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Space & Satellite Professionals International

The Orbiter: The Future is Looking Up
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The BIRDS Satellite Project

The Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite (BIRDS) Project was initiated in 2015 by the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan with the help of over ten partner institutions. It was envisioned by Dr. Mengu Cho, Professor at Kyutech, who became Principal Investigator for the Project. The BIRDS Project trains graduate students from many developing countries in using innovative and cost-effective systems engineering during the course of a two-year satellite project. The BIRDS project was selected by the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) as the winner of the 2017 GEDC Airbus Diversity Award for diversity in engineering. The Project has provided training for students from many countries including: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Egypt, Ghana, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, and Turkey.

One BIRDS project is begun each year, with 2019 marking the fourth generation (BIRDS-4) since the Project’s inception. The yearly projects are carried out by graduate students enrolled at Kyutech for a masters or doctoral degree, and such projects are supervised by four Kyutech faculty members. During these two-year satellite projects, the students design, develop, and operate CubeSats belonging to participating countries. Since 2015, the BIRDS Project has trained fifty-two graduate students, thirty-two of whom hail from under-represented countries, and launch eleven 1U CubeSats.

The long-term goal of the BIRDS Project is to train students in developing countries to help launch and steer their nations’ space programs. As part of the project, Kyutech has built a global human and ground station network of more than fifteen countries that are continually operating satellites and sharing research ideas. The Project hosts an annual BIRDS workshop to foster communication and cooperation, allowing its participants and graduates to meet in person and discuss their progress and new programs. It has supported Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ghana, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka in launching their first national satellites with the help of project graduates. The BIRDS Project has also supported ten institutions in developing countries through the difficult process of creating their own sustainable space research and education programs.

Geeks Without Frontiers

Geeks Without Frontiers (Geeks) is a platform for global impact. A technology neutral nonprofit, Geeks’ mission is to bring the benefits of broadband connectivity – health, education, poverty reduction, gender equality and the other UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) – to the estimated 3.5 billion people who remain unconnected.

Sponsored by government and private-sector stakeholders, Geeks has developed a commercially sustainable, satellite-based connectivity model, designed to help address forced labor and human trafficking in the commercial fishing industry. Whilst initially focused on Southeast Asia (the largest regional exporter for the global fishing industry), the Geeks model is a scalable template applicable to commercial fishing supply chains globally.

In addition to addressing Human Rights concerns via vessel geo-positioning and providing connectivity to the crew, the model has commercial benefits for vessel owners including the ability to transmit catch reports, monitor weather, conduct safe navigation and send distress signals. The same model can also be used to better address Illegal Unreported and Unregulated fishing, overfishing and seafood fraud. The Geeks model supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), particularly in the areas of innovation, industry, infrastructure, life below water, peace, justice, strong institutions, and partnerships.

A critical element of the model is Geeks’ regulatory and policy guidance for national administrations to enable more effective delivery of satellite-based solutions, together with complementary systems for hybrid connectivity in low-ARPU maritime and other remote environments. The policy principles advanced by Geeks Without Frontiers for the initiative include strategic liberalization -- to harness competitive dynamics for accelerated access to connectivity even onboard the commercial fleets of developing countries -- and regulatory reforms such as streamlined licensing and spectrum allocations that support satellite communications both onshore and offshore.

Another important dimension of Geeks Without Frontiers’ work has been extensive research and analysis conducted to identify “best of breed” technologies and innovative business-cases -- business cases that will close -- for delivery of low-cost connectivity in the world’s commercial fishing fleets, where most of the vessels still do not have access to suitable communications and where a lack of transparency has emboldened criminal elements who engage in the practices of forced labor and illegal fishing.

Satellite is a central feature of the technology models and business-case portfolio prepared by Geeks to address these challenges and, having drawn from the experience of leading operators, terminal and component manufacturers and value-added resellers, the organization has brought industry together with government and humanitarian stakeholders to create a coalition of the willing, to incorporate multiple perspectives and interests, to integrate those considerations into financially, socially and environmentally sustainable models, and to accelerate implementation of connectivity for human rights and sustainable oceans. In particular, the initiative has targeted small fishing vessels (<30 tons) which comprise most of the world’s commercial fleets and where the need for communications is most acute for millions of people.

UK Space Agency – International Partnership Programme

The UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP) is a five-year, £30M/year ‘space for development’ programme established in 2016, and currently the largest undertaking of its kind in the world. It focuses on utilising the UK space sector’s research and innovation capabilities to deliver sustainable economic and societal benefits to emerging and developing economies around the world. IPP has so far grant-funded 33 projects in 44 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and South America, which are run by a large variety of UK and international organisations across industry, academia and non-profit entities. These projects address a variety of critical issues, including reducing deforestation, climate/disaster resilience, remote learning, land-use monitoring, reducing maritime problems, health and renewable energy. The projects generally take between two and five years to be delivered, and range from £500k to £15M in grant value plus match funding. IPP’s portfolio of partners now include 122 space sector organisations and 132 international organisations.

The IPP website (www.spacefordevelopment.org) outlines the goals and benefits of each project, its activities and results, and provides links to open-source study documents. This data is available to any organisation (e.g. development agencies) seeking advice, case studies and information for their databases to improve future projects.

Some recent examples of how IPP projects are demonstrating impact include:

  • The Earth and Sea Observation System (EASOS), developed in partnership with the Malaysian government, which has helped maritime authorities map the trajectory of oil spills, consequently improving the response to, and policing of, marine pollution. Clean-up costs saved by early intervention are estimated to be over £1.5M each in the two spills identified so far.
  • Two projects supporting sea rescues in South Africa, Madagascar and sustainable fishing in Indonesia have saved 45 lives, been used in 5 rescue missions and 976 small fishing boats have been equipped with vehicle tracking devices. Based on this, IPP is directly benefiting around 6,635 fishermen and indirectly almost 25,000 people in fishing households.
  • A collaboration between the UN, UK and Vietnamese partners is developing D-MOSS, a tool to predict outbreaks of Dengue Fever up to eight months in advance, allowing for life-saving preparations and preventative measures. The same methods could also be used to forecast outbreaks of Zika, which has recently begun to be reported in Vietnam.

IPP projects have supported 12 disaster situations since the Programme’s creation, provided satellite data to 25,000 farmers worldwide, provided training to over 300 rural health professionals and satellite internet learning tools to over 34,000 students and 500 teachers, provided satellite solutions to over 1000 fishing vessels and protected more than 380,000 hectares of forests through satellite-based observation. IPP projects have been shown to be more cost-effective in achieving their UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) than alternative non-space solutions.