Edmonton-based space startup using satellite images to improve agricultural management

Canada’s growing set of space sector SMEs includes an Edmonton-based startup that plans to launch a satellite with an unfolding telescope to improve the sustainability of farmlands.

Wyvern, a space data company, has partnered with Olds College to use Wyvern’s “deployable optics” technology to capture high-resolution hyperspectral images of the college’s Smart Farm in southern Alberta.

Last week, Wyvern received $4 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada to support the launch of its DragonEye satellite that is planned for the end of 2023 or early 2024.

“The DragonEye satellite project is the first orbital demonstration of our deployable optics technology,” Chris Robson, CEO and co-founder of Wyvern, told Research Money.

Hyperspectral imaging can detect and measure the chemical and material properties of things on Earth’s surface that are invisible to other imaging technologies, he said.

“You’ll look at a field and be able to say, ‘that’s corn, it’s got a weed infestation in this part of the quarter-section, it’s at this stage of growth, it has this amount of nutrients and this amount of water,’” Robson said.

Data from Wyvern’s DragonEye satellite and future satellites will be used to improve the overall efficiency of crop inputs, which includes helping farmers use less fertilizer, pesticides and water to produce bigger yields.

DragonEye’s data will contribute to Olds College’s “HyperLayer Data Concept,” a three-year project in which the college, on its 2,800-acre Smart Farm, will compile, analyze and use almost every type of agricultural data. The college and its project partners are using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to extract, analyze and share data to allow farmers to optimize productivity and sustainability.

Supporters of the Olds College Smart Farm and its HyperLayer Data Concept include the Canada Foundation for Innovation-Alberta Research Capacity Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Western Economic Diversification and TELUS Agriculture.

Robson said the agricultural industry is Wyvern’s initial target market because the sector is already using digital farming and space technologies for applications such as GPS and auto-driving tractors. “They were ready to take it to the next level with hyperspectral imagery," he said.

Farmers currently pay fees to specialist companies to fly airplanes and drones over fields to determine crop health and vitality. Increasing the rate of crop farmers that use satellite imagery by 25 per cent by 2027 would save farmers $650 million to $1.3 billion while contributing to more sustainable farming practices, according to Canada’s space strategy released in 2019.

Beyond agriculture, hyperspectral images can also be used in forestry, energy and defence, as well as for environmental monitoring in response to climate change.

Wyvern has raised pre-seed round and seed round financing totalling US$4.5 million to support its growth.

The company plans to launch three separate satellites in a partnership with Scottish satellite tech startup AAC Clyde Space by the end of this year to prove its hyperspectral imaging technology and start providing data from space before DragonEye’s launch with the deployable optics, Robson said.

With deployable optics, the company essentially takes a big telescope and folds it up into a very small size that can fit on a small, inexpensive satellite. Once in space, the telescope unfolds.

“By doing this, we can get a much higher resolution and a better quality image from a much smaller spacecraft,” Robson said.

Robson, as a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alberta, worked with other students to build Alberta’s first satellite, Ex-Alta 1. It weighed only 2.64 kilograms and deployed from the International Space Station in 2017.

He said he and other colleagues formed Wyvern in 2018 to combine deployable optics with hyperspectral imaging to take advantage of growing opportunities for SMEs in Canada’s space industry.

“The opportunities are everything under the sun, from in-orbit servicing asteroid mining, in-orbit data processing,” Robson said. “There’s a lot of room for small companies right now, and especially for small companies to grow into big companies.”

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