provided an opportunity for companies focused on space to shine and showcase an industry worth over £17.5bn to the UK economy. And if you needed proof of the booming industry it is, Ignite Space was the place to get it.
Helen Reynolds
Account Manager, Radical Moves Ltd
Thought Provoking Addresses
On both days, the keynotes gave plenty of food for thought. Day one saw UK Space Agency Deputy CEO, Chris White-Horne, give a thoughtful and inspiring talk on the importance of space in our day to day lives.
He touched on so many different aspects of how space is intrinsically interwoven into the way we live, work and play. He reassured the audience of the fact that the new government does realise the relevance of space and acknowledges that investment in the sector is essential. He reinforced the UK Space Agency’s commitment to supporting SMEs so that they can access opportunities across sectors and feed into a vibrant ecosystem where small and medium enterprises can thrive.
He also promoted the importance of work-life balance and highlighted the progressive attitude taken by the Space Agency. In his current position, he job-shares with Deputy CEO, Annalise Look, giving him the opportunity to pursue his other passion as a music teacher (and he talked about the plastic trombone he would take into space!).
On day 2, Professor Suzie Imber, Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester, was on hand to deliver an inspiring talk on how satellites are being used in our everyday life, from tracking fishing boats to measuring the heights of mountains, fueling her own passion of mountaineering. She also talked about how the space industry is benefitting from the sharing of technology from other sectors, such as Formula 1, where carbon fibre is being used to house space instruments so that they are much lighter, easier and more cost-effective to transport into space. Her next mission will see Suzie involved in the development of a probe that will travel to Venus to enable us to understand more about the planet.
Highlighting the Important Issues
Sustainability was a key theme that ran through the entire event. Our orbits are becoming increasingly crowded with satellites and their associated debris that has accumulated since we first started sending up artificial satellites in the 1950s.
During SpaceBar Live, Dr Marco Rocchetto, CEO of Spaceflux and Mike Curtis-Rouse, Head of ISAM at the Satellite Applications Catapult, had a fascinating discussion that raised the question of where we are heading if the issue of space debris and SSA is not tackled now. Topics covered during the session included the responsibility of government in the management of space situational awareness (SSA) and the challenge of in-space manufacturing and whether this could be part of the solution.
A Booming Exhibition
A grand total of 61 companies took to the exhibit floor at Ignite Space this year, some for the first time. Many were dedicated space companies that are developing technology and solutions specifically for the space market, but it struck us that there were numerous companies that felt that their product or service crossed over into the space sector and were exploring what opportunities were open to them.
There was some fascinating new technology on show including New Orbit that is developing satellites that fly at Ultra Low Earth orbits, 180km above the earth’s surface and therefore offering higher performance for applications such as sharper image capture, data transmission and access to new layers of atmospheric data.
On the ground segment side, there were also some highly innovative start-ups such as Satraka that has developed a market-disruptive and patent-pending technology for user terminals to track NGSO satellites, as well as provide broadband internet access and services to millions of people across the world.
Space Clusters – Precious Hubs for Start-Ups
The importance of the growing amount of UK Space Clusters was also very evident. It was great to see Space Wales at the event and representatives of the North West Space Cluster and others in attendance. The importance of these regional space hubs cannot be overemphasised. They’re critical for start-ups and emerging space companies to get help with funding and investment, recruitment, to form collaborations, use office and lab space – even to access help and advice on marketing and PR from people like us!
So, in a nutshell, how would we describe our first experience of Ignite Space. Well, we’ll definitely be going back! It was such a positive experience where you could really feel the passion that is fueling the UK space sector. We feel more connected with our UK space community – and it gave us great insight into what SME clients want from us, which is priceless.
