Technology and environmental specialists AmbaSat have joined the C4DI community with a mission to give every individual, student, engineer and explorer the opportunity to build and launch their very own satellite into space.
AmbaSat co-founders Martin Platt and Marcel Houtveen have worked together in a range of industries and have now come together to apply their knowledge to explore the new environmental challenges we face as humans accelerate our space exploration capabilities.
“Just imagine if you could build your very own spacecraft and have it launched into Low Earth Orbit for a little more than the cost of a PlayStation,” Martin Platt enthuses.
“The idea was born out of our environmental, business and technology expertise. We spent five years developing and manufacturing a new technology to provide remote sensing, monitoring and alerting systems for industrial and commercial food businesses.”
In 2019, they launched a successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign to develop the first “minature” space satellite called AmbaSat-1.
AmbaSat-1 is a tiny space satellite kit that you can assemble and code yourself. It’s launched on-board a commercial rocket into Low Earth Orbit, where it spends up to three months in space.
“Whilst in Earth orbit, AmbaSat-1 can conduct a wide range of data-gathering studies, such as monitoring CO2 emissions, evaluating UV exposure and radiation, monitoring gas emissions, measuring temperature and humidity, and gathering GPS location data,” Martin explains.
After three months in space, the satellite’s orbit decays before finally burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere, with minimal environmental impact.
“Our aim is to promote science, technology, maths, engineering and environmental studies amongst school pupils, university students and other aspiring scientists,” he continues.
The goal is to put an AmbaSat Space Satellite into the hands of every UK student, every aspiring engineer and every space explorer.
“We’ve joined C4DI because we see it as a real powerhouse of inspiration and support. What we’ve lacked in the past is a strong network and the ability to call upon a solid pool of resources to help drive the business forward. C4DI has those qualities in spades, and the imminent opening on C4DI Northallerton is the icing on the cake for us.”
AmbaSat has recently begun collaborating with Nerdonic, the C4DI Hull-based electronics and IoT specialists.
“Hayden from Nerdonic is helping us develop the AmbaSat hardware further. It’s “To infinity and beyond” for us at AmbaSat - we started our journey in fridges and freezers, and now we’re putting satellites into space,” Martin adds.
“There are seven AmbaSat rocket launches scheduled over the next few years, and we’re quickly expanding our educational network with new partners to help deliver the satellite courses. And plans for AmbaSat-2 and AmbaSat-3 are already underway.”
To find out more about C4DI Northallerton, please visit www.c4di.co.uk/northallerton
Discover more about AmbaSat on their website www.ambasat.com.