A North Yorkshire-based space satellite start-up has received backing from the European Space Agency (ESA).
AmbaSat Ltd, which is based in Northallerton, has secured a place on the ESA Business Incubation Centre UK (ESA BIC UK) programme, bringing with it a €50,000 cash injection and access to a wealth of experienced scientists, engineers, and testing facilities.
AmbaSat has also received a £3,250 grant from the Sustainable Supply Chain Network to help fund its Orbital Operator licence application through the Civil Aviation Authority. Together they complete the final piece of co-founders Martin Platt and Marcel Houtveen’s ambition to give every individual, student, engineer and explorer the opportunity to build and launch their own satellite into space.
“This is fantastic news for AmbaSat and enables us to take a huge step forward in delivering an innovative new spacecraft product combined with an affordable entry into Space. STEM students, scientists and individuals now have the opportunity to build their very own spacecraft and start an exciting journey into space and Low Earth Orbit,” said Martin.
Five years ago, AmbaSat co-founders Martin and Marcel used their environmental and technology expertise to develop an innovative new product to provide remote sensing, monitoring and alerting systems for industrial and commercial food businesses.
Then in 2019, they developed the first “miniature” space satellite called AmbaSat-1. This tiny space satellite kit is assembled and coded by individuals and students and then launched on-board a commercial rocket into Low Earth Orbit, where the satellites spend up to one month in space, conducting data gathering and earth observation activities covering everything from CO2 emissions and radiation to GPS location data.
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