"The councillors are all Sirs and OBE's," laughs Clark. But he's aware that in less than five years, his company has joined the space elite by its specialism in the nano space niche of cube satellites and by pursuing a continuous R&D profile. It is also forecasting a profit on its turnover of around £1.5m, which Clark points out is all 'space' earned revenue, from a series of contracts in Europe, Turkey, US and Japan.

If space and the satellite industry is one of the UK's unsung success stories, for Scotland, Clyde Space is a jewel in its crown of SMEs. Working in the sector that has driven many of this century's technical advances in communications, computing, materials and energy, the Clyde Space team and its founder, CEO Craig Clark have been equally passionate about cubesat R&D.

Power play in cubesats
Sufficiently so that in 2008 the company emerged with a maximum power point tracker technology to increase solar energy capture by up to 40%, invaluable for cubesat power needs, but also valuable for solar power CCTV systems, leading to the 2009 business spin-off company, Puurgen.
Above: Comparing battery energy densities

What is he working on now?

"In one instance we are looking at taking forward an idea for injection moulded plastic for space, with better radiation shielding than aluminium that is dissipative, and doesn't outgas," he says. " Up to now the problem has been that plastics were subject to outgassing in a vacuum and that would deposit on the coldest surface, glass, mirrors or optics. We're looking at rapid prototyping and, perhaps, an ESA study to work on the structure.”

Back in August, Clyde Space focus was on three developments: improving altitude control systems; work for ESA on developing cubesat micro pulse thruster systems, which involve high voltage power supplies (Clark was Head of Power in his former incarnation at Surrey Satellites) that will enable the miniature craft to maintain orbit or to aid de-orbit, as well as the development of a new standard for cubesat spacecraft.

"We tend to do our own R&D," says Clark. "That has to be fed from revenue." he adds. "It's difficult at a time when there's very little funding around."

But he is hoping to increase his staff numbers from 20 to 30 before the end of the year, and is currently negotiating for around £1m of funding to establish an office in the US and launch its own test satellite from India.

Talking to The Herald, he points out “The space industry is not just an oddity. It’s one of the fastest-growing areas of business in the world, that more and more is becoming part of our daily lives. Most people have Sky TV in their homes. That’s the space industry.

“We’re working in areas as maritime telecommunications, the military, broadband in space, GPS navigation systems, climate monitoring – all these are elements of the space industry.

“At the moment, the space industry in Scotland employs maybe 200 people, but between 2020 and 2030 I would expect that to rise to between 5,000 and 10,000 people, and that we will generate at least £5bn of an estimated £40bn across the UK.”

The message for the Scottish computer industry is clearly that data from and about space needs its experts.

“It’s about establishing global businesses here in Scotland. For example, there is no reason why we couldn’t have a bush-fire monitoring operation here, gathering the information from satellite about fires in Greece, Italy, the US, Australia or wherever. Space is a growing industry and Scotland should be part of that.”

The new UK Space Agency for one, appreciates exploitation of data generated by Earth observation satellites, using space data to understand and counter climate change, as well as ensuring security and resilience of space systems and services.

Time for Scotland to take up computing software interface baton with passion.