The UK has a long aerospace history, whereas the recent commissioning of spaceports on British soil marks an important milestone in the country’s road towards true launch independence. However, the chief UK resource in the 21st-century cosmic race is its human talent, especially among the young. Students from the University of Surrey have recently made UK space news after winning another UKSEDS annual competition — the second time in a row. So, what is UKSEDS? And why students from the University of Surrey could well become the future of the UK’s cosmic industry? Discover this and more in the paragraphs below.
What are UKSEDS competitions for students?
The UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS) organisation was founded in 1988 and has been supporting young talent through recurring events, access to various resources, and, of course, through tech competitions. The UKSEDS membership is free of charge and available to all UK students, including the three-year post-graduation period.
Competitions, however, are usually available to teams (up to 15 people), including graduate and post-graduate students from different majors. The goal is to help students acquire practical skills. For example, the Olympus Rover Trials challenge held in 2022-2023 aimed to simulate mission conditions on Mars, and the National Rocketry Championship, as its name suggests, encouraged participants to launch a rocket with a payload. Besides, UKSEDS social media volunteer initiatives are aimed at making STEM careers more attractive to UK youth.
One of the most notable recurring events, run since 2017, is the Satellite Design Competition. More specifically, this competition is about CubeSat design, which makes perfect sense considering that CubeSats emerged as an education space project. UKSEDS invites participants to offer innovative ideas on anything CubeSat-related —be it an entire satellite, its payload, ignition system, etc.
Each year, a total of five teams can compete for the ultimate prize – the Best Satellite award. However, all participating teams are eventually rewarded through honorary mentions of Best Outreach, Best Report, Best Innovation, and Best Presentation. This year, just like the year before, Airbus Defence and Space provided their offices for this annual competition. And, coincidence or not, the same team as the year before made UK space news again. So, what was this year’s big news from the University of Surrey?
University of Surrey makes UK space news again
Peryton Space, a team of students from the University of Surrey, makes UK space news for the second year in a row. This time, the team won the satellite design competition from UKSEDS with its DARWIN (Detection, Analysis, and Research for Wildfire Investigation Network) satellite for wildfire detection. The CubeSat presented in 2024 is equipped with a combination of optical and thermal sensors.
The DARWIN thermal camera detects heat spots in infrared, while an optical one helps determine the scale and distance of the fire. As a reminder, recent increases in wildfires are primarily caused by changing climate and rising temperature levels, so DARWIN is big news and a highly relevant development. Despite its compact size of 10x10x30cm, the CubeSat carries advanced software (also designed by the Peryton team), which allows it to pinpoint fires with an astonishing degree of accuracy.
As mentioned, this year’s UKSEDS competition is not the first time Peryton has made UK space news. Last year, the team won the same award after presenting another CubeSat design for measuring space debris in orbit. Once again, space debris is growing into a major concern that might even endanger our access to space unless we deal with it quickly. So, the Peryton team once again displays its creativity in addressing a global issue that concerns us all — which, in part, could explain their success at space competitions.
But it’s not just about social accountability or readiness to face current challenges to make the news. Peryton is a highly dedicated team with deep knowledge of space technologies. Students from the University of Surrey also won two rocket design, build, and launch competitions — in 2023, their brainchild reached a required 1.5 km peak, and in 2024, the stakes went up to a 2.5 km altitude.
Impressive as such a level of dedication is, what is the student satisfaction at the University of Surrey? Clearly, access to engineering resources and challenges boosts student morale — not just for Peryton but also for their coursemates. After winning yet another prize in October 2024, Peryton happily shared their success story with the media, but what’s more important is that some team members are already working on another satellite project, Jovian-1. Will it get us to Jupiter’s Moons? It’s hard to tell now, but considering this team’s impressive success streak, it might!
In all fairness, Peryton is not the only notable example of successful educational projects at the University of Surrey. The facility has one of the strongest space programs, with small satellite research dating back to 1979, the official founding date of the Surrey Space Centre. The centre has already inspired many bright minds over the last four decades, acting as the UK’s major investment in the future of space exploration.
