Space technology: Lithuania’s promising space start-ups

I am 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 will 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 information freeway”.

You may consider the tech as invisible web cables, designed to hyperlink up satellites with Earth.

With 70,000 satellites expected to launch within the subsequent 5 years, it is a market with lots of potential.

The corporate hopes to be a part of a shift from conventional radio frequency-based communication, to sooner, safer and higher-bandwidth laser know-how.

Astrolight’s area laser know-how may have defence functions as effectively, which is well timed given Russia’s current aggressive attitude in the direction of its neighbours.

Astrolight is already a part of Nato’s Diana mission (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 might enable ships to speak throughout radio silence.

“So we mentioned, ‘all proper – we all know the right way to do it for area. It seems to be like we will do it additionally for terrestrial functions’,” recollects Astrolight co-founder and CEO Laurynas Maciulis, who’s based mostly in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

For the navy his firm’s tech is engaging, because the laser system is tough to intercept or jam.

​​It is also about “low detectability”, Mr Maciulis provides:

“In case you flip in your radio transmitter in Ukraine, you are instantly changing into a goal, as a result of it is easy to trace. So with this know-how, as a result of the knowledge travels in a really slim laser beam, it is very tough to detect.”

Value about £2.5bn, Lithuania’s defence finances is small whenever you examine it to bigger nations just like the UK, which spends round £54bn a 12 months.

However in the event you have a look at defence spending as a proportion of GDP, then Lithuania is spending greater than many greater 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 area initiatives have obtained EU funding, in contrast with the EU nationwide common of 17%.

“House know-how is quickly changing into an more and more built-in ingredient 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 provides 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 may additionally help particular operations forces working in high-radiation environments,” he says.

He provides that Vilnius-based Kongsberg NanoAvionics has secured a serious 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.

Going 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 based mostly navigation system” permits satellites to be programmed and repositioned independently of a human based mostly at a floor management centre who, its founders say, will not be capable of 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 may 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 based mostly in Vilnius.

“It could be an enormous increase for our small area neighborhood, however as effectively, it could be a long-term, sustainable value-add for the way forward for the Lithuanian navy.”

Eglė Elena Šataitė is the top of House Hub LT, a Vilnius-based company supporting area corporations as a part of Lithuania’s government-funded Innovation Company.

“Our authorities is, in fact, conscious of the fact of the place we reside, and that we’ve got to take a position extra in safety and defence – and we’ve got to confess that area applied sciences are those which can be 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 area tech.

“House know-how is likely 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 all the time need to show to others that we belong on the worldwide stage,” says Dominykas Milasius, co-founder of Delta Biosciences.

“And every thing we do can be geopolitical… we’ve got 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.”