Certifiable Railway Trackworker Individual Protection (CertiPro)

The European Space Agency (ESA) has kicked off the CertiPro railway demonstration project under ESA Space Solutions umbrella in the ESA Business Application programme. In this truly European project, an innovative railway track worker protection system will be evaluated for its reliability and its ability to enhance the saftey of railway track workers. The goal is to demonstrate the safety capabilities of the track worker protection system in a real environment, integrated into the challenging infrastructure of a railway operator in Italy. A formal procedure will be followed allowing certification according to the relevant standards later on. The international project team consists of partners from France (Airbus DS SLC), Germany (Intelligence on Wheels GmbH, ETC-Gauff Solutions GmbH, BERNS Engineers GmbH), Italy (Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti Genova S.p.A) and Switzerland (CertX AG). 

ESA Space Solutions aims at reaching commercial exploitation of space assets, data and capabilities addressing incubation, proving technical feasibility and business development. This includes the development of operational services for a wide range of users through the combination of different systems, and support in creating viable companies as well as to existing companies.

Smallholder farmers face many difficulties, but 2020 has been particularly hard with the additional problems presented by COVID-19. The pandemic looked as if it would be challenging for start-ups too, but agriBORA, with its agribusiness decision support platform, survived and is seeking investment to help smallholders thrive.

It’s tough being a start-up at the best of times. At the beginning of March 2020, in their first lockdown videoconference, the agriBORA team was unanimous. It was going to be difficult to survive. 

AgriBORA is a start-up in the ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) in Darmstadt, Germany, focusing on using space technology to support the agriculture in East Africa. 

The company has developed a platform which brings together partners from different parts of the agriculture value chain: input companies, farm machinery companies, agro-dealers, aggregators, off-takers, extension officers and farmers. The platform offers location-based insights and tailored-informational, capacity building, financial, market-linkage, market intelligence and consultancy on products and services. 

However, according to CEO Kizito Odhiambo, things have gone much better than he had expected. “It seems as if people are realising that, when movement of people is restricted, the role of Earth observation (EO) data becomes even more important. The problems have not disappeared, so more intelligent solutions need to be put in place.” The business was developing well. But with COVID-19 causing worldwide disruption, who was going to worry about the millions of smallholder farmers in Kenya?

Supporting smallholders through pandemic and plagues

In East Africa, the problems certainly haven’t disappeared. In addition to COVID-19, farmers there are having to cope with plagues of locusts. 

Odhiambo was a mentor in the INSPIRE Hackathon in Kampala, Uganda, and in April it was announced that his team won first place with their proposal for tracking locusts using Sentinel-2 satellite data. At this point, agriBORA decided to conduct a survey among smallholder farmers to find out first-hand how the two parallel crises were affecting them. The results, which show the importance of ground truth data in combination with satellite data, are now being discussed with research organisations in Europe and Africa. 

Also in April, agriBORA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) network with aim of establishing national Data Cubes for countries in East Africa – another indication of the growing relevance of EO data. And in June, agriBORA signed a contract with a leading agriculture insurance company dealing in multi-peril crop insurance. The insurance company is convinced that using EO data will make the business of dealing with claims more efficient. 

The list of opportunities for agriBORA has grown steadily over the past three months, as have the number of farmers registered on its platform. According to Odhiambo, his next big challenge is to find the right mix of investment and donations to fuel the next stage of company growth. As he says: “It is still tough being a start-up, but at least for agriBORA the world has not stood still. The future looks brighter than I could have dreamed of three months ago.”

About ESA Space Solutions

ESA Space Solutions is the go-to-place for great business ideas involving space in all areas of society and economy. Our mission is to support entrepreneurs in Europe in the development of business using satellite applications and space technology to improve everyday life.  Our programme is designed to provide multiple entry points such as ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Transfer Broker Network, and ESA Business Applications programme. Funding typically ranges from 50KEuro to 2MEuro and supports everything from space technology transfer, early stage incubation programs, feasibility studies to large-scale demonstration projects.

With air traffic on an upward trajectory the world has been looking to the skies for some time for a solution to escalating CO2 emissions. This impetus is increasing with a desire to rebuild better post COVID-19. Now space-enabled air connectivity programmes are set to produce some robust carbon-cutting results. Improved air-to-ground communication combined with an increase in air traffic management efficiency is likely to pay dividends; delivering measurable impact in terms of climate change and contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The SDGs have captured the imagination of leaders and public figures having been defined by the United Nations as a necessary global initiative. Efforts are being demanded across the board and especially in the transport sector. 

As part of the Paris Agreement in 2015, over 150 countries agreed a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions was necessary by 2050. Aviation is very likely to become a dominant carbon emitter in the future, so solutions to reduce its shadowy footprint in our skies are especially sought-after. 

According to EUROCONTROL, we can expect about 44 000 flights per day by 2030; each emitting on average 20 kg of CO2 per km. But the introduction of air connectivity and innovative flight-optimising software is starting to change the skyscape.  

The combination of enhanced connectivity and the introduction of 4D trajectory (latitude, longitude, altitude and time) through satellite communications is enabling continuous optimisation in the planning, monitoring, execution and control of air traffic. This will help to stem a future CO2 increase as well as reducing flight inefficiency and curbing needless emissions. In so doing, air-ground connectivity contributes directly to SDG 9: Inclusive and sustainable industrialisation; as well as SDG 13; Climate action – one of the main drivers for sustainable development. 

Unlike other transport sectors aviation is much less likely to switch to low carbon fuel sources. For example, hydrogen fuel has a very low volumetric energy density, necessitating huge fuel tanks. Hybrid aircrafts have a low energy density, making the aircraft much heavier. Electric alternatives are being developed, but only for short-haul flights. Biofuels also offer possibilities; although as sustainability is an issue they are only expected to partly replace traditional carbon-based fuels. This means that other solutions like fuel efficiency and improved flight efficiency, will become extremely important. 

Improving flight efficiency 

Flight inefficiency most often occurs when an aircraft’s flight path deviates from its optimum 4D trajectory. Today the Federal Aviation Administration estimates that European aircrafts fly on average 40 km more than necessary due to the fragmentation of airspace.

Flight-optimising software conceived as part of ESA and Inmarsat’s IRIS programme pinpoints the aircraft in four dimensions enabling more precision in the tracking of flights and enhanced efficiency in managing traffic through Trajectory-based Operations (TBO). TBO allows pilots and controllers to collaborate on flight trajectories and calculate the shortest available routes, cruise at optimum altitudes, and use continuous climb and descent paths, saving fuel and reducing emissions. Analysis by Sky High Economics (LSE) indicate that air-ground communication can result in a 1-2 % fuel saving reducing CO2 emissions by 8.5 million tonnes per year.

Communication channels are also increasingly over-burdened. This results in aircraft performing holding manoeuvres while awaiting clearance to land. Holding patterns add on average an extra 12 km to each flight. IP-connecti

vity (Internet Protocol) for real-life weather tracking and real life communication channels can reduce these holding-patterns by up to 35%, reducing CO2 emissions by a further 1.5 million tonnes per year. 

Econometric analysis to estimate the impact of a number of case studies was carried out by Céline Dubron and Elia Montanari from ESA. Each case study represented a project where space-enabled products or services have been developed and they were reviewed against several SDGs. 

The examples referenced above come from a case study which concludes that air connectivity and the introduction of 4D trajectory through satellite communications can reduce CO2 emissions by 10 million tonnes per year. This is equivalent to a third of the yearly emissions over London. Cumulatively, this would lead to 140 million tonnes of CO2 reduction by 2030, leading to €17 billion in savings by 2030.

ESA is ready to support Industry in developing and demonstrating convergence of space and 5G terrestrial technologies to enable sustainable 5G services in logistics

ESA, in coordination with the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the UK Space Agency, will launch on 9 July 2020 a Call for Proposals inviting companies to submit their ideas for deploying and demonstrating sustainable downstream services addressing UK Government’s priorities in the Logistics sector. 

The services shall demonstrate innovation in the convergence of 5G terrestrial and satellite communication networks, opening the way to new connectivity solutions and sustainable business models for operators and industrial customers.

This Call for Proposal is based on the Memorandum of Intent signed in December 2019 by ESA and DCMS. The main purpose of the Memorandum of Intent is to support the emergence of commercially sustainable products and services enabled by the deployment of converged 5G terrestrial and space networks. 

Sustainable applications relying on 5G communications will require the establishment of a wide ecosystem including terrestrial and satellite connectivity providers. Collaboration between these actors is essential to ensure the deployment of converged networks, which will allow application developers and service providers to deliver innovative and sustainable services for a longer term efficient, competitive and low carbon logistics sector.

“This is a great opportunity for ESA to join forces with DCMS and UK Space Agency and prove the key role that satellite communications will play in the future converged 5G networks”, stated Magali Vaissiere, ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications. “In the context of the ESA 5G Strategic Programme Line, this Call for Proposals is intended to stimulate the emergence of sustainable applications relying on innovative 5G solutions, starting from the logistics sector”.

Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth at the UK Space Agency, said: “This is a great initiative to show how together we can work to help close the digital divide. Access to constant connectivity regardless of location offers huge benefits."

“We've seen through the current pandemic, that logistics are vital to keeping the country going and space technology is a key part of making that happen.” 

Proposals can be submitted anytime until 15 December 2020.

Additional information can be found here.