NEWS

We’re delighted to have welcomed Blue Peter back to Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, after their visit last October! In the autumn of 2021, Blue Peter held the Awesome Orbit competition for creative contestants between the ages of six and fifteen, supported by the UK Space Agency. Entrants had the task of designing an emblem for a satellite. The winner would have their emblem engraved on an actual satellite, which would then be launched into space: the first ever satellite to be launched from the UK. The winner of the competition was aspiring astronaut Bethany, whose entry was in the 9 to 11 category. You can see the announcement of her victory on Blue Peter here, along with the runners-up. As part of Bethany’s prize, she got to come to Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and ride the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle! We also gave her a copy of our children’s book Darwin the Shuttle Runs Away. Her visit will be featured on Blue Peter soon, so keep an eye out for the broadcast. Bethany’s emblem, ‘Earthsitter’, shows a pair of hands holding the Earth, with a tree growing at the top. It’s designed with the idea of a satellite that could observe the Earth for illegal deforestation, so new trees can be planted where they’re needed. Bethany’s name is engraved on the satellite that bears her emblem, along with the names of twenty-nine competition runners-up. They’ll be orbiting the Earth fifteen times a day for years to come. It’s great to see Blue Peter encouraging an early interest in satellites and self-driving cars. Who knows: maybe some of the Awesome Orbit competition entrants will end up working with us! Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

We’re looking forward to the University of Glasgow’s workshop about the future of autonomous vehicles in transport on 9 September! It can be attended both in person and online. We have a long-standing partnership with the University of Glasgow, and we appreciate all the support we’ve received from the university as we’ve worked to innovate in the fields of communications and transport. In our collaboration, we aim to create community engagement, allowing wider communities to have their say on the topic of CAVs as part of mainstream transportation. The upcoming CAV workshop reflects these goals. The University of Glasgow is holding this workshop in collaboration with ESRC and HITRANS at Inverness Campus, allowing stakeholders from the transport sector in the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland to discuss how autonomous vehicles will reshape the sector and create new opportunities. The workshop takes place on Friday 9 September 2022, from 1pm to 4pm BST. Interested parties can attend either in person at Inverness Campus or online via Zoom. If you’d like to join, take a look at this flyer, which includes details of how to confirm your attendance. EDIT: This workshop has now taken place! If you’d like to see some of the points that were discussed, take a look at our recap. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Given our work with satellite connectivity, we’re always interested in new space industry developments at Darwin. We’re excited to see that Eutelsat Quantum, Europe’s first completely reprogrammable commercial satellite, is now in use. Like most communications satellites, Eutelsat Quantum is in geostationary orbit, meaning it remains in the same position above the Earth’s surface as our planet rotates; it’s situated over the Indian Ocean, just east of Somalia. Its eight information-delivering beams can be reshaped and redirected from Earth, and can be sold individually to organisations to be used for various purposes. Six of the beams have already been sold. The satellite’s reprogrammability is a valuable quality, making it highly flexible. As its beams can be moved, Eutelsat Quantum could provide continuous connectivity to a moving vehicle beyond the reach of mobile communications, such as a ship. This is a good illustration of how satellite communications can step in when mobile coverage doesn’t exist, which is an important aspect of our work at Darwin. Satellite reprogrammability also has interesting implications for the future of space. Satellites are expensive to build and launch, and they physically take up space in orbit. This is particularly significant for geostationary satellites, which have to orbit on a very specific path (around the equator at an altitude of 35,786 km). Because of this, reducing the number of satellites required is a positive step; achieving the same goals with fewer satellites saves money, time and resources, and it leaves more space available for essential satellites in the future. Eutelsat Quantum helps to illustrate a future where we can achieve the same things with fewer satellites. Because of its flexibility, it can fulfil the purposes of many different organisations. If one organisation no longer needs its services, that organisation’s beam could be redirected, repurposed and sold to another organisation. This means that Eutelsat Quantum can fulfil a role that, without its reprogrammable nature, might have required many different satellites. Eutelsat Quantum was launched on 30 July 2021, although it’s only just entered commercial use. It was born from a collaboration between satellite operator Eutelsat and satellite manufacturers Airbus and SSTL, with support from the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency. Eutelsat Quantum is expected to remain in active use for fifteen years, after which it will be propelled into a higher ‘graveyard’ orbit, where there are no other active satellites. It’s important to have plans in place for satellite disposal before launch, as satellites that aren’t properly disposed of can fall to Earth or obstruct other satellites. To learn more about this, take a look at our article on what happens to old satellites. Cover image: ESA Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In the last week of July, the CNN team paid a visit to Harwell Science and Innovation Campus to report on the campus’s work with 5G and satellites. The news segment includes a chat aboard the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle! You can watch the video here. David Owens talks the host through the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle service, and how, now that self-driving technology exists, real-world examples like the shuttle help to get the public used to sharing the roads with autonomous vehicles. The video also features an interesting interview with Antonio Franchi of the European Space Agency, one of our partners supporting the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle project. Antonio speaks about ubiquitous communications, an important aspect of Darwin’s work. By supplementing 5G networks with satellites, we can achieve far greater communications coverage than we can with 5G alone. Darwin’s technology makes it possible to switch seamlessly between 5G and satellite connections, depending on what networks are available. To learn more about why this matters, take a look at our ubiquitous communications page. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

We had the pleasure of attending the Farnborough Airshow 2022 this July: the first time the airshow had taken place in four years. The event was held from 18 to 22 July, and Darwin went along with ESA and UKSA to demonstrate some of the things we’ve achieved together. Rodrigo Barreto, Darwin’s lead architect, gave the presentation ‘Smart Mobility Everywhere: the case for hybrid satellite and mobile communications’ on Thursday 21 July. Darwin was originally created with the vision of combining satellite and mobile communications, so this is a topic that’s always been close to our heart. With Darwin’s technology, vehicles can switch between satellite and terrestrial networks in an instant, making it possible to remain continuously connected even in motion. The Darwin Autonomous Shuttle also paid a visit to the airshow! Our shuttle operator Irving Galva Tapia was happy to welcome people aboard if they wanted to take a look around. ‘Farnborough was a unique experience,’ Irving said. ‘I had the chance to see part of an amazing air show, and also the chance to meet people from all kinds of innovation sectors with a lot of knowledge.’ We can achieve great things on Earth by looking to the skies, which is part of why events like the Farnborough International Airshow are so valuable. To learn more about how satellites can supplement 5G and why that’s important, take a look at our ubiquitous communications page. Darwin Innovation Group is a UK-based company that provides services related to autonomous vehicles and communications. If you’re interested in working with us, take a look at our careers page. If you’d like to know how we can help your organisation make use of autonomous vehicles, contact us. You can also follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.