News Category: Japan

Polar Star Space is a venture company started by Hokkaido University that utilizes the technologies of Hokkaido University, Tohoku University and Shiga University of Medical Science as a base, in order to provide data-driven problem-solving services in the fields of agriculture, fishery, resources and energy, disaster prevention, etc.

In the $200 billion global space industry market, commercial use of remote sensing is a promising area that is expected to grow in the future. The realization of global measurements using hundreds of ultra-small satellites by the US satellite company Planet, means that a door for new satellite competition has been opened as opposed to the heavy and large, traditional satellite competition. We are aiming for multiple operations of ultra-small satellites equipped with super multi-color cameras as a unique strategy to realize an “on-demand” and “flexible” satellite observation, as well as a “problem-solving type” required for commercial use of satellites. .

We make use of our proprietary measurement method with our proprietary smartphone spectroscope and drone-mounted multi-spectral camera, and construct a highly accurate bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) spectral library for various crops at every azimuth, angle, and solar altitude in every season. From the spectrum of the target measured based on this knowledge, we will provide value in the field of agriculture including but not limited to the discovery of lesions, and optimization of fertilization and pesticide use.

In addition to this, we aim to achieve the realization of high-precision remote sensing in a wide area in which micro satellites play an active role, such as with harvest prediction, natural disaster prediction and resource mapping in the large-scale agriculture industry that is closely related to population explosion and global environmental problems.

Implementing a high-precision BRDF spectrum library can be a source of powerful competitive advantage for understanding the state of any target. The mission of Polar Star Space is to realize high-precision remote sensing ahead of the rest of the world, and contribute to solving global issues.

WARPSPACE is a space tech startup, located in Tsukuba, developing an optical inter-satellite data relay service in medium Earth orbit called “WarpHub InterSat”. The target customers are Earth observation satellite operators that need to quickly move large volumes of data from space to the ground at the very time when they need their data. Bringing in both heritages from JAXA and OICETS projects and supply chain innovations in NewSpace, WARPSPACE aims to become the world’s first private company to provide an optical communication network in space.