Innovative ideas are being sought to increase the UK’s
resilience, awareness and capability in Space, ensuring the UK
remains at the forefront of the latest developments and
opportunities in the Defence and Security sectors.
The space environment is becoming increasingly congested and
contested. Satellites are becoming smaller and are being launched
more frequently creating many challenges. However, this
advancement in Space knowledge and technology also presents us
with opportunities to stay one step ahead.
Reaching out to innovators across the globe, the Defence and
Security Accelerator (DASA) is launching
phase 1 of the ‘Space to innovate’ competition. At least £2.25
million will be available to fund technological ideas that have
the potential to drive innovation in UK space.
Michael O’Callaghan, Dstl’s Space Programme Manager says:
The space domain is pivotal to defence and security operations,
providing critical services such as intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance, precision navigation and timing, and
communications. We also need to ensure that Defence has the
capabilities to protect and defend its Space assets and
interests in the future.
With such a huge range of expertise needed, we are consciously
reaching out to innovators who have not traditionally worked in
the Space domain or indeed in Defence and Security. We believe
that by bringing together the latest thinking from
academia, SMEs and sole
innovators, we can exploit the full potential of space.
The aim of this competition is to develop science and technology
(S&T) solutions that address four challenges:
- Technologies for defending future UK space assets
- Novel sensing and Intelligence, Surveillance &
Reconnaissance (ISR) enablers
- Characterisation of objects in space and their intent
- Overcoming the technical issues of ‘Space to Sea Level’
optical communications.
More details on these challenge areas can be found in
the competition summary.
