Keeping Satellites in Space – Where Science and Engineering Meet

Since 1981, Sir Martin has pioneered rapid-response, low-cost andhighly-capable small satellites utilising modern terrestrial COTS devices to'change the economics of space'. In 1985 he formed a spin-off University company(SSTL) which has designed, built, launched and operated in orbit 41 nano, micro,and mini-satellites – including the international Disaster MonitoringConstellation (DMC) and the first Galileo navigation satellite (GIOVE-A) forESA. SSTL has grown to 610 staff with annual revenues exceeding £100M andexports over £0.5Bn – it is currently manufacturing 22 navigation payloads forthe Galileo (Full Operational) Constellation, 3 high-resolution (1-metre) EarthObservation minisatellites and a low-cost medium-resolution SAR minisatellite(NovaSAR).

As Director of the Surrey Space Centre and a distinguishedprofessor at the University of Surrey, Sir Martin leads a team of 90 faculty anddoctoral researchers investigating advanced small satellite concepts andtechniques, acting as the research laboratory for SSTL - realacademic-commercial synergy. Sir Martin has been appointed OBE and knighted byHM The Queen, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the RoyalAcademy of Engineering and most recently has received the prestigious von KarmanWings Award from CalTech/JPL. He is a member of the UK Space Agency LeadershipCouncil.

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