Norah Patten will become Ireland’s first astronaut later this decade but the nation already has a strong presence in the final frontier. Irish businesses have a growing presence in the space sector, with a key aspect being focused on making humanity’s exploration a lot smarter.
Ubotica, a Dublin-based business, is particularly focused on this aspect as it is developing artificial intelligence tools to make satellites operate more efficiently.
“We provide real-time business intelligence to a range of industries,” says Seán Mitchell, chief executive of Ubotica, “but have a unique approach to doing that, by putting AI technology on satellites.”
“Space has been a bit of a laggard in terms of embracing AI. It’s quite disruptive to turn Earth observation satellites, which have traditionally been quite basic, into something much smarter and more autonomous. That can bring enormous value across many areas that benefit humanity including climate, security and commerce.”
Satellites can see a lot. Indeed, there’s very little they can’t see on the planet given their vantage point. The problem is getting them to know what to look at or for. For most of the time satellites have been used for observation, the approach has been brute force in nature.
“Earth observation satellites tend to mow the lawn; they literally scan the Earth,” says Mitchell. “Once in range of a ground station, those images are downloaded. Only a tiny fraction of those get monetised. There’s a massive amount of waste.
“If those pictures can be downloaded on to satellites, they can be analysed at the source. Insights can be extracted straight away and transmitted to those for whom it is relevant. That transforms an expensive and clunky process into something more affordable and moves the process from taking days to minutes.”
This improved efficiency goes beyond saving money. Ubotica’s technology is designed to enable more rapid action when it comes to acting on satellite data.
“We are looking at a way for Earth observation to have a positive impact on the planet. The first generation is a ... wasteful approach. We’re taking a different approach. We can focus directly on the problems and bring every asset to bear to do that.
“Satellites can collaborate with each other without needing human intervention every time. That can have a real impact on early-warning systems, managing water quality, and maritime protection.”
We’re now involved in the Gateway, the new space station project
— Dr Sarah Bourke of Skytek
That type of impact is something that Dr Sarah Bourke, chief executive of Skytek, is familiar with. The Dublin-based company’s technology is being used to aid in addressing the impact of natural disasters.
“The best example would be the wildfires in LA,” she says. “For the insurance industry, we can use images from before and after and tell the impact of the damage over a vast area. That scale can be analysed by insurance companies.
“We have taken space technology and applied it to Earth. With insurers, they can track their risk across the world.”
The business began its journey into space with a contract with Enterprise Ireland just over 20 years ago, and its technology will celebrate 20 years on the International Space Station (ISS) this year. Skytek’s technology is, in lay terms, the operating system for the ISS. It manages all the procedures and processes on the station.
“The astronauts are the only people that can take care of the labs when something goes wrong,” says Bourke. “When that happens, they are given a procedure.”
Skytek’s technology is also being used with exploration beyond near-Earth, with Nasa and the European Space Agency’s project to return to the moon and go beyond that.
“We’re now involved in the Gateway, the new space station project,” says Bourke. “There’s a whole process involved and we’re getting ready for them developing a laboratory and other types of projects up there.”
The business has expanded to have offices in the US, UK, Poland and Romania, with the US office particularly focused on growth with the private sector.
“There are lots of commercial operators, like SpaceX and Blue Origin,” says Bourke. “We’ve set up Skytek in the US to get our technology in front of those companies. We want to embrace this new space race and get our technology used by those operators.”
If you can test your material to space-level quality, that’s the highest you’ll have to test it to
— Rhona Togher of Lios
For all of the wonders that can be brought to Earth from research and exploration in space, getting up there in one piece is still a challenge. That’s an area that Lios, a Dublin-based business, is addressing with its Soundbounce technology.
Soundbounce is a material designed to reduce acoustic impact and the vibration that comes with it. It wasn’t initially designed with use in space in mind.
“Innovations applicable to the space sector have applications to many other industries, and the opposite is also true,” says Rhona Togher, chief executive of Lios. “Our material is a complete change from the existing norm. There’s a huge drive across the industries we work with to improve acoustics. What we do serves a wide array of applications.”
Lios became part of the Future launchers preparatory programme in the ESA through connections in Enterprise Ireland. That has led to further work on developing its technology for use in the space sector.
“We’re working with the ESA for the second time now, examining how we can use Soundbounce in the fairing acoustic protection (FAP) that’s in the nose cone of rockets,” says Togher. “If you look at launch vehicles, they have a lot of delicate instruments that are subject to high levels of noise and vibration. We’re trying to improve that environment.
“If a satellite is subject to extreme noise and vibration on the way up, it’s not going to make it up. It needs to be really well protected, almost like being in bubble wrap. Imagine being put through a washing machine. That’s what it’s like going up to space.”
If anything, Togher’s analogy understates the level of force and vibration involved. Getting Soundbounce into space, however, has proven to be a boost for Lios in refining what its material can do.
“Getting technology into space is nontrivial,” says Togher. “The space industry tries to make sure materials aren’t one-use. They want materials that can be used in other industries as well. With our material, which is utilised across construction, automotive, aerospace and home appliances, it’s being tested to see what potential it has to be as a space product.
“Our first project involved a large-scale test that was focused on demonstrating how effective our material was and show that it worked better than existing materials as well as being able to work for the FAP.”
That level of rigour can pay off for work with industries back on Earth, as proving something is up to space standards tends to make conversations go faster.
“If you can test your material to space-level quality, that’s the highest you’ll have to test it to,” says Togher. “As a start-up, putting that level of governance in place at an early stage helps so much when you go to other companies. If someone asks if they could use our material in their dishwasher, we automatically know the answer.”
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