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Shared mobility service dramatically reduces costs and emissions for the NHS

Workplace transport is typically fragmented, inefficient and costly. UK company Flock Mobility set out to reduce waste and emissions in company transport by developing a demand driven platform using AI to optimise the utilisation of fleets of Electric Vehicles (EVs) under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) Programme. The Flock Service enables users to make better use of fewer vehicles as they can fulfil multiple functions, providing lift shares, shuttle services and courier roles.

The project was trialled for a year with the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust operating 6 days a week, 14 hours a day, across different sites and departments and achieved remarkable results.

Previously, departments in the pilot relied heavily on taxis for patient transport and Flock Mobility enabled the unit to save significant sums each year by switching to shared rides. Other teams were able to book EVs from a shared pool but the cars were not required at weekends. A unique feature of the service is using vehicles for multiple purposes, so these cars were redeployed to other departments which did operate on Saturdays, resulting in more savings on taxi costs at the weekend.

The Flock team also identified vehicle ‘down time’, when patients were attending appointments, and by using the same cars to provide ‘a courier service’ for another department between patient pickups, the service was able to deliver further savings over the year.

The pilot activity demonstrated that this service can provide more than 75% of patient transport for the participating departments, equating to over 900 rides a month. In addition, their two dedicated electric vehicles saved 24 tonnes of CO₂ across the year, contributing to NHS targets to reduce emissions by 80% by 2032.

Terry Yoell, Co-Founder and CEO at Flock Mobility, said “this pilot has been crucial to our business. We have secured a long-term partner in NHS Newcastle and demonstrated the extent of potential savings. The results are now helping us to secure new business with other hospital trusts.”

At the conclusion of the trial, feedback from patients was overwhelmingly positive, with more than 80% expressing their support for the service. An unexpected outcome was improved patient wellbeing through the social interaction with other passengers and their regular driver. As many of the patients are socially isolated with complex medical needs, this is a significant benefit.

Flock Mobility’s innovative software platform leverages satellite navigation technology to provide optimised routes using accurate real-time location information and routing data.  The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) enabled passengers to track their driver using their smartphone, showed the driver the real-time location of the passenger and an Internet of Things (IoT) device, operating as a vehicle tracker, provided real-time and historical data for each vehicle.  Maximising the utilisation of vehicles was crucial to the success of the project and AI-powered optimisation software identified patients with similar postcodes and appointment times, allowing up to four passengers to share a single vehicle.  The cars charged overnight, and routes were optimised to ensure vehicles had sufficient range for journeys, with drivers given electric charge cards and ‘zap maps,’ a UK-wide map of electric car charging points, as backup.

“The Flock Mobility service is particularly impressive as it has been trialled in real-life settings, working directly with members of the public with medical needs, and winning the trust of the NHS” said Maria Zaretskaya, Applications Engineer for ESA. “Flock Mobility have successfully achieved objectives for reducing cost and emissions but importantly, ensured their service is responsive to the needs of the patients. ESA is pleased to support this project which demonstrates clear benefits to society and has great potential to scale.”

Dr Shuxiu Zhang, Head of Space Applications and Data at the UK Space Agency, said “Space data and infrastructure are unlocking new possibilities across the UK’s socio-economic landscape. Flock Mobility’s innovative service is a standout example, helping NHS patients and staff by reducing missed appointments, improving wellbeing, and cutting carbon emissions. It’s a clear demonstration of how the UK Space Agency is delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, supporting the NHS to reach more people in smarter, more sustainable ways.”

The pilot has proved so successful that Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust is extending the service across other departments and discussions are underway with other NHS Trusts across the UK. The shared mobility market is growing rapidly, and Flock Mobility is in a strong position to expand their market share in health and other sectors.

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Teaser paragraph

Workplace transport is typically fragmented, inefficient and costly. UK company Flock Mobility set out to reduce waste and emissions in company transport by developing a demand driven platform using AI to optimise the utilisation of fleets of Electric Vehicles (EVs) under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) Programme. The Flock Service enables users to make better use of fewer vehicles as they can fulfil multiple functions, providing lift shares, shuttle services and courier roles.

From Cornwall to Scotland - UK's role in space business takes centre stage

The UK was in the spotlight last week as the UK Space Conference took place in Manchester. Always an important date in the space calendar, this year was no exception with astronauts, enthusiasts, space tech experts, engineers, researchers and many more converging on the city for the biennial event.  The two-day conference was part of a busy week in the UK for ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher, who also celebrated the tenth birthday of ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) on Tuesday. 

ESA’s ECSAT site is one of ESA’s best kept secrets. Named after Roy Gibson BEM, the first Director General of ESA, and based at Harwell in Oxfordshire, it is small but perfectly formed and is expanding rapidly. It sits at the gateway of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, a world-leading centre of excellence for innovation and technology, and with the UK driving commercialisation in the space sector, it is no coincidence that it is the home of ESA’s largest commercial programme, Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS).  

The UK Space Agency is the biggest investor in BASS, supporting more than 90 completed projects to date with many more ongoing across multiple sectors, driven by companies from all corners of the UK. In total, ESA BASS has invested 64 million euros in the UK, matched by company co-funding to total nearly 130 million euros in UK business since 2010. These investments have created thousands of jobs (80% of those in the UK) and projected cumulated sales over three years total more than 960 million euros. From monitoring invasive aquatic plants in freshwater bodies (Oxford), to helping smallholders around the world tap into lucrative supply chains for coffee, cocoa and other commodities (Scotland), developing groundbreaking portable 3D scanning equipment for early fracture detection (Oxford), and providing remote management of high value assets and infrastructure (Cornwall), businesses across the UK are generating pioneering solutions using space-based technologies to improve life on Earth. 

Returning to Manchester, ESA had a large presence at the heart of the conference and colleagues from BASS, Earth observation and telecommunications had many fruitful conversations about how the application of space-based technologies is playing an increasingly vital role in solving some of Earth’s most pressing issues, especially around sustainability and the green transition. ESA BASS’ presence extended beyond the ESA pavilion, with ESA ambassadors and project companies exhibiting and visiting individually and as part of the growing space clusters in the UK regions.  

In his keynote speech at the conference, Josef Aschbacher reiterated the significance of the UK in the space sector and outlined the potential for space to supercharge the UK’s economy.  

“ESA will work with Member States, the European Commission, and international partners to harness space for the betterment of life on Earth” said Mr Aschbacher. “The decisions made at the ESA Council Meeting in November will ensure a more secure and prosperous future for all Europeans, and the UK and its industry will play a significant role in this endeavour. The relationship between ESA and the UK is productive, mutually beneficial, and strategically important.” 

With private investment in space continuing to soar, last year European space ventures raised over 1.5 billion euro, marking a 56% increase compared to 2023. In 2024, global private investment in space grew by 20%—to 7 billion euros—compared to 2023. Over the past five years, Europe's share of global private investment in space has grown significantly, from 3% in 2019 to 22% in 2024. However, public investment in space is falling behind. In 2024, Europe captured just 10% of the global public space budget, a decrease of 5% since 2019. 

Speaking from Manchester at the UK Space Conference, Nick Appleyard, Head of ESA BASS, said “The UK’s commitment to supporting businesses is never better illustrated than at these events, as we see how they are accessing space technologies to develop innovative products that protect our planet. It has been wonderful to see so many of the companies BASS have supported here this week and to hear their plans for expansion and scale.”  

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The UK was in the spotlight last week as the UK Space Conference took place in Manchester. Always an important date in the space calendar, this year was no exception with astronauts, enthusiasts, space tech experts, engineers, researchers and many more converging on the city for the biennial event.  The two-day conference was part of a busy week in the UK for ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher, who also celebrated the tenth birthday of ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) on Tuesday. 

Belfast to host ESA’s first Port Decarbonisation and Environmental Sustainability Workshop in September

 

Date    17 September 2024

Venue  Belfast Harbour 

            Harbour Office, Corporation Square, 

            Belfast BT1 3AL, United Kingdom

Cost     No charge for registered participants

 

Summary

The Belfast Harbour is hosting a one-day workshop on behalf of The European Space Agency (ESA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). The event will examine needs and priorities of the port sector around the themes of decarbonisation and sustainability and explore possible roles for current and emerging space data and services in supporting the green transition of port ecosystems.

Workshop Overview

The workshop will examine industry requirements for decarbonisation in known priority areas including onshore power, green shipping corridors and uptake of renewable energy solutions. 
Efficiency gains achievable through digitalisation of port operations will be examined including monitoring the impact of decarbonisation on port air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and water quality. 
Emerging solutions enabled by space data and services will be presented and their potential for commercial exploitation by the port industry will be explored.

Event Programme

 
08.30 – 09.45   Registration and Refreshments
09.45 – 10.15   Welcome and Introductions
  • Belfast Harbour - Kyle Flanigan, Infrastructure & Capacity Planning Lead
  • Belfast City Council - Debbie Caldwell, Climate Commissioner
  • UK Space Agency - Chris White-Horne, Deputy CEO for Programme Delivery
  • European Space Agency - Géraldine Naja, Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness
10.15 – 11.45   Port Ecosystems, Current Status and Future Directions

Session Chair - Kyle Flanigan, Belfast Harbour

 

11.45 – 11.55   Break
11.55 – 13.10   Delivery Pathways and Funding Opportunities

Session Chair - Rickbir Bahia, UK Space Agency

  • Port Decarbonisation Innovation Network - James Lovett, Innovation Lead, Future Maritime Technologies, Innovate UK Download the presentation
  • European Space Agency - Rita Rinaldo, Head of Applications, Projects and Studies Division Download the presentation
  • UKSA Space Applications for Port and Maritime - Chris Hall, Space Applications Delivery Lead, UK Space Agency Download the presentation
  • Northern Ireland Perspectives - Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office and NI Space Cluster Manager Download the presentation
13.10 – 14.00   Lunch, Network and Platform Demonstrations
  • CACHE Net-Zero Platform - Geospatial Insight
  • Digital Port Platform - Sinay
  • Darwin Shuttle - Darwin Group
  • SeaNext - Seafar
14.00 – 14.55   Panel 1.  Emerging Technologies - Industry Use Cases

Session Chair - Alan Wells, Redshift Associates

  • Port IT Services 5G Connectivity - Laura O'Neil, Digital Transformation Manager, Belfast Harbour Download the presentation
  • Autonomous road vehicles in ports – Paul Rizos, Business Analyst, Darwin Innovation Group Download the presentation
  • Marine Sustainability - Quillon Harpham, Technical Director, Floods and Water Management, HR Wallingford Download the presentation
  • Marine and Maritime AIS Data Fusion Analytics, KX Systems NI - Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office and NI Space Cluster Manager 
15.00 – 16.00   Panel 2.  Current and Emerging Solutions

Session Chair - Roberta Mugellesi Dow, European Space Agency

 

16.00 - 16.15   Summary and Wrap Up Session

European Space Agency, UK Space Agency, Redshift Associates

Who should attend?

This exciting event will interest port operators, users, and stakeholders with ambitions towards decarbonisation and Net Zero port operations; service providers offering relevant transferable technologies from the space and other sectors, and representatives from the SME sector looking for markets for their early stage (TRL 4-6 use cases) capabilities.  

  • Optimisation and energy efficiency technologies applied to the port sector.
  • Vessel efficiency focused on data, software or autonomy.
  • Autonomous vessels and port vehicles including subsystems such as control systems and sensors.
  • New measures driving port decarbonisation including sensors and robotic systems.
  • Port operations optimisation and digitisation.
  • Digital tools such as for port emissions monitoring.
  • Opportunities to introduce new technologies into the maritime sector

 

Find out more about ESA's maritime activities

 

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This one-day event will examine the needs and priorities of the port sector around the themes of decarbonisation and sustainability.

Airbus project helps UK’s Network Rail build & maintain safer, smarter railways



Image credit : Distribution Airbus DS, Project: LUCI

UK satellite operator and Earth observation experts Airbus Defence and Space has conducted a pilot project for Network Rail delivering land use and land use change data around the UK rail network. Project LUCI (Land Use Change Identification) was developed under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme. It delivers a baseline land use report tailored to Network Rail’s specifications which is updated every six months to provide accurate and timely information at a scale and resolution previously unavailable to Network Rail.

The initial project delivers baseline land use information for 25% of the UK rail network, at a resolution of 50cm.  Derived from Airbus Pleiades VHR optical imagery and using supporting datasets including ESA’s Sentinels 1 and 2, the service is updated every six months with fresh imagery.  A layer is produced highlighting areas that have undergone change, therefore identifying the changing risk profile of the area.

Visualising and analysing the land adjacent to railway infrastructure is a key factor in developing and maintaining efficient networks. Both large and small-scale land use changes can have serious and potentially dangerous implications for railway networks; geospatial data can identify and anticipate these risks, enabling operators to understand the effects and develop sustainable solutions. For example, if land adjacent to a railway has been recently developed and now contains more impervious surfaces, the area may be at increased risk of flooding. This flood risk could have an impact on the railway lines, putting lives in danger on and off the track.

“Airbus continues its partnership with Network Rail to deliver detailed land use data and change information,” said Thomas Harling at Airbus. “Our partnership, supported by ESA, highlights how Airbus imagery partnered with our AI and land use expertise can drive innovation in the geospatial industry.  LUCI demonstrates that actionable intelligence from space can make a difference to businesses and ultimately to public safety”

Airbus has shown that accurate land use information can be produced and updated at much faster frequencies than that provided by aerial survey.  Airbus has also shown that the level of detail available is much higher than from traditional land use data sources.

The results from project LUCI have been analysed and demonstrate that the data can provide valuable actionable intelligence .  This data enables Network Rail to have an up-to-date picture of the landscape around the railway boundaries and means that they can optimise the use of resources and focus them on the areas most at risk.  This is far more cost effective than  systematic inspections and can lead to quicker response times.

“Space technologies are an enabler for the digitalisation of railways. In particular, the use of satellite Earth observation data allows for  efficient management of rail infrastructure, with a reduction of operational costs” says Enrico Spinelli, ESA Technical Officer of the LUCI demonstration project. 

By leveraging geospatial data, Network Rail have the operational tools to stay on top of these changes in land use and develop plans to ensure the safety and sustainability of their networks, their employees, and the passengers they serve.

“Network Rail is proud to invest our R&D resources into this important initiative across multiple off-track disciplines,” said Stephen Brooks from Network Rail. “Maintaining safe and sustainable railway networks to best serve our clients is our top priority, and the data-driven insights delivered by Airbus will better enable us to provide transportation to the people of Great Britain. The LUCI project will enable us to better understand land use change beyond our boundary fence that may impact the operational railway.”

The processing technology behind project LUCI will allow the project to be scaled across the whole of the UK network and to other rail networks as needed.

 

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UK satellite operator and Earth observation experts Airbus Defence and Space has conducted a pilot project for Network Rail delivering land use and land use change data around the UK rail network. 

UK-based startup develops new technology to reduce aviation’s climate impact

With the aviation sector accounting for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, developing smarter and greener practices for airlines and associated industries is both a major challenge and a global imperative. As part of the European Space Agency’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme and supported by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), UK green aerospace company SATAVIA has successfully completed a Demonstration Project involving contrail management trials with multiple airlines. The atmospheric modelling platform developed in the project has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of air travel on the environment. 



In 2021, the United Nations IPCC Climate Impact Report stated that aviation’s non-CO2 climate impacts constituted a highly significant component of the sector’s overall climate footprint, largely due to the creation of aircraft condensation trials (contrails). Contrails form at high altitudes when water vapour from aircraft engine exhaust freezes into ice crystals. Contrails mostly dissipate quickly, but in some conditions they can persist for many hours. These contrails can trap heat from the Earth, especially at night when sunlight is absent, thus contributing to atmospheric global warming. Using a conservative metric (GWP100), aircraft contrails account for more than half the climate impact of aviation’s CO2 footprint. 

The SATAVIA DECISIONX:NETZERO project saw an evolution of the company’s core DECISIONX technology, developed under an earlier project with ESA BASS, which used airborne contaminant, satellite and aircraft datasets to optimise jet engine maintenance cycles (leading to potential for 9% increase in time-on-wing and saving up to $55K per aircraft per year). Building on this core technology, SATAVIA coupled numerical weather prediction modelling with per-flight contrail climate impact modelling. This approach enables the identification of individual flights which are likely to form persistent warming contrails, in turn enabling navigational avoidance and climate benefit calculations. Leveraging this technological capability, the project set out to demonstrate that contrail management is operationally possible and offers credible non-CO2 climate impact savings.

SATAVIA approach to contrail management

SATAVIA engaged twelve airlines including Condor, Icelandair, and SunExpress for the next stage of the project, deploying its sophisticated atmospheric modelling technology to optimise 65 flights for contrail management. The technology was able to identify airspace where warming persistent contrails are most likely to form and, as a consequence, optimise flight plans in real time to prevent this taking place. These trials saw an average reduction in non-CO2 climate impact of >40 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (T/CO2e) per optimised flight, with a total prevented climate impact of more than 2,200 T/CO2e in total. Interestingly, this flight optimisation saw minimal impact upon flight times and fuel consumption, especially during long haul flights.

“The trials conducted during the project were very positive.  All the airlines involved took this project very seriously throughout and the funding from ESA made it possible for SATAVIA to engage a larger number of airlines, resulting in a wider data range,” said Arnaud Runge, Technical Officer at the European Space Agency, who also holds an airline pilot license. “The trials were vital in highlighting how space technologies can support the environmental efforts being made in aviation, at a challenging time for the sector.” 

 

SATAVIA contrail management carbon methodology

Dr Craig Brown, Director of Investment at the UK Space Agency, said: “We know that aviation is a key contributor to carbon emissions, so it’s vital to explore how technologies such as greener fuels can address this. The results from the DECISIONX trials – which used ESA’s Earth observation data for atmospheric modelling  – demonstrate how fundamental the use of space is to this global ambition. SATAVIA’s technology could make a significant impact on the voluntary carbon market, boosting opportunities for aviation sector investment in the UK, while supporting major industry initiatives against climate change.”

For the first time in the sector, 2025 will see the introduction of mandatory monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of aviation’s non-CO2 impacts (including contrails) under the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), as the commercial aviation sector looks to mitigate the damaging effects of contrails, soot, nitrous oxides, and other non-CO2 effects. By the end of 2027, the European Commission will also submit a report that may lead to mandatory contrail avoidance within relevant territories. Alongside these policy developments, SATAVIA has patented a new methodology to generate future voluntary carbon credits from contrail management and provide financing for contrail management in advance of regulation. The method is currently undergoing design certification with Gold Standard, following concept approval in August 2023, and – once approved – will help to scale contrail management across commercial aviation.

 

Dr Adam Durant, who founded SATAVIA in 2013, said “This new voluntary carbon market will be worth billions of dollars globally, creating a bottom-line rationale for operators to cut their non-CO2 climate footprint in the absence of regulation. As a low-cost, easy-to-implement software solution, contrail management can help move aviation towards climate-neutral operation on near-term timescales. UKSA and ESA support for action on contrails is driving progress in this hard-to-abate industry.”

Looking to the future, SATAVIA aims to build on the success of this ESA BASS project with further R&D activity, including via collaborations with air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to identify challenges and opportunities for scaling contrail management within routine commercial aviation.

 



 

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As part of the European Space Agency’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme and supported by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), UK green aerospace company SATAVIA has successfully completed a Demonstration Project involving contrail management trials with multiple airlines.

Earth-i delivers global metals and minerals activity insights with ESA support

GAINs User Interface

UK satellite and Earth observation specialist Earth-i has successfully delivered an operational system which provides up-to-date information on global supply chains for metals and minerals. The Global Activity Indices from Space (GAINS) project, developed under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, focuses on two key areas - global steel smelting operations and movements of iron ore for steel production - and has already gained its first customers, underscoring the sector’s appetite for such a system.

Earth-i’s GAINS service monitors and tracks activity at numerous globally distributed industrial sites to provide high-frequency indicators of activity in complex supply chains, with a focus on sites producing tradeable goods and high-value commodities. Two products were developed as part of the project: a steel smelter activity monitoring service that covers over 95% of known global steel production, and an iron ore stockpiles product focusing on Chinese ports. 

Recognising that ground sources can be unreliable and patchy, GAINS uses a mix of very-high, high, medium and low resolution Earth observation data to deliver data-agnostic geospatial insights in a format that is easy for non-technologists to understand and use. The two initial products use different automated methods to process the data, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, spectroscopic analysis and volumetric calculations.

The steel smelter product offers daily monitoring and a continuous dataset dating back to 2016, enabling users to aggregate data by company, country or region, or have custom filters, with options to compare production between different countries or regions. Globally, there are over 1200 sites related to steel production, of which around 800 are operational.

Francesco Feliciani, Head of the Company Led Projects Division at ESA, said “We are pleased to have supported Earth-i in the development of this service which has been well-received by industry, having already been adopted by targeted customers.” 

Target markets for GAINS include traders, asset owners, market research companies and regulators. GAINS can provide data down to individual asset performance level or aggregated up to a macro-economic level, depending on the requirements of each trader. Meanwhile, market regulators can use the data to better understand market movements and validate information being reported by industrial operators.

Earth-i launched the live operational GAINS service in May 2023 on a subscription basis. It currently uses optical satellite data of different resolutions from multiple operators, but will later expand to include radar and thermal imaging data, with the programme designed to accommodate other satellite and remote-sensing sources as well as new open source datasets. 

Charles Davis, CEO at Earth-i commented “The GAINS service demonstrates the power and scalability of fusing Earth Observation (EO) data and AI to be able to monitor, process and analyse over 1,000 sites dispersed around the globe on a daily basis to a high level of accuracy, and at a low cost. At a time that supply chains are becoming more opaque and more complex, GAINS provides the near-real time transparency our customers require to gain a competitive advantage by being able to validate data 30-90 days ahead of their competition. Earth-i is grateful to ESA and the UK Space Agency for their support to the GAINS project.”

The scalable architecture developed and demonstrated under the BASS project will enable Earth-i to add more product lines in future, such as lead, zinc and other commodities, and extend coverage along entire production chains in specific industries. With scrap steel smelting set to become a major focus in the steel industry, the company is also looking at a scrap steel stockpile monitoring product; the European Union has set a target of 40% of capacity to adopt this approach by 2032. With a transition to electric smelters predicted to result in 80-95% reduction in emissions, Earth-i also has plans to monitor and forecast the pollution caused by steel smelting, to support regulators and authorities to improve the environmental impact of the industry.



 

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UK satellite and Earth observation specialist Earth-i has successfully delivered an operational system which provides up-to-date information on global supply chains for metals and minerals.