On the 16th April Northern Space Consortium Board members Bob Morris and Will Chambers attended The Future Defence & Space Opportunities in Wales along with several NSC members. The Conference, chaired by Dr Rosie Cane Space Wales Cluster Manager, was held at the Ramada Inn Hotel in Wrexham.
First speaker, Colonel Chris Fogarty, Chief of Staff at UK Space Command described their operation, facilities and budget. The use of Fylingdales three sided radar, the Space Flux telescope in Cyprus and the activity of the SPOC at High Wycombe were described. A possible site at Harwell is being considered and they looking to open their Space Academy to non military personnel as well as furthering links with universities. Also there maybe an option to run some of the courses at Spaceport Snowdonia. Since funding started three years ago Space Command will soon have a complement of 700 staff.
This was followed by Jonathan Bray who talked about the Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC) it’s capabilities and the way that they work to help industry with some specific case studies. Air Commodore Robert Woods, Air Officer Wales covered his background, the importance of training and of Space now and how it is used or affected in conflicts eg the hacking of the Viasat system just before the invasion of Ukraine.
Lewis D’Ambra, Spaceforge, described how rapidly the company had grown, built their first spacecraft in 5 months and that the second would be launched later this year. He discussed the sites being considered for launching and landing and working with Northrop Grumman. Then Dr Matt Gunn from Aberystwyth, talked about the spectrometer that they were building for the ESA Rosalind Franklin Mars Rover. This spectrometer is a replacement for the Russian one and so was on a very tight schedule. Dr Phylis Makurunje, Bangor University, talked about the University’s Nuclear Futures Institute that had grown from five personnel when she joined to now forty. They are working on fuels for Space both for use as lunar surface microreactors, with Rolls Royce, and as propulsion systems with ESA.
Arcanum Information Security is an independent cyber security consultancy based in South Wales and Carissa Gardiner and Dan Lovegrove described the services they offer including penetration testing. Matt Jaffa from Small Spark Systems gave a demonstration of the Mission Management Suite (MMS) their new product. Built for both Space start-ups and established companies MMS is a platform that provides space mission systems design and execution services.
Paul James, Welsh Government, explained his role and the services and help available to Space companies in Wales. Professor Caroline Gray, Wrexham University, talked about OpTIC, a university owned facility, it’s capabilities and some of the projects undertaken there. Finally Tom Adamson from the UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) explained how DASA can help fund and exploit technical innovation.
In summing up the Conference John Whalley, Space Wales Co-Chair, asked specific attendees for their thoughts on the day’s events and gave Bob Morris the opportunity to explain the role of The Northern Space Consortium.
The Conference ended with some time for networking that was fully utilised by the attendees.
“It was a very interesting and useful day. It was good to catch up with several of the speakers and our members as well as make new connections. We look forward to next year’s conference.” Bob Morris NSC Chairman.