A number of ESA Space Solutions services and products are uniting space with health in creating apps and services that use satellite data for a myriad of medical benefits. This crossover of health and space aligns with the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the United Nations: Good health and wellbeing.  

‘Bringing Health into the Future with Space’ was held at ECSAT in February 2020 to connect stakeholders and showcase some of these projects – collaborations which demonstrate how Harwell campus cross-pollination has helped a lot of it to get off the ground… 

“The universe rings true whenever you fairly test it” was Dr. Emilio Simeone of siHealth’s opening gambit as he used C.S. Lewis’ famous quote to present the first connectable, stretchable UV patch to a conference room of space and health stakeholders. The potentially life-saving patch that monitors solar radiation and UV visible infrared in real time (helping protect against sunburn, photo-aging, and DNA damage) is now well on its way out of the lab and about to hit the shelves. 

“This is where ESA is really helpful for companies, not just in getting to this level, but the next level; in supporting certification, marketing, advertising.” Dr. Emilio Simeone, siHealth. 

Next to present, BASF (the German company who put the ‘blue’ into jeans when they launched the first synthetic indigo dye) explained how they spotted the potential of space and promptly invested in siHealth. With this collaboration and space data, BASF have been able to link up consumer smartphones and wearable devices to personalise cosmetics and create tailor-made products (adapting to light, pollution, humidity) all then conveniently ‘downloaded’ from a natty Nespresso-style machine (to be launched this month) that concocts a completely customised capsule in just one click.

Martin Widmann, Senior Vice-President for Global Strategic Marketing at BASF explained: “We try to look one step further down value chain at what consumers want.  With cosmetics it’s personalisation – something we couldn’t solve ourselves. So we looked for external partners. With ESA’s support we can offer a complete ecosystem to our customers; the cross-functional cooperation approach has brought something very interesting to our company.”

 “Campus adds creditability to what you want to do and your choice for collaboration. We help to support the commercial development of new ideas and expose small companies to collaboration with larger corporates.” Barbara Ghinelli, Director of Business Development and Clusters at Harwell Campus.

The developments with siHealth and BASF come on the back of several serious success stories for health/space-based applications eased off the launchpad with the support of ESA Space Solutions. Telemedicine took a leap into the future with the development of Tempus Pro – a device which is used globally by civilians and military healthcare personnel to measure and transmit life parameters  (e.g. heartrate, blood pressure, respiration rate and temperature) to remote medical specialists.

State-of-the-art proactive mosquito prevention VECMAP® software which combines Earth Observation imagery with statistical models can now provide vector disease risk maps and other value added services helping locate pests as well as ‘smart’ data-driven control measures that dramatically reduce the use of insecticides. 

B-Life is ESA and the University of Louvain’s pop-up bio lab that’s fully operational in a few hours with an inflatable satellite antenna. B-Life was used successfully during the Ebola crisis, halving the time required by conventional labs to make an area 'Ebola-free'. Healthcare is clearly an area where innovation and cross-sector initiatives are critical in meeting current global challenges. 

“Healthcare is one of top three areas in cross-government priorities. The UK has policy of innovation, take gravity out of the equation there is a real opportunity for the UK to take a lead and develop services at the forefront of global possibilities."  Emily Gravestock, Head of Applications Strategy, UK Space agency.

Magali Vaissiere, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA closed the workshop summing up the Organisation’s role: “We are actively supporting the development of the downstream sector and interactions between various clusters on campus. Through telemedicine we have already seen the value of Space for medicine in remote areas and are aware of the potential we can unleash with closer interactions between these two sectors.  We are at your disposal… ESA Space Solutions is the ‘gateway’ to space for the non-space people.” 

Find out how Space supports the SDGs…

In late January, a delegation of companies from across Europe’s space sector travelled to one of Israel’s leading annual space events, the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, visited local space companies and benefited from a space entrepreneurship masterclass.

Several companies from the European Space Agency Space Solutions community travelled to Israel last month to meet their Israeli counterparts. ESA Space Solutions aims to maximise the business opportunities for companies it supports, and this Israeli tour was one of a number of initiatives being run to provide bridges to potential markets outside Europe. The trip was enhanced by a visit to a school science lab that is running space-related activities and included many opportunities for networking.

The tour started with a space entrepreneurship masterclass, in the centre of Tel Aviv. This included presentations from ESA and NASA, heads of space agencies, and an opportunity to present the entrepreneurs companies to everyone taking part. 

The trip was facilitated by Ran Qedar, co-founder of start-up company SPiN, an alumnus from the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) programme that has designed a multipurpose plug and play adaptor to connect and integrate satellite components. Among several space players, there were ESA Space Solutions start-ups alumni on the trip: Valispace, CrystalSpace and Hyperion. All the attendees were selected from the upstream sector (satellite hardware, software and ground segment) based on the maturity of their concepts or products.

Space conference

The following day saw the delegation attending the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference in Tel Aviv on 28th January 2020. Named after the Israeli astronaut who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, the conference is the main event of its kind in the Israeli space sector calendar. 

“The conference showcased the strengths of the Israeli space industry and gave valuable insights into their ambitious projects. The event provided excellent opportunities for sharing ideas, meeting people and connecting with businesses,” said Matthijs Klein from Netherlands-based start-up Hyperion.

Meeting local space businesses

The tour also included visits to three local space businesses, including SpacePharma, a start-up that designs and operates satellite payloads focussing on chemical and pharmaceutical experiments. Next stop was start-up company NSLComm, which develops deployable antennas. Here they heard about NSLComms’ technology and ground segment work, and the company’s plans for a satellite constellation that will provide data communications services to remote areas.  

The final company to be visited was Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which builds, launches and operates low Earth orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) satellites, and was responsible for developing the Beresheet moon lander with SpaceIL.

“Both the conference and meetings with the Israeli aerospace industry provided extensive insight into country’s aerospace business, generating new ideas and cooperation opportunities,” explained Jaan Viru from Estonian start-up CrystalSpace. 

The European companies also went to the Herzliya Space Laboratory where local school students have built a 3U CubeSat, which they are operating along with eight others. After presentations by the students, the delegation was shown the ground station used to operate the satellites and the lab where the satellite was built. 

Valuable networking 

Over the course of the whole tour, participants had plenty of opportunities to exchange experiences and network with their Israeli counterparts. These included an exclusive gala dinner, hosted by the Israeli science ministry, and an evening drinks event with members of the Israeli space community and representatives of different companies.

The European companies were joined on the trip by Frank M. Salzgeber, ESA’s Head of Innovation and Ventures Office: “Supporting innovation is our main goal. This can be also be fostered by cooperation between start-ups from different countries. Providing opportunities for collaboration, access to new markets and engagement with international communities is a great way to support these ventures, and we are proud to work in this context with the Israeli Space Agency (ISA)."

The Senior Advisor to the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science, Ofer Lapid, was also shared: “I'm grateful to ESA for endorsing our Entrepreneurial Space Workshop through the know-how and experience shared by some of their senior team. This is the second year our workshop has run alongside the Ilan Ramon International Space Conference. It proved yet again that entrepreneurs speak an international language that transcends geography, nationality and culture, and that when we get them together and give them the gift of time and mentorship, magic happens. We look forward to welcoming more European entrepreneurs to Tel Aviv next year for the 16th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference and the third Entrepreneurial Space Workshop.”

During the Ilan Ramon conference, individual meetings were held with local companies, allowing the European companies to present their products and services. They also had the opportunity to repeat this in front of teams from IAI and its suppliers when visiting the company. 

Stefan Siarov from Valispace explained the value of the trip: “Understanding the business opportunities, the current status and local needs is instrumental to growing as a start-up. We’re currently expanding into new markets and Israel offers a great high tech scene which we can add value to. So it has been valuable to learn about the people, the culture and the way business is handled, which ultimately leads to a better and more professional way of building relationships for both sides.”