Bahian entrepreneur Aila Raquel Ribeiro, CEO and founder of the startup Alya Space, has been developing an ambitious project since 2019 to create a constellation of satellites capable of providing monitoring and high-resolution images for various economic and environmental purposes. Aila is currently negotiating with space agencies for a window to launch the first satellite in the series in December.
(RFI) Aila does not have a degree in aeronautical engineering, nor in astronomy, mathematics or physics. But as an architect and urban planner by training, she explains that the idea to create her company came about when she needed high-precision images for a project she was working on and the photographs available on the market were too expensive to buy from Brazil.
“I realized that there was a very big gap about not having Brazilian satellites to make Brazilian images and therefore have that price accessible to any Brazilian,” she says.
The constellation created by Alya Space will offer data and image monitoring services in any weather condition, almost in real time, for use in agricultural, mining, oil and gas activities, environmental protection projects, disaster monitoring, as well as in the creation of smart cities of the future.
The system envisioned by the Bahian entrepreneur combines optical remote sensing with radar technology. In three years, the startup wants to position 216 low-orbit, high-frequency satellites, in two phases – Alya 1 and Alya 2, with 108 satellites each – connected to ground bases.
“I designed my mission at the Air Force Institute for Advanced Studies. Together with a physicist from the institute, we saw how many satellites I needed to achieve excellent coverage for the purpose I wanted.”
There are many areas of Brazil that are not covered by foreign satellites. “We often need this historical data to make comparisons with current data,” she says. That’s why she plans “fantastic coverage of Brazil”, which can be useful for both public and private sector actors.
“Those photos that you get for free have 10m of resolution per pixel. Mine will have 50 cm of resolution per pixel. That’s the big differentiator, because the accuracy of the images is very high. The other differentiator is the price,” he emphasizes.
Manufacturer in Hong Kong
“The current partner that is developing and integrating my satellites and assisting me in every step of the way until the satellite reaches orbit is Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group,” she says. She says she chose this Asian manufacturer after extensive research on the international market. The decisive criterion for the choice, according to Aila, was the massive production capacity of the satellites.
“I had looked all over Europe. I still hadn’t found a company that could do integration as quickly and massively and with such high quality [as] what I found in Hong Kong. Nowadays, they have ISO and fantastic automation, they use artificial intelligence and a lot of robotics,” he says.
“At the moment, we’ve just integrated my first satellite. It’s ready, we’ve done the vibration tests, the radiation tests, everything we need to do. Now we’re just waiting for the launch date,” he says.
According to Aila, the cost of a constellation satellite is currently estimated at €1.2 million (around R$7.3 million), including licensing, launch, sensor integration and each sensor.
Selecting partners
At the moment, the entrepreneur is making contacts with international launchers. “In France, I talked to the French Space Agency to see if I can also launch some of our satellites from French Guiana, until I wait for Brazil’s Alcântara to be cleared,” she says.
“I like India a lot and I’m also looking at Russia,” she says, adding that, after Brazil, she feels the greatest affinity ‘with the Indians and the French’. The businesswoman has no doubt that the Alcântara base, 32 km from São Luís, in Maranhão, is the most suitable for her project.
“Alcântara has an excellent global location. It’s a very quick reach to orbit. We save fuel, we reach orbit very quickly and in my own orbit,” he summarizes.
In 2023, the South Korean startup Innospace carried out the first private launch at the base in Maranhão. The Hanbit-TLV rocket carried a Brazilian payload from Sisnav, a rocket navigation system developed by the Aeronautics and Space Institute.
First launch
“In December, we’ll have our first launch and next year the next satellites. We’re also going to build the ground stations in Brazil that will control, command, track and receive the data obtained by our satellites. We are even making several partnerships with universities,” she explains.
Asked if she has any competitors, she mentions a few companies on the international market, but no direct competitors in Brazil. “As far as I know, I’m also going to be the first Latin American woman CEO, founder and owner of a satellite to launch (a piece of equipment) into orbit.”