Earth observation

On May 21st and 22nd, space and digital experts will share their knowledge and discuss the latest trends during the next edition of Space Forum. Organised in parallel with ICT Spring, a global tech conference, Space Forum will take place at the European Convention Center, Luxembourg, at the very heart of Europe. The organizers have announced an impressive list of international speakers, companies and innovative startups, who will participate in the event.

National Geographic today announced a four-year partnership with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, to document the UAE’s journey into space. In a four-part documentary series, National Geographic will present to the world the UAE’s rise into space, its achievements and ambitions.

The UAE Space Agency and Krypto Labs have announced the two winning teams of the GeoTech Innovation Programme. The winners were awarded funding of AED100,000 (U.S.$27,250.00) in cash and AED500,000 (U.S.$136,125.00) in kind, as well as the opportunity to accelerate and transform their innovative ideas into commercially viable and scalable market-ready products and services.

The Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews has announced the success of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) proposal led by The University of South Australia and Nova Systems.

Scottish New Space company Alba Orbital has announced that it has customers for its second Alba Cluster Mission slated for a third quarter 2019 launch on a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from New Zealand.

Boeing and the Australian Space Agency have signed a Statement of Strategic Intent to help advance the agency’s goals to expand Australia’s domestic space industry.

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), in co-operation with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), is expanding its data reception capabilities at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) in Canada’s Northwest Territories. This expansion marks the next step in a long-standing and productive collaboration between SSC and NRCan.

Earth observation satellites play a key role in weather forecasting, climate research, monitoring of the planet's surface and the detection of forest fires. These tasks require satellites to transmit very large amounts of data to the ground for analysis. Today's radio systems are reaching their limits in this area.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has set up a dedicated unit to work on the standardised nanosatellites called 'CubeSats', teaming up with European companies to develop low-cost technology-testing missions.

Two of the UK’s leading Space sector companies, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems (OSS) have been awarded National Space Technology Programme funding to develop an innovative and stowage-efficient Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload.