0:00:16.720,0:00:23.200 Good morning, afternoon, evening everyone joining us from all over the world. I'm very pleased 0:00:23.200,0:00:29.840 to welcome you all to the fourth episode of the Smart Space series on the theme of entrepreneurial 0:00:29.840,0:00:36.720 opportunities and jobs in the space industry. This series is like a set of panels hosted at 0:00:36.720,0:00:42.240 Saïd Business School, bringing key players to debate on the current issues in this rapidly 0:00:42.240,0:00:49.200 evolving sector. I am Maria Zubeldia, director of the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School. 0:00:50.560,0:00:57.440 First I would like to thank all my colleagues at the space initiative, Mark, Renee, Lucas, David 0:00:57.440,0:01:01.680 and Michele, and the conference team for all their support in making this happen. 0:01:03.280,0:01:10.640 History has shown us that after an initial phase of exploration of a new environment and consolidation 0:01:10.640,0:01:17.520 of a specific technology, what follows is an explosion of businesses to exploit the new 0:01:17.520,0:01:22.560 opportunities offered by this new environment: this is the normal cycle for innovation. 0:01:24.080,0:01:28.560 Under the name of New Space there is an ongoing revolution in the space sector 0:01:28.560,0:01:34.080 with new players, commercial entrepreneurs and businesses entering a domain traditionally 0:01:34.080,0:01:39.840 occupied by institutional players to exploit the new opportunities opening in front of them. 0:01:41.280,0:01:48.560 There are currently over 1 000 companies worldwide working to create the rapidly growing new space 0:01:48.560,0:01:56.080 economy; these entrepreneurs and companies are driving the commodity and monetisation of space: 0:01:57.520,0:02:03.280 for instance, satellites that capture geospatial data can have many different applications, across 0:02:03.280,0:02:10.640 different industries costs have dropped by about 60 to 80 percent; that creates many different 0:02:10.640,0:02:17.280 opportunities for entrepreneurs. To discuss this with us today we couldn't have a better 0:02:17.280,0:02:24.080 panel, we are very privileged to have these stellar speakers who will offer their complementary views 0:02:24.080,0:02:30.160 on the matter, to our panellists, welcome on behalf of Saïd Business School. I am 0:02:30.160,0:02:35.680 very grateful to you for your time and I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what 0:02:35.680,0:02:42.400 is the current landscape for entrepreneurs in the space sector. Let's start by introducing the panel. 0:02:43.520,0:02:49.920 Harriet Brettle is head of business analysis at Astroscale where she is developing commercial 0:02:49.920,0:02:55.440 solutions for space sustainability and addressing the growing threat of space debris; 0:02:56.400,0:03:02.320 she serves as chair of the space generation advisory council, a global non-profit that 0:03:02.320,0:03:07.120 supports students and young professionals to connect to the wider space industry. 0:03:08.560,0:03:16.080 In 2019 Harriet co-founded the London space network to strengthen the UK space community; 0:03:17.120,0:03:22.160 Harriet previously worked in finance at the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank 0:03:22.160,0:03:27.840 of New York before pursuing a masters in planetary science and pivoting to follow her 0:03:27.840,0:03:35.360 passion for working within the space sector, with a background in finance and space science she's 0:03:35.360,0:03:41.840 passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainability within the space ecosystem 0:03:41.840,0:03:45.600 while she brings with her a wonderful range of experiences and knowledge; 0:03:45.600,0:03:52.880 welcome Harriet. Dr Joanna Hart is the Harwell space cluster development 0:03:52.880,0:03:59.840 manager working to grow the Harwell space cluster and support growth across the UK space sector, 0:04:00.640,0:04:07.680 with over 100 space organisations at our world campus from startups to multinationals Joanna 0:04:07.680,0:04:12.240 has a good insight into the entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs in the space industry. 0:04:13.440,0:04:18.560 Joanna has worked in the space sector for over seven years, first at the satellite applications 0:04:18.560,0:04:23.920 catapult as head of evaluation and impact, then moving to her current role at the science and 0:04:23.920,0:04:32.480 technology facilities council part of UK research and innovation in November 2017. Joanna's first 0:04:32.480,0:04:37.840 career was in investment banking, advising fund managers to buy and sell telecom shares 0:04:37.840,0:04:43.280 and she holds an MA in Physics and DPhil in Particle Physics from the University of Oxford. 0:04:44.240,0:04:49.280 Her thesis included a section of the central tracking detector which is now a museum piece 0:04:49.280,0:04:54.560 at the entrance to her office building where she brings a fantastic range of experiences 0:04:54.560,0:05:00.320 that will give us useful insights for this panel, too; welcome back to Oxford, Joanna, thank you. 0:05:02.000,0:05:08.560 Josephine Milward is the head of research at Seraphim Capital, which is a space focused 0:05:08.560,0:05:15.040 venture capital fund based in London, they also have a space accelerator to help early stages 0:05:15.040,0:05:20.000 get investment ready, they have supported over 60 space tech companies 0:05:20.000,0:05:26.800 through the space fund and accelerator. Josephine joined Seraphim three years ago after ... 0:05:27.520,0:05:32.560 after more than a decade of Wall Street equity research covering the aerospace 0:05:32.560,0:05:38.720 sector. She established a Washington DC office at the benchmark company and developed her research 0:05:38.720,0:05:44.480 coverage of defense stocks by doing primary research on commercial off the self technologies 0:05:44.480,0:05:52.080 such as space drones and robots that became mission critical to the US government after 9/11. 0:05:52.080,0:05:57.280 In addition to heading up research at Seraphim, she's part of the investment team and works closely with 0:05:57.280,0:06:03.760 their LPs and startups to validate their tech and facilitate partnerships; she brings a wonderful 0:06:03.760,0:06:09.280 range of experiences too and understanding about funding space ventures, welcome Josephine. 0:06:11.760,0:06:18.880 And last but not least, we have with us Rafel Jorda, the founding director and CEO of Open Cosmos. 0:06:18.880,0:06:24.560 As CEO and founder Rafel leads the Open Cosmos team from leading the team to delivering the 0:06:24.560,0:06:29.440 first satellite mission within eight months to managing the expanding team and range of 0:06:29.440,0:06:34.720 customers today. Rafel has overseen the overall company's strategy and directed 0:06:34.720,0:06:40.240 its execution, all whilst working towards the original mission of democratising access to 0:06:40.240,0:06:47.440 space. After studying aerospace engineering at the polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona 0:06:47.440,0:06:53.440 and completing an MBA, Rafel has worked at large corporations such as Airbus defense and space 0:06:54.000,0:07:00.640 as well as small innovative space startups such as Zero to Infinity. His desire to make space more 0:07:00.640,0:07:06.240 accessible led him to develop Open Cosmos while at the prestigious entrepreneur-first incubator 0:07:06.240,0:07:13.760 programme in July 2015. For his work leading Open Cosmos Rafel was recognised as Entrepreneur 0:07:13.760,0:07:20.640 of the Year 2018 by Euroconsult. The story of Open Cosmos is quite remarkable: from idea to 0:07:20.640,0:07:26.480 successfully scale up in three years, from a highly motivated student stratospheric balloon team 0:07:26.480,0:07:32.000 experimenting with satellite hardware to a leading international news space scale-up with almost 0:07:32.000,0:07:38.640 60 employees in less than four years, its first satellite in orbit and many more in the pipeline. 0:07:40.160,0:07:44.160 Thanks to Rafel's leadership and entrepreneurial spirit Open Cosmos is now 0:07:44.160,0:07:48.560 seen as one of the leading companies bringing the promise of commercial space to the world, 0:07:49.200,0:07:54.400 making space accessible to help solve the world's biggest challenges - well it's the 0:07:54.400,0:08:00.320 corporate vision of Open Cosmos, but above all is the dream of its visionary, welcome Rafel. 0:08:01.280,0:08:08.800 Thank you, I hope now you are as excited as I am, this panel will be delighted to take your 0:08:08.800,0:08:14.720 questions which you can post in the chat at any time. The format will be that our panelists will 0:08:14.720,0:08:20.800 each take turns to respond to two questions that I will offer, after which I will open up the floor 0:08:20.800,0:08:27.440 for 20 minutes or so for audience Q&A. To our online audience, please post your questions in 0:08:27.440,0:08:32.240 the chat function on your platform including your name and where you are joining us from. 0:08:33.600,0:08:40.160 So moving to the debates, let's start with the first question: from your unique perspectives what 0:08:40.160,0:08:47.360 are the most relevant innovation opportunities in the industry and how can entrepreneurs further 0:08:47.360,0:08:55.120 explore those opportunities and identify new business models? Okay let me now turn to Harriet. 0:08:57.840,0:09:02.080 Thanks so much Maria, it's a real pleasure to be speaking here today, thank you so much 0:09:02.080,0:09:07.120 for having me join the panel. So I first wanted to start off in terms of thinking about 0:09:07.120,0:09:11.600 innovation within the space industry itself and I think one of the things that's really exciting 0:09:11.600,0:09:17.200 that we're seeing in the space industry today is really integrating space into the wider ecosystem 0:09:17.840,0:09:21.840 and thinking about it as an extension of the environment in which companies are operating. 0:09:22.640,0:09:28.080 I know we've got some fantastic panelists here who can talk more about the downstream opportunities 0:09:28.080,0:09:33.120 and satellite applications but I want to talk a bit more about the in-orbit ecosystem and thinking 0:09:33.120,0:09:39.040 about where we're heading there as well. So some of the things that are really exciting to to to see 0:09:39.040,0:09:45.680 that we're seeing developing in the space industry is how we're moving to think more holistically 0:09:45.680,0:09:51.040 about space sustainability and the environment in which we're operating and so that really moves us 0:09:51.040,0:09:56.080 away from thinking about a throwaway culture and space to thinking more sustainably about how we 0:09:56.080,0:10:02.880 can make the best use of satellites in orbit and providing in-orbit servicing to create a more 0:10:02.880,0:10:07.600 kind of foundational platform within space that can help to generate those services that we're 0:10:07.600,0:10:12.640 relying on in everyday life. So when we think about a satellite, it's launched into space, 0:10:13.280,0:10:18.960 it does its job, it provides its services, but what happens next? And at the moment what 0:10:18.960,0:10:23.360 we're seeing is a kind of single use culture when it comes to the use of satellites but 0:10:23.360,0:10:28.400 we're seeing this real growth in the emergence of in-orbit servicing so looking at ways that you can 0:10:28.400,0:10:34.160 extend the life of satellites, looking at refuelling, looking longer term in terms of things like 0:10:34.160,0:10:39.760 upgrading and repairing and really thinking more holistically about how we're using satellites 0:10:39.760,0:10:44.080 in orbit and making the most of them. So there's an incredible opportunity there in terms of 0:10:44.080,0:10:49.600 technology innovation, but then kind of coming back to the the second part of that question which was 0:10:49.600,0:10:54.320 around kind of new business models that really enable us to think more creatively about what 0:10:54.320,0:11:00.640 it means to be a business in space and what does that look like, and that's something that's 0:11:00.640,0:11:04.720 very much at the forefront of my mind working at Astroscale. So we're a startup that's really 0:11:04.720,0:11:09.840 focused on space sustainability, looking at developing both debris removal services 0:11:09.840,0:11:15.360 to mitigate the growth of space debris in the future but also looking at in-orbit servicing 0:11:15.360,0:11:20.960 more generally and making the most of satellites that are in orbit when it comes to developing the 0:11:20.960,0:11:25.600 business cases around space sustainability,that's something where we have to think really creatively, 0:11:26.320,0:11:31.680 really leveraging lessons that we see in terms of business models on earth in terms of how we 0:11:31.680,0:11:38.160 can incentivise operators and organisations to think about the environment and return that 0:11:38.160,0:11:43.680 environment back to its natural state. I really think holistically about these kind of issues so 0:11:43.680,0:11:48.800 that we're ensuring that operators are recognising the impact of these issues both to their 0:11:48.800,0:11:53.760 day-to-day operations but also thinking about the industry and the environment more holistically, 0:11:54.400,0:11:58.880 so there's a whole host of things there that I'd be very happy to kind of dive into more as the 0:11:58.880,0:12:06.080 questions progress, I'll stop now and hand over to the panelists. Thank you Harriet 0:12:06.080,0:12:10.880 for those comments, I mean what comes across across quite clearly is the importance of 0:12:10.880,0:12:16.000 space sustainability and actually it's coming from someone who has a lot of experience on that topic 0:12:16.000,0:12:23.680 around the space ecosystem so thank you. Okay next let me turn please to Joanna. Thank you very much 0:12:23.680,0:12:29.680 and a pleasure to be back at Oxford University today. As the Harwell Space Cluster development 0:12:29.680,0:12:35.120 manager I engage with companies at the cutting edge of innovation in the UK space sector on a 0:12:35.120,0:12:41.440 daily basis. As mentioned I work for the science and technology facilities council which is part of 0:12:41.440,0:12:48.000 UK research and innovation which brings together all of the UK's research councils and Innovate UK 0:12:48.000,0:12:53.520 to convene, catalyse and invest to build a thriving and inclusive research and innovation 0:12:53.520,0:13:00.480 ecosystem across the UK. Harwell campus is one element of this wide-ranging vision 0:13:00.480,0:13:05.520 and I'm very much charged with developing this Harwell space cluster here; this involves 0:13:05.520,0:13:10.640 supporting companies that are already here to grow and using the international profile of the 0:13:10.640,0:13:16.880 cluster as a mechanism to attract collaborators, customers, and potential inward investors to the UK. 0:13:18.320,0:13:23.280 Harwell Space Cluster includes over a hundred space organisations, a couple of which are here 0:13:23.280,0:13:29.120 today, that cover the full range of space capability from those developing equipment 0:13:29.120,0:13:34.160 to go into space to those using space data to develop applications here on Earth. 0:13:34.880,0:13:40.480 We also have companies that have taken space capabilities to completely new markets. 0:13:41.680,0:13:46.800 The companies range in size from startups through SMEs, some of which have grown from 0:13:46.800,0:13:52.880 five to fifty employees at Harwell campus - Open Cosmos amongst them - to multinationals that have 0:13:52.880,0:13:58.320 a small presence here but they're really keen to engage with the innovation that's taking place. 0:13:59.920,0:14:06.160 So to directly answer the question in terms of the most relevant innovation opportunities, as you 0:14:06.160,0:14:13.200 all know the dynamics of space is changing from large, highly complex, highly engineered satellites 0:14:13.200,0:14:19.840 that stay in space for over a decade. They're being moved over to multiple smaller satellites in large 0:14:19.840,0:14:25.760 constellations with a far shorter replacement cycle. In turn this means that there will be 0:14:25.760,0:14:29.840 far more sensors enabling brand new data to be acquired from space, 0:14:30.640,0:14:35.280 so where I think there are new innovation opportunities is in that sense of development 0:14:35.280,0:14:41.200 and the use of the data that those sensors will enable and in terms of how entrepreneurs can 0:14:41.200,0:14:46.640 explore them and identify new business models. There's a couple of things I'd highlight for 0:14:46.640,0:14:52.080 early stage entrepreneurs, do have a look at the very successful European Space Agency business 0:14:52.080,0:14:57.840 incubation centres. The one in the UK is managed by the science and technology facilities council; 0:14:58.640,0:15:03.760 not only does it offer early stage funding but fantastic advice and support for entrepreneurs 0:15:03.760,0:15:09.600 on the first stage of their journey. There have been almost 100 incubators over the last 10 years 0:15:09.600,0:15:14.560 and collectively the alumni have gone on to raise over 77 million in equity investment. 0:15:16.080,0:15:21.360 Secondly, as entrepreneurs come up with an idea they need to test it with the relevant market, 0:15:21.360,0:15:26.560 learn the language of that market so they can actively design the solution and make sure that 0:15:26.560,0:15:32.560 it addresses the needs of the particular sector they're going into. At Harwell Campus we've got 0:15:32.560,0:15:37.360 complementary cluster in energy tech and health tech to enable the companies to be 0:15:37.360,0:15:43.040 able to engage with those sectors so that they can really develop their space-enabled solution 0:15:43.040,0:15:48.080 to make sure that it's really applicable for what they're doing. The Satellite Applications Catapult 0:15:48.080,0:15:54.480 also runs a number of workshops to encourage space companies to engage with other sectors so across 0:15:54.480,0:15:59.360 the cluster there's lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs to engage. Thank you. 0:16:01.600,0:16:06.640 Thank you Joanna, lots of insights, lots of fantastic thoughts on central development 0:16:06.640,0:16:13.120 opportunities, I mean around central development. Well next let me turn please to Josephine. 0:16:16.480,0:16:22.000 Thank you for having me, it's great to be here. Let me start by saying there's never been a better 0:16:22.000,0:16:29.440 time to start a business in space; for the first time in history we have the private sector leading 0:16:29.440,0:16:36.240 financing and innovation and the best part is the government remains extremely supportive. 0:16:37.760,0:16:45.040 To answer your question, Maria, I see innovation across the entire space ecosystem, from launch, 0:16:45.040,0:16:51.680 small sats, all the way to ground infrastructure, AI machine learning for data analytics, 0:16:52.800,0:16:58.160 but since I'm the only venture capital on the panel I thought I could share 0:16:58.160,0:17:06.560 an investor's perspective. So as a VC we see lots of startups pitching great technologies 0:17:07.520,0:17:10.800 but frankly not everyone's always clear on the business case 0:17:12.000,0:17:20.400 so I would challenge entrepreneurs to think a little differently, start with 'what problem am 0:17:20.400,0:17:27.920 I trying to solve and is my technology the right fit?' Do your customer discovery early. 0:17:30.160,0:17:35.040 Now let me touch on one area I'm very excited about, and I'm going to echo what Joanna said, 0:17:35.680,0:17:40.480 it's Earth observation. Innovation in small sats and 0:17:40.480,0:17:45.840 sensors has made a wide range of new data sets available, 0:17:46.960,0:17:54.080 so I'm talking about synthetic aperture radar, infrared, multispectral, even radio frequency, 0:17:55.680,0:18:01.360 and one of the biggest problems to go after in my opinion is how do we use all these 0:18:01.360,0:18:09.920 new data to combat climate change. We can use a satellite to detect greenhouse gas emissions, to 0:18:09.920,0:18:18.400 figure out who's polluting and where the polluter's located, we can monitor and track deforestation and 0:18:19.440,0:18:25.120 detect illegal logging; I think geospatial data is going to play a very important role 0:18:25.120,0:18:29.200 in protecting our environment and this is just the beginning, 0:18:30.240,0:18:37.040 there are so many more new business cases. I think the challenge for us is how do we rapidly 0:18:37.040,0:18:42.480 process and make sense of massive amount of new data, how do we make them user-friendly 0:18:43.760,0:18:48.720 and how do we fuse different data sets to make the best predictions? 0:18:50.560,0:18:58.240 I'll stop there and be happy to take your questions later. Well thank you Josephine for those 0:18:58.240,0:19:03.680 provoking insights, and I mean you bring an investor experience, entrepreneurs should 0:19:03.680,0:19:09.840 definitely listen to your advice. Well last let me turn please to Rafel. 0:19:11.040,0:19:17.680 I think that definitely there are very very big areas for innovation and opportunities in 0:19:17.680,0:19:23.600 the space sector right now, both on the downstream and on the upstream, understanding the upstream 0:19:23.600,0:19:30.400 for all the hardware and the sensors, there is now the opportunity actually to fly those 0:19:30.400,0:19:37.600 sensors faster and much more affordably than ever and these will provide new data sets that can be 0:19:37.600,0:19:43.600 combined with other existing data sets to address the real challenges right. So I think that there 0:19:43.600,0:19:50.320 is a great opportunity for people that have been working on deep tech, new innovative sensors 0:19:50.320,0:19:56.480 both on optics, on telecommunications, IOT devices and so on, then on the other stream, 0:19:57.040,0:20:06.080 on the downstream there is a great opportunity for processing all of the data, from the diverse 0:20:06.080,0:20:12.640 set of satellites and being able to leverage particularly artificial intelligence and other 0:20:12.640,0:20:20.000 analytic techniques to address the end-user needs, and I couldn't agree more with the previous 0:20:20.000,0:20:25.840 mentions from panelists in saying that challenges like climate change, like optimisation 0:20:25.840,0:20:33.120 of use of resources, of energy and many of these big challenges that we are facing as humanity 0:20:33.120,0:20:39.280 can only be addressed if we put all of that processing capability, analytics tools, and AI 0:20:39.280,0:20:43.920 leveraging all of the data sets from satellites to good use and that's where probably the 0:20:43.920,0:20:47.840 biggest opportunity for entrepreneurship in the space sector is at the moment. 0:20:51.040,0:20:57.120 Well thank you Rafel, thanks so much for such an interesting view, especially from an entrepreneur 0:20:57.120,0:21:03.840 who has sort of overcome some of those challenges. Well when I talk to entrepreneurs I always try to 0:21:03.840,0:21:09.040 find out what is the problem they are trying to solve like you just mentioned and who is 0:21:09.040,0:21:14.240 suffering from that problem; not only that but also who is actually trying to do something 0:21:14.240,0:21:19.040 in a proactive way as it seems that they will be the most interested ones in that solution. 0:21:19.760,0:21:26.640 However when thinking of a space it seems more difficult to identify who is the problem owner, 0:21:28.320,0:21:33.760 also knowing the agile way of working of an entrepreneur how a space entrepreneur can cope 0:21:33.760,0:21:40.000 with such a regulated environment I mean. Moving to the second question I'm intrigued to find out 0:21:40.000,0:21:46.480 about what are the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs within the space sector 0:21:46.480,0:21:52.320 and what can they do to overcome them and also what are the main resources because you all 0:21:52.320,0:21:57.200 cover different perspectives that, you bring a lot of knowledge and experience around 0:21:57.200,0:22:02.400 that, so what are the main resources that they can leverage throughout their journey? 0:22:03.760,0:22:06.720 Let me now change the order and turn to Rafel. 0:22:08.800,0:22:16.000 Yes so even though it has become easier than ever I think to start a company in the space sector 0:22:16.000,0:22:21.760 it's still challenging and the sector has some peculiarities that makes it 0:22:21.760,0:22:27.120 particularly difficult. One of the most important challenges I think entrepreneurs face is that 0:22:28.640,0:22:33.680 when working with hardware, and particularly the entrepreneurs in the space domain that are 0:22:33.680,0:22:41.680 more on the upstream, the development cycles, even if they have shortened, are still 0:22:41.680,0:22:48.640 longer than what the market expects, so if you were able to fly a sensor generating ... that I said 0:22:48.640,0:22:55.120 that someone in the transportation industry requires, shortening that time to market, 0:22:55.120,0:23:01.520 making sure that your data is available for those applications faster, it's critical and 0:23:01.520,0:23:08.560 that goes always linked to capital, access to capital to be able to fund the development of 0:23:08.560,0:23:14.880 that innovation during the early days. I think that there has been massive improvement in this area, 0:23:14.880,0:23:21.280 in the UK where we are based there has been a growth of the venture capital community 0:23:21.280,0:23:27.280 understanding more and more and supporting more space companies like ours into our 0:23:27.280,0:23:31.760 growth path with this, then there is also the support from government that seeing these technologies 0:23:31.760,0:23:39.280 like key strategic national capabilities and then I would also say that there is a strong 0:23:39.280,0:23:46.000 collaboration among companies within the space sector which is also key to overcome some of 0:23:46.000,0:23:51.600 these challenges. At Open Cosmos we are really proud of actually being able to deliver entire missions 0:23:51.600,0:23:56.560 from the beginning to end for our customers so we designed the satellites that they need, 0:23:56.560,0:24:02.640 we manufacture them, we test them, and we put into orbit which remove a massive pain - both for those 0:24:02.640,0:24:09.200 startups that are looking at flying new sensors and also both for those companies that are looking 0:24:09.200,0:24:15.600 at developing new value propositions, business models based on on property, data sets for 0:24:15.600,0:24:21.840 instance - so that support within the space community and not trying to do everything alone 0:24:21.840,0:24:30.000 but actually working alongside with specialised partners, it's proving to be a true help 0:24:30.000,0:24:34.160 towards these big challenges that entrepreneurs in this sector usually face at the beginning. 0:24:36.240,0:24:40.240 Yeah I mean thank you Rafel, that's a brilliant answer, thank you for your comments. 0:24:40.240,0:24:46.160 I think access to capital can be expanded into many different industries as a big challenge and 0:24:46.160,0:24:51.360 and I think maybe Josephine has some insights around that so let me turn please to you Josephine. 0:24:56.240,0:25:02.720 Thank you Maria. I think the biggest challenge for a startup is to have a truly unique and 0:25:02.720,0:25:09.840 differentiated value proposition, so I see so many startups out there doing the same things 0:25:10.800,0:25:14.880 and they struggle to articulate how they're different, 0:25:16.000,0:25:21.120 and I'll give you an example. We're tracking more than 100 small launch 0:25:22.240,0:25:30.080 startups and I think there's over 140 small stack constellations so if you struggle 0:25:32.240,0:25:36.320 with your unique value proposition then you're going to have a hard time fundraising, 0:25:38.480,0:25:43.280 so how do you overcome this problem? I would go back to what I was talking 0:25:43.280,0:25:48.800 about earlier, you have to start with the question of what problem are you solving 0:25:49.360,0:25:52.720 and what do you bring to the table that's different and special, 0:25:55.680,0:26:02.080 and I will go even step further, do that, have early technical and commercial validation 0:26:03.600,0:26:10.800 so that's good, that's going to help a lot with fundraising. And one more thing for non-US startups, 0:26:11.680,0:26:20.080 I think non-US startups often have to compete with better funded US startups with access to 0:26:20.080,0:26:29.120 a much larger home market, I would say if you have a really good idea dream big. Usually 0:26:29.680,0:26:35.520 UK companies are very focused on the domestic or most European companies are very focused 0:26:36.160,0:26:45.680 on their domestic market, I would say dream big and think globally and don't say no to 0:26:45.680,0:26:50.400 government support, there's a ton of government support out there right now, it's a great way to 0:26:51.440,0:26:57.280 raise R&D funding and also to get to know a potentially important customer in the future. 0:27:02.080,0:27:08.880 Well thank you Josephine, I mean everything that you touched upon is just like so relevant 0:27:08.880,0:27:13.920 and I constantly talk with entrepreneurs about how is your value proposition, why is it 0:27:13.920,0:27:18.640 unique, why you as a team, as you mentioned, also what's different and special from your 0:27:18.640,0:27:24.560 proposal and the commercial validation also you could apply that to so many different 0:27:24.560,0:27:29.120 industries that I can think of so that's super interesting. Thank you, thank you very much for that. 0:27:29.680,0:27:36.400 The wonderful thing 0:27:36.400,0:27:40.560 about entrepreneurs in the space sector is their technical knowledge and their expertise, 0:27:41.440,0:27:46.640 however to some extent this is also a challenge as typically they're not always as strong at 0:27:46.640,0:27:50.960 explaining what they do to a non-technical audience which is essential to engage with 0:27:50.960,0:27:56.880 customers and investors, and you've just heard from Josephine and Rafel talking about how you've got to 0:27:56.880,0:28:02.080 get that pitch right and that value proposition right, so it's really important for space 0:28:02.080,0:28:07.760 entrepreneurs to engage with non-space sectors to make sure that their technology and capability 0:28:07.760,0:28:13.360 addresses a problem in the right way and isn't just squeezed in to form an almost right solution. 0:28:14.480,0:28:18.000 The other point I'd make is that space is rarely about one element 0:28:18.000,0:28:24.080 or is rarely the only element in a solution so it's really important to find collaborators in 0:28:24.080,0:28:29.920 and importantly beyond the space sector so that the space capability is combined with other 0:28:29.920,0:28:36.320 elements to make it a true solution, for example one of the companies at Harwell Space Cluster 0:28:36.320,0:28:42.000 - Darwin Innovation - it's funded through the European Space Agency, is currently bringing satellite and 0:28:42.000,0:28:47.920 telecoms networks together to deliver ubiquitous connectivity, this is not without its challenges 0:28:47.920,0:28:54.400 but is essential for autonomous vehicles. Similarly we've got PSI health which is bringing space data 0:28:54.400,0:28:59.120 together with clinical data to understand when users of their app should be getting direct sun 0:28:59.120,0:29:06.240 exposure and when to put sunscreen on or go inside, so really in terms of my role I spend 0:29:06.240,0:29:11.920 a lot of time bringing organisations together so they can explore these collaboration opportunities 0:29:11.920,0:29:17.520 and enable engagement with other clusters so they can really make sure that they're sorting 0:29:17.520,0:29:23.680 or refining that solution so that they've absolutely got their value proposition clear and 0:29:23.680,0:29:29.520 that's the key piece in the startup phase. But now I'm also looking at how do we take companies 0:29:29.520,0:29:35.360 with 50 employees and help them really scale up to the 250 people plus and that's going to 0:29:35.360,0:29:39.840 require bringing lots of different organisations together across the whole of the public sector. 0:29:41.440,0:29:47.680 Finally I just note the broader entrepreneurial challenge that's not limited to the space sector 0:29:47.680,0:29:53.680 and that's the lack of diversity in entrepreneurs, it won't come as a surprise to anyone that there 0:29:53.680,0:29:58.560 are more males than females across the c-suite at the companies within the Harwell Space Cluster 0:29:59.280,0:30:05.520 - that said there are some great exceptions such as Lucy Kennedy who's CEO of Spottitt. Lucy was 0:30:05.520,0:30:11.840 an engineer, she worked in the energy sector and now she's using space data to advise companies 0:30:11.840,0:30:17.760 where to site renewable energy facilities. We also have some amazingly talented women coming 0:30:17.760,0:30:23.680 up through the ranks across the space sector and you can see at least one of them and more today 0:30:24.240,0:30:30.160 and it's really important that we continue to see more coming through. I was really heartened 0:30:30.160,0:30:35.440 to see in the recent UK space agency commission size and health study that a third of the space 0:30:35.440,0:30:42.320 workforce is now female, I'd really like to see that at 50 by 2030 and that's just one element of 0:30:42.320,0:30:47.520 diversity, there's so much more that can be done and it's starting to happen across the sector 0:30:47.520,0:30:51.920 following the space census which was carried out by the space skills alliance last year 0:30:52.560,0:30:57.760 so if you've got an innovative idea please don't be put off because you don't appear to conform to 0:30:57.760,0:31:03.760 the norm, there are lots of specific mechanisms to help such as the Innovate UK Women in Innovation 0:31:03.760,0:31:10.560 Awards, just ask. It's really key that we get as much diversity to really get those great ideas 0:31:10.560,0:31:17.760 coming through. Thanks, well thank you, Joanna, we couldn't be more aligned from the Saïd Business 0:31:17.760,0:31:22.880 School perspective and actually with those science-based entrepreneurs or tech-based 0:31:22.880,0:31:28.800 entrepreneurs that we deal with we very often put them together with business background students 0:31:28.800,0:31:34.800 from the school that who complement really well their skills and overcome that barrier 0:31:34.800,0:31:40.400 that you just referred to and in terms of diversity we are also pushing a lot on that so 0:31:40.400,0:31:46.320 that's very very interesting. Thank you thank you for that, let me finally turn please to Harriet. 0:31:48.240,0:31:52.880 Yeah of course thank you very much - So I think the panellists have covered some fantastic points 0:31:52.880,0:31:57.840 already so I'm a little more limited in terms of what I can add but just a few points to 0:31:57.840,0:32:03.200 make there. I think Josephine made a really really important point in terms of understanding 0:32:03.200,0:32:08.240 the problem that your customer is facing and identifying how you can help mitigate or solve 0:32:08.240,0:32:13.680 that problem and I think there's an important kind of nuance there which is, one, understanding the 0:32:13.680,0:32:20.000 challenges that companies and potential customers are facing right now but also understanding how 0:32:20.000,0:32:25.040 those challenges are going to evolve and change in the future and that's something that's really 0:32:25.040,0:32:30.160 critical for the space industry because we're seeing huge changes in terms of how we're using 0:32:30.160,0:32:36.400 space, how we're operating in space, also how that space environment is adapting to the evolving 0:32:36.400,0:32:41.520 changes as well, so we're seeing an incredible increase in the number of satellites that are 0:32:41.520,0:32:47.120 being launched particularly into low earth orbit which is increasing congestion 0:32:47.120,0:32:52.960 and operational challenges for operators which is only going to increase in the future, so 0:32:52.960,0:32:56.800 really being able to understand how those challenges are going to evolve is really key. 0:32:57.680,0:33:02.880 The second point I wanted to make, again touches on something that that Josephine mentioned, 0:33:02.880,0:33:09.200 which is kind of thinking about how space companies can really be commercially driven 0:33:09.200,0:33:14.480 and often we think of space companies coming up with a cool technology to do something in space 0:33:15.120,0:33:19.040 and then running with that without necessarily thinking is space the best way, 0:33:19.040,0:33:23.920 the space technologies is the best way to solve that problem and so I think there's a kind 0:33:23.920,0:33:30.560 of a mindset shift that we need to have in the space community more generally which 0:33:30.560,0:33:35.280 is thinking about space as a place to do business rather than something in and of itself, so 0:33:36.080,0:33:40.480 trying to get out of that that ivory tower of the space community and really see how 0:33:40.480,0:33:45.840 how space applications and space technology can be really integrated into the wider 0:33:45.840,0:33:53.840 value chain. In terms of the support side I'd say space is a small and tight-knit community, 0:33:53.840,0:34:00.240 there's some fantastic opportunities to create networks and then provide support 0:34:00.240,0:34:04.320 wherever you are in the stages of a company's development. 0:34:05.200,0:34:11.360 Organisations like the Harwell Space Cluster - which is a fantastic hub of space activity - 0:34:12.000,0:34:16.320 organisations like the satellite applications catapult, then there's a whole host 0:34:16.320,0:34:21.200 of funding opportunities in the UK as well as elsewhere so there's a lot of support 0:34:21.200,0:34:25.600 and funding available for the space industry right now which makes it a really exciting place to be. 0:34:27.600,0:34:32.960 Well thank you Harriet for so many interesting suggestions, thank you so much. Well with that, 0:34:32.960,0:34:40.960 I will open the floor to the audience for questions, next I want to pose a question 0:34:42.880,0:34:51.840 that is sent to us by Robin, Oxford which asks is there a need to focus more on attracting parallel talent 0:34:51.840,0:34:55.440 from other industries rather than training younger people? 0:34:58.160,0:35:04.640 From the panel please feel free to jump in, perhaps I can can kick off. One of 0:35:04.640,0:35:11.440 the challenges we've all got is many of the skills that we want in space are very similar 0:35:11.440,0:35:18.080 to skills that people want in other industries as well so there is a bit of, it's not always the case 0:35:18.080,0:35:23.840 that there is parallel talent that we can bring in but I think in reality we need to 0:35:23.840,0:35:29.280 be doing all of the different mechanisms, there is a skills gap across the whole of the UK and 0:35:29.280,0:35:35.680 globally and we need to make sure that we're training young people up so we've got the 0:35:35.680,0:35:41.680 people for the future, we need to make sure that we are bringing people in and and upskilling them so 0:35:41.680,0:35:48.320 they've got the capability that we need within the space sector and beyond. And also thinking a 0:35:48.320,0:35:53.360 little bit more laterally about the type of people that we can bring in and I think there's a whole 0:35:53.360,0:35:59.200 range of people in the space sector - they're not all rocket scientists - we also have lots of people 0:35:59.200,0:36:05.840 in marketing, finance, project management, HR, they're all absolutely essential to delivering on, 0:36:06.720,0:36:14.000 to deliver the growth that we're looking for in the UK space sector. Wow thank you Joanna, 0:36:14.880,0:36:18.800 any other perspective from any of the panelists that you would like to add something? 0:36:20.080,0:36:23.920 Yeah I'm happy to jump in just to echo what Joanna was saying, 0:36:24.480,0:36:28.720 I think it's interesting to see that at least a couple of us in this panel, maybe more, 0:36:28.720,0:36:34.240 come from a non non-traditional space background, right, and are now working in the space industry 0:36:34.240,0:36:38.480 and I think there's really something to say there in terms of the skills that are 0:36:38.480,0:36:43.520 needed in the space industry in order to develop and that's something we've really seen. 0:36:43.520,0:36:48.320 Astroscale is- the challenges that we're facing in space in some ways is similar to some 0:36:48.320,0:36:52.800 of the challenges that we're facing on Earth, so how can we learn from other industries and bring 0:36:52.800,0:36:58.320 that experience into the space sector so I think there's a huge opportunity there to bring in 0:36:58.320,0:37:03.520 that talent and expertise from other industries and apply that to the space industry as well. 0:37:05.920,0:37:08.560 Thank you Harriet, thanks a lot. 0:37:09.360,0:37:16.080 Okay moving towards the next question coming from Adam at Oxford, what are the main areas 0:37:16.080,0:37:24.960 of private investment in space startups in 2021? I guess this one calls for Josephine. 0:37:30.960,0:37:37.600 So the way I look at it I'm really following areas where we have the greatest needs, 0:37:38.320,0:37:49.520 so space debris is becoming a serious problem so debris removal and I think cyber security 0:37:49.520,0:37:57.280 is also another big area, our small sats are extremely vulnerable to attacks and 0:37:59.520,0:38:06.240 and geospatial data analytics, what do we do with all the new data, all the new business applications. 0:38:07.760,0:38:12.480 Okay well thank you, any other panelists would like to add anything on this question? 0:38:14.880,0:38:25.760 No? You are good to go, okay next question, it's coming from Ananya from UAE, are there 0:38:26.400,0:38:31.760 any barriers to entry into the space industry for marketing professionals from a different 0:38:31.760,0:38:40.080 background? That was somewhat mentioned by Harriet but anybody else who would like to 0:38:40.080,0:38:46.880 answer? Well just to encourage actually people from other sectors to 0:38:46.880,0:38:52.720 apply. In our case at Open Cosmos we've built the company with people that come from very diverse 0:38:52.720,0:38:58.000 backgrounds and other sectors and in the marketing professionals I think it's particularly important 0:38:58.800,0:39:04.880 when finding these new business opportunities actually to have knowledge in a diverse 0:39:04.880,0:39:09.520 range of areas, so having background in the energy sector or having backgrounds in the 0:39:09.520,0:39:15.600 telecommunications industry, all of these actually enriches the space companies that people 0:39:15.600,0:39:22.800 are joining so I think it's critical that we all start looking at the space companies just as a 0:39:23.680,0:39:30.960 other kind of companies to work not only for rockets as Harriet said before. Thank you Rafel, 0:39:31.600,0:39:37.440 yes Josephine please go ahead. I just want to say if you're interested in working in space, 0:39:37.440,0:39:44.640 if you want to work this place, go out and educate yourself and basically know your value proposition, 0:39:44.640,0:39:50.800 what do you bring to the table and there are no barriers, space is open for business 0:39:51.760,0:39:59.760 and we need people with 0:39:59.760,0:40:09.840 very diverse skill sets, everything from marketing, finance, human resources so go for it. 0:40:11.600,0:40:16.480 Yeah that's super helpful and I think it contributes to open our minds about in the 0:40:16.480,0:40:21.760 space sector - they also need other professionals not necessarily only engineers - and of course 0:40:21.760,0:40:30.320 many different backgrounds. Well thank you, moving towards the next, coming from Steve from Illinois, 0:40:30.320,0:40:37.760 are there any plans for global space innovation expositions or competitions? Who would like to 0:40:37.760,0:40:43.200 answer that question? Joanna please go ahead. So there are lots of opportunities to engage 0:40:43.200,0:40:48.880 with the UK space sector, either through the UK there's a whole range of conferences, 0:40:48.880,0:40:55.200 we've got Space-Com coming up, there is also the UK space conference later this year, so lots of 0:40:55.200,0:41:01.840 opportunities to engage. We also try and reach out internationally as much as we can, but 0:41:01.840,0:41:07.840 I attend quite a lot of international conferences, also my colleagues from the UK's department of 0:41:07.840,0:41:14.080 international trade we have people around the world who are all engaging locally to really 0:41:14.080,0:41:19.840 bring in those opportunities and can make those connections internationally to the UK environment. 0:41:20.480,0:41:26.800 Are there any specific competitions? Really the key thing is to to look at funding opportunities, 0:41:26.800,0:41:32.960 if you're based in the UK then look at Innovate, look at the European Space Agency, look at UK Space 0:41:32.960,0:41:37.920 Agency, all of them run competitions. If you've got something that's a bit more defense 0:41:37.920,0:41:43.840 defense focused have a look at NASA and DSTL, there's open competitions, there's specific 0:41:43.840,0:41:50.160 ones just keep an eye on what's coming through, if you are international where 0:41:50.160,0:41:57.120 there are also opportunities for UK international collaborations and different funding sources 0:41:57.120,0:42:02.240 for that as well, so it's about just finding those opportunities and seeing what's 0:42:02.240,0:42:06.800 going on that, there's a lot out there the biggest challenges is finding the one that's right for you. 0:42:08.880,0:42:15.840 Thank you Joanna, anybody willing to add anything on on this question or shall I move to the next-? 0:42:16.720,0:42:23.840 Jessica please go ahead. I was going to say the US government actually offers a ton of grant money 0:42:24.480,0:42:31.200 and small business innovation contracts, some of them are available to non-US companies believe 0:42:31.200,0:42:40.160 it or not, so if this is both for civil and defense applications 0:42:40.160,0:42:44.240 I can share some resources with you, Maria, after this call 0:42:45.120,0:42:48.720 if you want to post it, but there are opportunities to explore in the US. 0:42:49.920,0:42:54.480 Okay that would be great and then we can maybe share them within the relevant groups on social 0:42:54.480,0:43:01.760 media for the personal inquiry, perfect. Okay moving towards the next question from 0:43:03.360,0:43:09.440 Ricardo in Chile, is there an online space innovation programme like 0:43:09.440,0:43:16.320 a MOOC or similar, a place to start with the foundations? Who would like to take this one? 0:43:21.120,0:43:25.840 I'm sorry, there's certainly plenty of MOOCs, Open University has 0:43:25.840,0:43:32.800 quite a few, there are other courses available quite a few training providers and things like 0:43:32.800,0:43:38.320 that so I'd start having a look at Open University ones that are 0:43:38.320,0:43:44.720 available and then I'd look more broadly, I think there's plenty around. Perfect thank you Joanna, 0:43:45.840,0:43:54.160 and moving towards the next. Alvaro from Oxford and Spain, what do space entrepreneurs need most 0:43:54.160,0:43:58.160 in terms of support from the government to try which areas could be improved? 0:44:00.320,0:44:05.920 Yeah I think that it depends on the stage at the development of your company that 0:44:05.920,0:44:12.080 you are in. At very early stage I think that governments are very effective actually at 0:44:12.080,0:44:18.080 providing R&D support, there are grants - particularly in the UK for instance - through 0:44:18.080,0:44:22.720 through Innovate UK, through the UK space agency, through the European Space Agency, 0:44:23.360,0:44:28.960 that help actually develop the technologies and the R&D during those early stages 0:44:29.680,0:44:36.080 then when you are more at a scaling up stage I think that it's particularly important 0:44:36.080,0:44:44.480 that the government acts as an anchor customer, particularly with contracts of size and duration 0:44:44.480,0:44:48.960 that are relevant for for companies like ours actually to be able to 0:44:48.960,0:44:58.560 deploy more complex infrastructure, provide better services and be able also to raise funding 0:44:59.360,0:45:05.280 and unlock other customers on the back of such an accurate reliable customer such as government; 0:45:05.280,0:45:10.080 so I think that the government can play those two roles depending on the stage of the company 0:45:10.080,0:45:17.680 that it's involving. Thank you Rafel, and I'm moving towards the next because I'm 0:45:17.680,0:45:21.200 conscious that there are plenty of questions and I would like to cover as many as we can. 0:45:22.000,0:45:28.560 So next one coming from Robin at Oxford for Joanna please: you mentioned the importance of diversity. 0:45:28.560,0:45:38.160 Are there current Harwell initiatives for promoting intersectionality so across UK? There is a 0:45:38.160,0:45:44.320 real drive to improve diversity in every different way across the whole of the research 0:45:44.320,0:45:51.600 and innovation ecosystem and there is a lot of work going on as the best ways of delivering that 0:45:52.240,0:45:58.240 and the best ways to encourage people. Are there any specific initiatives at Harwell? Nothing that's 0:45:58.240,0:46:05.520 that's obvious at the moment but behind the scenes we are working really actively to improve 0:46:05.520,0:46:13.600 access to skills, to really make the campus as diverse as possible to encourage people and ensure 0:46:13.600,0:46:21.200 that everybody feels welcome to be part of the campus and the cluster. So lots of activity 0:46:21.200,0:46:27.120 I would say, everybody's still learning, its a journey and definitely the will and the desire 0:46:27.120,0:46:34.400 is there to really change the environment so that it is truly open, we've truly got diversity 0:46:34.400,0:46:40.000 and we're really getting those new thoughts, those new perspectives on everything 0:46:40.000,0:46:45.040 because that's how we're going to drive the UK space sector and and UK economy more broadly. 0:46:47.440,0:46:54.000 Yeah I would love to add to that, I mean we are a case of a company that took the great decision 0:46:54.000,0:47:00.080 I think during the early days of of setting up in Harwell campus and ecosystems 0:47:00.080,0:47:05.280 like this one are absolutely key for exactly what the question was about, which is making sure that 0:47:05.280,0:47:09.200 you connect with people from other sectors and from other industries, and in our 0:47:09.200,0:47:14.000 case actually we have customers within Harwell campus, we have partners and organisations 0:47:14.000,0:47:19.360 that we partner with like the Catapult, the European Space Agency and others that are so nearby 0:47:19.360,0:47:24.720 and all of these actually together with the activities that are related to the energy sector 0:47:24.720,0:47:29.600 and the medical sector generates an ecosystem of diversity that definitely in Harwell Campus we've 0:47:29.600,0:47:35.520 we've found to be very very helpful towards the early stages of development of the company and 0:47:35.520,0:47:43.040 now also during our growth phase. Well thank you both Rafel and Joanna for that answer. 0:47:43.040,0:47:49.120 Moving towards the next one from coming from Conor at Portsmouthh, what could academia do to 0:47:49.120,0:47:54.160 support the space industry? How can universities better work with startups and public bodies? 0:47:55.360,0:47:59.680 I guess that one- I mean I could answer that one and I mean one of the initiatives that 0:47:59.680,0:48:07.120 we are working on after this series that that we are experiencing today; we've also 0:48:07.120,0:48:15.120 launched an elective for the MBA students and I guess it's about bringing business background and 0:48:15.120,0:48:20.800 to these technology-based entrepreneurs with the technical ideas to support them on making 0:48:21.760,0:48:26.720 their ideas more sustainable and more successful in the future and to help them with making a 0:48:26.720,0:48:33.520 value position to solve a relevant problem and cover all these issues that panelists raised today 0:48:33.520,0:48:39.600 which are very important but I will be super happy if any other panelist wants to would 0:48:39.600,0:48:47.120 like to add something to see your perspective on this too. Yeah I'd be happy to add on this, so 0:48:47.120,0:48:51.280 at Astroscale we've collaborated with a number of universities and I think it's really key, there's 0:48:51.280,0:48:57.440 a whole host of early stage R&D but also really exciting innovation that you see coming out 0:48:57.440,0:49:02.960 of universities and we've had some great value of collaborating with different organisations. 0:49:02.960,0:49:09.280 So the first was with the University of Southampton through the Sprint Programme, so that is 0:49:09.280,0:49:15.600 really connecting academic institutions with SMEs in the UK and providing opportunities and funding 0:49:15.600,0:49:20.240 to support collaborative efforts so that's a fantastic programme that really supports 0:49:20.240,0:49:25.920 that bridge between the commercial space and academia side. And the second collaboration 0:49:25.920,0:49:30.320 we've been doing is with the University of Northumbria, again looking at other industries 0:49:30.320,0:49:34.880 and seeing how we can apply those basic so I think there's a lot of opportunities for 0:49:36.240,0:49:43.840 academic institutions to engage with startups and also commercial space companies. I think one of 0:49:43.840,0:49:48.320 the challenges, the face there is it's kind of understanding the different priorities and time 0:49:48.320,0:49:54.000 scales that things tend to work through in those different institutions, so understanding 0:49:54.000,0:49:59.520 what startups or companies are looking for and how you can frame academic research to really 0:49:59.520,0:50:05.120 create value for those companies is incredibly important. Well thank you thank you Harriet, we'll 0:50:05.120,0:50:13.760 take those points on board. Moving to the next coming from Jake, Ghana, what is the feasibility 0:50:16.160,0:50:19.360 sorry there is a previous one I want to cover otherwise I will 0:50:19.360,0:50:24.880 I will jump and I don't want to miss it, from Indira from Oxford for Joanna and Harriet please: 0:50:24.880,0:50:30.880 how can robotics engineers contribute to Astroscale's challenge to remove debris? 0:50:33.840,0:50:41.120 Oh this is a great question, so thank you so much for asking, firstly we have vacancies, we 0:50:41.120,0:50:46.320 need more engineers to join our team so please do check out our website in terms of 0:50:46.320,0:50:51.040 coming to work for Astroscale directly. But more generally I think there's 0:50:51.040,0:50:58.000 a real growth in demand for the industry, thinking about space sustainability 0:50:58.000,0:51:03.040 and creative ways that we can address the space debris problem; it's a business challenge, 0:51:03.040,0:51:08.000 it's a policy challenge but it's also technology challenge, there's a whole host of technological 0:51:08.000,0:51:13.840 innovation we need across the industry to really help to tackle this problem and be able to offer 0:51:13.840,0:51:19.920 services at a commercially viable price point, so there yeah please do check out Astroscale 0:51:19.920,0:51:24.000 as well as a lot of other organisations that are kind of driving forward in this field as well. 0:51:25.280,0:51:32.800 Thank you Harriet, Joanna anything to add? So just to say have a look at Harwellhub.com which 0:51:32.800,0:51:40.560 has all the vacancies for for Harwell campus STC through UKRI also advertises 0:51:40.560,0:51:45.680 all of its vacancies, some of which are in space, we're always looking for great engineers, 0:51:45.680,0:51:51.520 so do have a look, keep your eye on Linkedin for any of the space companies, 0:51:51.520,0:51:57.360 that's generally where people post their job opportunities so there are engineers, 0:51:58.640,0:52:01.520 everybody's short of them, so there have to be opportunities out there 0:52:01.520,0:52:04.560 it's just making sure that we try and connect people with those opportunities. 0:52:06.000,0:52:10.640 Great, thank you, I'm sure Indira is super excited after your your answer and I'm coming back to 0:52:10.640,0:52:18.160 you Jake, Jake coming from Ghana, what is the feasibility of a space startup without initial 0:52:18.160,0:52:24.960 capital in Africa? Who would like to-? I would say that it's definitely 0:52:26.000,0:52:33.920 possible and actually in Africa and anywhere, even for the 0:52:33.920,0:52:38.880 hardware, upstream side of the business which is usually more capital intensive and we are an 0:52:38.880,0:52:46.640 example of it at Open Cosmos actually, we started first focusing on a customer all right with 0:52:46.640,0:52:52.800 the first contract which was a stepping stone actually towards our vision, we secured the 0:52:52.800,0:52:58.960 revenue to start recruiting some people then an opportunity to launch it, for satellite came along 0:52:58.960,0:53:04.320 and we on the back of that opportunity and after delivering that first satellite that 0:53:04.320,0:53:09.840 we even bootstrapped, we were able actually to raise our first round of funding so there 0:53:09.840,0:53:16.000 is a possibility in these days with how the economics of space are starting to work 0:53:16.560,0:53:22.320 to find that path, and it's even easier if you are focused on the downstream side, 0:53:22.320,0:53:28.080 on all of the software applications, the the refinery of data into information 0:53:28.080,0:53:34.160 because then at the end of the day there you are working with data coming from assets in space 0:53:34.160,0:53:38.800 but that just require your time, your capabilities developing the software and 0:53:38.800,0:53:41.840 the computing capabilities to be able to derive those services. 0:53:44.240,0:53:49.600 Well thank you Rafael, Josephine wants to add something, please go ahead. I would say it really 0:53:49.600,0:53:56.480 depends on what's your business idea. There's a lot of focus right now to connect 0:53:56.480,0:54:04.320 the unconnected and Africa is a big area of focus for a lot of the key players so if you 0:54:04.320,0:54:11.040 have a good idea and you have real customers you'll eventually you know be able to raise 0:54:11.040,0:54:16.880 funding, so I would go back to, you know, anything is possible as long as you have a good idea 0:54:17.920,0:54:25.600 but think about connecting the unconnected, I think that's that's a big area in Africa. Okay thank you, 0:54:25.600,0:54:36.560 thank you, I'm sure Jake is happy with this great answer, I'm going to Qatar, Sindhu, what are some 0:54:36.560,0:54:42.080 of the essential skills that aerospace students must possess and learn beyond the classroom? 0:54:46.160,0:54:53.040 Yeah happy to take a shot at it, in my case it was very, very important. All of the projects 0:54:53.040,0:55:01.600 that I was involved in while being at university, for instance, on my spare time. I learned as much 0:55:01.600,0:55:06.560 from those projects from involving and working with the people within those projects, trying to 0:55:06.560,0:55:11.520 find solutions to the real challenges that we were facing through the delivery of that 0:55:11.520,0:55:18.480 was was really helpful and really set up the base of - I think - not only the knowledge but 0:55:18.480,0:55:24.160 a lot of the soft skills that are required actually to work within the the space industry 0:55:24.160,0:55:29.680 these days, so I would strongly encourage people actually to be involved in real projects where 0:55:29.680,0:55:36.400 they see the results, even if it's just starting by sending a balloon to the stratosphere, flying a 0:55:37.280,0:55:44.640 a camera or a new sensor and trying to enjoy that experience of learning by doing. 0:55:46.800,0:55:54.160 Thank you thank you Rafel, anybody else would like to jump in? Yes go ahead Joanna. So the one thing 0:55:54.160,0:56:00.640 I would always advise people is work - in a shop, a restaurant, a pub, a bar, making coffee, whatever 0:56:00.640,0:56:06.800 it is, because then you see how a business works; you start to understand what the 0:56:06.800,0:56:12.880 revenues are, what the costs are, how you can try and make things more efficient, how you 0:56:12.880,0:56:19.040 can sort of run things smoother so the process works better, all of those kind of things, yes it 0:56:19.040,0:56:25.760 might not be in aerospace but you're starting to learn all those skills and also really importantly 0:56:25.760,0:56:32.400 you're learning how to deal with customers, how to present yourself, how to give a really clear 0:56:32.400,0:56:39.120 pitch, how to look welcoming, how to engage, all of those soft skills that are so important so 0:56:39.120,0:56:45.360 I don't think we can underestimate those holiday jobs, part-time jobs, whatever else we might do 0:56:46.000,0:56:51.520 when we're at university, because they do add that breadth of skills on top of the academics. 0:56:53.520,0:57:00.800 Perfect thank you, going to David joining us from London, are there any major developments 0:57:00.800,0:57:06.480 in space policy? How will those impact entrepreneurs looking to launch satellites? 0:57:08.880,0:57:15.760 I'm happy to take this one, so in terms of developments in space policy, one of 0:57:15.760,0:57:20.640 the things that we've definitely seen recently is is this emergence of a huge growth in the 0:57:20.640,0:57:26.480 number of satellites that are being launched into into orbit right and so that has really 0:57:26.480,0:57:31.040 triggered some really important questions in terms of how we're managing the 0:57:31.040,0:57:35.600 orbital environment and how we're going to do that safely and sustainably in the future. 0:57:35.600,0:57:40.000 So a few key areas that I think have been evolving and emerging when we think about space 0:57:40.000,0:57:47.040 policy is, firstly, space traffic management. So how are operators communicating with each other and 0:57:47.040,0:57:51.760 making sure that there aren't any collisions in space? so that traffic element is 0:57:51.760,0:57:56.880 is really important. And the second is thinking about debris mitigation, so if you're 0:57:56.880,0:58:00.960 launching a satellite into space you need to be able to demonstrate how you're going to mitigate 0:58:01.760,0:58:07.040 the growth of space debris in the future as a result of your operations and that's 0:58:07.040,0:58:10.960 something that's going to become increasingly important in the future. And so when we're 0:58:10.960,0:58:15.040 thinking about entrepreneurship and studying space companies I think that is going to 0:58:15.040,0:58:19.760 be incredibly important to be thinking about in the future, not just as an afterthought when your 0:58:19.760,0:58:24.640 satellites reach the end of operations, but how can we kind of integrate that thought of 0:58:25.200,0:58:30.480 space safety and sustainability throughout the design life and throughout the business life 0:58:30.480,0:58:36.080 of a space company. Perfect thank you Harriet, and maybe we can cover in 30 seconds 0:58:36.080,0:58:41.280 the last question from Uzair at Oxford; is private investment currently more 0:58:41.280,0:58:46.800 interested in earth-based solutions or in general space exploration infrastructure? 0:58:48.880,0:58:50.880 Who wants to cover this one very quickly? 0:58:54.720,0:59:00.320 I can take that one, yes I would say it's both, it depends on the type of investor, you 0:59:00.320,0:59:08.320 are, right, so for our fund I think we're more interested in, we're not involved in 0:59:08.320,0:59:13.200 deep space exploration but other venture funds are invested 0:59:14.560,0:59:21.040 you know in that area so it really depends on your investment objective and your time horizon. Okay 0:59:21.760,0:59:27.920 thank you Josephine, well this brings us to the very end of our time, let me finish by 0:59:27.920,0:59:34.480 quoting some words from Rafel, it was in 2009 when a small team of fellow aerospace 0:59:34.480,0:59:41.440 students and I launched a stratospheric balloon equipped with an experimental payload including a 0:59:41.440,0:59:49.760 camera. It was a simple and cheap payload container that was assembled in a matter of a few days when 0:59:49.760,0:59:56.240 the container had returned to earth after being launched to over 25 kilometres altitude, the 0:59:56.240,1:00:02.880 resulting images from the edge of the atmosphere totally blew our minds. Seeing the curvature of 1:00:02.880,1:00:09.040 the Earth under a bright sun, in a pitch black sky remained an inspiration for a lifetime. 1:00:09.760,1:00:16.320 If a small group of students could achieve this in a few days, the sky was literally no longer 1:00:16.320,1:00:23.040 the limit. This profound experience became my inspiration of making the opportunities of a 1:00:23.040,1:00:31.040 space accessible to anyone. I hope you all have a lot of inspirations like the one Rafel had 1:00:31.040,1:00:35.600 and one day you can develop a space venture  that contributes to make a better world. 1:00:36.720,1:00:43.200 Thank you to all the panelists, Harriet, Joanna,  Josephine and Rafel for joining us today, 1:00:43.200,1:00:48.960 sharing your knowledge and experience and for  such an insightful and rich debate. I also want 1:00:48.960,1:00:54.720 to thank everyone who has joined us from various  parts of the world for this fourth episode of the 1:00:54.720,1:01:02.240 Smart Space series here at Oxford. It has been  hugely enlightening and incredibly interesting 1:01:02.240,1:01:09.840 and on behalf of Saïd Business School and  the University of Oxford thank you so much.