DELEGATES will be urged to shoot for the moon to fight natural disasters, battle illegal fishing and track human migration at a major conference next week.
The DATA.SPACE2018 event will see scientists, specialist firms and government representatives discuss how satellites can be made to work harder, faster and better to give us the data needed to meet global challenges.
Organised by the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA) at Strathclyde University, the event will welcome speakers including the UK Space Agency chief executive officer Graham Turnock and Greek digital policy minister Nikos Pappas.
It will also bring key satellite companies from North America and Asia to the capital of Scotland’s space sector, which has an annual turnover of £2.5 billion and employs more than 7,200 people.
The headcount represents almost 20 per cent of all UK space industry employment.
A boom in high-tech start-ups has taken Glasgow to the forefront of satellite development in Europe, with production outstripping all other cities in recent years, thanks in part to work on small-scale devices known as nano or CubeSats.
SoXSA director Dr Malcolm Macdonald said: “Scotland has developed a real specialism in developing CubeSats, which – coupled with our space applications’ ability to make use of the data gathered by them – positions Scotland as an increasingly recognised world leader in this field.”
He went on: “At SoXSA we bring space down to Earth, and one of the key drivers of DATA.SPACE2018 is to raise awareness of the commercial opportunities that are being created by the democratisation of space, providing a platform for start-ups, investors, and decision-, policy-, knowledge-, and data-makers to network and discover our tomorrow, today.
“It provides an opportunity for thought-leaders across start-ups, investors and decision-makers to network and discover new possibilities, whether it’s improving crop monitoring and yield prediction, or aiding preparations for and recovery from natural disasters.
“No other conference focuses solely on the application of data from space across such a range of sectors, and then goes further to engage with policy makers to ensure these new opportunities can be realised and the benefits reaped.”
Sessions at the two-day summit, which begins next Friday, will look at the capture and use of video images and other data for commercial, scientific, humanitarian and other means.
Nick Allain, of US satellite firm Spire, which is sponsoring the event, said: "This is a chance to come together once per year in the city where we build our satellites to celebrate the data that they collect.”
Dr Richard Tipper, of data mapping company Ecometrica, said homegrown expertise means Scotland has the opportunity to “become a leading force in space applications”.
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