The UK’s satellite data sector needs long-term funding commitments from the government and the chance to trial use cases for the wider industry if it is to succeed, a panel of sector leadersat the UK Space Conference concluded.

Mona Bhatia, director of operations at geospatial systems company GVL, William Roberts, navigation manager at GMV NSL, and Marcus Spiegel, CTO at environmental data company Gentian, were speaking at the UK Space Agency’s (UKSA) conference in Manchester.

GVL's Bhatia said: “We’ve seen that there’s a lot of support and funding available to go through [early stages] and then after that it’s almost like you’re left alone…So until you enter the commercial market and you’ve [developed] these good relationships, I think that’s where the support needs to be.”

Long-term ambitions

Bhatia’s call for “long-term” funding plans was echoed by Roberts, of aerospace company GMV’s UK subsidiary. He cited the EU’s GPS alternative, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Galileo as a blueprint for success.

He said the €10 billion project, launched in the early 2000s, began with a plan for the EU and European Space Agency to support it from first launch to operations for a minimum of 20 years, and described the move as “the type of commitment we need.”

The discussions came in light of an £80 million pot for the space sector outlined in the government’s Industrial Strategy, with members of a keynote panel on “supercharging” the sector calling for space to get a “more dominant piece of the pie” invested in “advanced manufacturing.”

Alternatives and trials

GVL and GMV NSL manufacture positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) equipment, a priority area in the strategy, and Roberts said a government committed to the sector needs to “invest in alternatives” outside of legacy technology such as radio navigation system eLORAN, which has gained new attention in recent years as a potential alternative to GNSS, which is at risk of interference.

He said: "We can't just go from one system to two systems, because [while] we'll have mitigated the risk for a little bit, we have got to keep going and have this array of different technologies that we can call on."

See also: UK Space Agency announced £2.5 million satellite data pilots

The strategy also committed billions to tech research and development and called for the private sector to play its part, but Bhatia said she still saw a gap in the satellite sector, saying funding can’t “just be to develop something, but for trialling it out as well.”

Marcus Spiegel, CTO at environmental data company Gentian, also called for funding to be extended to end users of the satellite data, explaining it was “a challenge for them to learn and adapt” to using satellite data.

He said: “They could use support directly with ramps and funding so they have the opportunity to try out these solutions and take a bit of a risk… I think the government has a role to play in facilitating some engagement between the solution providers and the end users.”

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