A new UK CubeSat platform is going to launch in the year 2020 and they are going to track any electronic emission that come from ships. They are doing this so that they can crack down on any illegal maritime activity. Of course, it's important to know that all of the ships that they have come with AIS, or Automatic Identification Signals. This gives them the chance to identify one another at sea and it also helps them to track them via satellite too. AIS systems can easily be switched on and off and they are also disabled when ships happen to carry out any illicit activity. This is especially the case when you look at illegal fishing, piracy and even smuggling. The project is going to be backed by something called Innovate UK and it is a collaboration between Horizon Technologies and even the Satellite Applications Catapult. This is going to be launching from the International Space Station. When it is in orbit, it will then work with the Horizon's Amber Ground Exploitation system which is in Cornwall. The catapult has been completely committed to making use of any space-based technologies and this is going to be used to try and crack down as much as possible.

If you work in technical recruitment or even in engineering recruitment, then you will know what a huge step this can be and you will also know how much work people are putting in to make sure that more is done about this. As a UK SME they couldn't be more pleased to work with the association and it's even safe to say that this is the perfect example of how a public and even private partnership can change to try and make things better for everyone who is involved.