Space technology: Lithuania’s promising space start-ups

MaryLou CostaTechnology ReporterReporting fromVilnius, LithuaniaAstrolightAstrolight is growing a laser-based communications systemI’m led via a sequence of concrete corridors at Vilnius College, Lithuania; the murals give a Soviet-era vibe, and it appears an unlikely location for a high-tech lab engaged on a laser communication system.However that is the place you may discover the headquarters of Astrolight, a six-year-old Lithuanian space-tech start-up that has simply raised €2.8m ($2.3m; £2.4m) to construct what it calls an “optical knowledge freeway”.You may consider the tech as invisible web cables, designed to hyperlink up satellites with Earth. With 70,000 satellites anticipated to launch within the subsequent 5 years, it is a market with numerous potential.The corporate hopes to be a part of a shift from conventional radio frequency-based communication, to quicker, safer and higher-bandwidth laser know-how.Astrolight’s house laser know-how might have defence functions as nicely, which is well timed given Russia’s present aggressive perspective in direction of its neighbours. Astrolight is already a part of Nato’s Diana undertaking (Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic), an incubator, arrange in 2023 to use civilian know-how to defence challenges.In Astrolight’s case, Nato is eager to leverage its quick, hack-proof laser communications to transmit essential intelligence in defence operations – one thing the Lithuanian Navy is already doing.It approached Astrolight three years in the past searching for a laser that may enable ships to speak throughout radio silence. “So we stated, ‘all proper – we all know do it for house. It seems to be like we are able to do it additionally for terrestrial functions’,” remembers Astrolight co-founder and CEO Laurynas Maciulis, who’s primarily based in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.For the navy his firm’s tech is enticing, because the laser system is troublesome to intercept or jam.​​It is also about “low detectability”, Mr Maciulis provides:”If you happen to flip in your radio transmitter in Ukraine, you are instantly turning into a goal, as a result of it is simple to trace. So with this know-how, as a result of the data travels in a really slender laser beam, it’s totally troublesome to detect.”AstrolightAstrolight’s system is troublesome to detect or jamWorth about £2.5bn, Lithuania’s defence price range is small once you evaluate it to bigger nations just like the UK, which spends round £54bn a yr. However should you have a look at defence spending as a share of GDP, then Lithuania is spending greater than many larger nations.Round 3% of its GDP is spent on defence, and that is set to rise to five.5%. By comparability, UK defence spending is price 2.5% of GDP.Recognised for its power in area of interest applied sciences like Astrolight’s lasers, 30% of Lithuania’s house initiatives have obtained EU funding, in contrast with the EU nationwide common of 17%.”House know-how is quickly turning into an more and more built-in component of Lithuania’s broader defence and resilience technique,” says Make investments Lithuania’s Šarūnas Genys, who’s the physique’s head of producing sector, and defence sector professional.House tech can typically have civilian and navy makes use of.Mr Genys offers the instance of Lithuanian life sciences agency Delta Biosciences, which is getting ready a mission to the Worldwide House Station to check radiation-resistant medical compounds.”Whereas developed for spaceflight, these improvements might additionally help particular operations forces working in high-radiation environments,” he says.He provides that Vilnius-based Kongsberg NanoAvionics has secured a significant contract to fabricate a whole bunch of satellites.”Whereas primarily industrial, such infrastructure has inherent dual-use potential supporting encrypted communications and real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance throughout NATO’s japanese flank,” says Mr Genys.BlackSwan SpaceLithuania ought to put money into its home house tech says Tomas MalinauskasGoing hand in hand with Astrolight’s laser know-how is the autonomous satellite tv for pc navigation system fellow Lithuanian space-tech start-up Blackswan House has developed.Blackswan House’s “imaginative and prescient primarily based navigation system” permits satellites to be programmed and repositioned independently of a human primarily based at a floor management centre who, its founders say, will not be capable to sustain with the sheer quantity of satellites launching within the coming years.In a defence surroundings, the identical know-how can be utilized to remotely destroy an enemy satellite tv for pc, in addition to to coach troopers by creating battle simulations.However the gross sales pitch to the Lithuanian navy hasn’t essentially been simple, acknowledges Tomas Malinauskas, Blackswan House’s chief industrial officer.He is additionally involved that authorities funding for the sector is not matching the extent of innovation popping out of it.He factors out that as a substitute of spending $300m on a US-made drone, the federal government might put money into a constellation of small satellites. “Construct your personal functionality for communication and intelligence gathering of enemy nations, reasonably than a drone that’s going to be shot down within the first two hours of a battle,” argues Mr Malinauskas, additionally primarily based in Vilnius.”It might be an enormous enhance for our small house neighborhood, however as nicely, it might be a long-term, sustainable value-add for the way forward for the Lithuanian navy.”House Hub LTEglė Elena Šataitė leads a authorities company supporting house techEglė Elena Šataitė is the pinnacle of House Hub LT, a Vilnius-based company supporting house corporations as a part of Lithuania’s government-funded Innovation Company. “Our authorities is, in fact, conscious of the truth of the place we dwell, and that now we have to speculate extra in safety and defence – and now we have to confess that house applied sciences are those which are enabling defence applied sciences,” says Ms Šataitė.The nation’s Minister for Economic system and Innovation, Lukas Savickas, says he understands Mr Malinauskas’ concern and is taking a look at authorities spending on growing house tech. “House know-how is without doubt one of the highest added-value creating sectors, as it’s identified for its horizontality; many space-based options go in keeping with biotech, AI, new supplies, optics, ICT and different fields of innovation,” says Mr Savickas.No matter occurs with authorities funding, the Lithuanian urge for food for innovation stays sturdy.”We at all times need to show to others that we belong on the worldwide stage,” says Dominykas Milasius, co-founder of Delta Biosciences.”And every part we do can be geopolitical… now we have to construct up essential worth choices, sciences and different essential applied sciences, to make our allies perceive that it is most likely good to guard Lithuania.”Extra Expertise of Enterprise