2021-10-19
Last updated: 2022-01-10 11:43
Robert Mertens likes to live and work surrounded by water. His red sailboat S/Y Polgara, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, serves as his home and office, from where he runs the space start-up Mooringo. Few would have guessed a couple of years ago that he - a sailing programmer - would start working with satellites. Least of all himself.
- "I didn't really understand the point of conquering space when we've already found the most beautiful planet in the universe," he says cheerfully, explaining that the original idea, a kind of Airbnb app for boat moorings, was not intended to include any space technology.
The way the app works today, ports, restaurants and anyone else with available moorings can create a new destination that boaters can easily find, book and visit.
- "I thought it was strange that marinas were not digitized like hotels are," he says of the win-win scenario that marinas would get more guests and boat owners would avoid the stress of not knowing where there is a berth available.
However, there was one big problem: although Mooringo's booking system is used and tested by many customers, it takes time for marinas to move from old habits to digital systems. After exploring - and dismissing - the possibility of setting up webcams in all ports, Robert asked himself the question that would throw him into uncharted waters:
- Is it possible to see boats from space?
With no knowledge of space technology whatsoever, he began to investigate the possibility of using satellite data to map boats to see where there were available berths. He had already been accepted into the incubator at Innovatum Science Park, where he received support and help with business development issues. Through his business coach, he was now advised to apply to the national space incubator ESA-BIC, where he would have access to development capital and expertise in space technology, among other things. Innovatum Science Park is one of four selected incubators in Sweden that run the ESA-BIC program and to be accepted, a competitive application is required. Robert realized that he first had to put his idea to the test.
With Innovatum Science Park's help, he made contact with other companies that were similarly using satellite data in their solutions. The most important contact was a company in Malmö, Sweden, which mapped fallen trees that needed to be cleared after a storm. Together they tested Robert's idea, which answered his question: Sure, you can see boats from space!
The next - and much trickier - question was: But how exactly do you do it?
Robert searched the web. He read countless research papers and scoured ESA's Sentinel online website to understand how to access satellite images and what is needed to process them. The biggest challenge has been getting to grips with the technology.
- Satellites carry a lot of different instruments, which can be used in different ways. Photo, infrared, radar... so what the heck do you need? You need to know which of these instruments, or which combination of them, to use to get the best picture from space. And it takes a while to figure that out.
Analyzing the images also ideally required knowledge of Python, a programming language that Robert had not mastered, and he realized that the whole project required advanced mathematical knowledge. Innovatum Science Park and its partners then organized a space hackathon in Gothenburg. There, Robert got in touch with three "super talented maths guys" from Chalmers, who could help him figure out how to analyze satellite images to identify boats.
Mooringo's space technology journey has required perseverance and a long-term approach, where collaboration with others has been crucial. One key person Robert likes to highlight is his business coach at Innovatum Science Park and ESA-BIC.
- If I have a specific problem, my coach has a network within ESA that can help me further. I have realized that you learn a lot from everyone who has worked with this before, who can lead you on the right path, because you do not solve this on your own. But you have to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
- You can't ask "Which satellite should I use?". Then they have to understand my whole complex problem. Instead, I need to ask more specifically about the pros and cons of different options," he says.
At Innovatum Science Park, Robert was also helped to broaden the scope of his satellite idea. He was brought together with a startup working on marine industries, which led to an unexpected spin-off into the environmental field. Today, for example, Mooringo is part of a project to protect sensitive eelgrass from anchoring boats. The goal of making life easier for boaters has grown into a larger vision: to be able to deliver boating data to any country with a coastline and help both protect and promote coastal seas to boating tourism - something that would not have been possible without space technology.
- "That's the great thing about running your own business, that you can decide for yourself what you want to get involved in and develop further," says Robert, who wants to encourage more people to set their sights on space.
