Hello Space is Turkey’s first PocketQube satellite constellation start-up. Founded in May 2022, the company intends to provide worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) sensor-to-sensor data transfer with devices that use GNSS and LoRaWAN.
The LoRaWAN specification is a low-power, wide-area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated object, assets and other positioning targets to the internet in regional, national or global networks. It meets key IoT requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services.
Hello Space aims to establish a PocketQube satellite constellation of 50+ satellites in space, to offer a narrowband data transfer service. The first Hello Space test satellite, christened ‘Instanbul’, is set to launch onboard SpaceX’s Falcon9 rocket in February 2023.
PocketQube, developed by two universities in the US, represents the world’s most recent and smallest satellite standard, measuring 5x5x5cm and weighing about 250 grams. Hello Space PocketQubes will provide data transfer from surface IoT devices to a ground station, and then to the internet cloud. The company’s tech team told Inside GNSS, “The biggest advantage of Hello Space is that the satellites are so small and light, which enables significant launch and production cost reduction. Compared to other satellite technologies, our PocketQubes will offers IoT data services with strong and wide coverage, with the cost advantage of a significantly smaller satellite. Our system will transmit remote sensor data in maritime, agriculture-, logistics-, energy-, environment- and climate-related businesses at a large scale, for less.”
IoT technologies are becoming more and more common around the world, used in a growing variety of applications, such as tracing the movement of cargo containers, remote monitoring of variables such as temperature and humidity levels of industrial equipment and monitoring the position of agricultural output to secure efficient supply chain management.
Both the hardware and software for Hello Space’s PocketQube Istanbul are being produced in Turkey. In a press communication, the company’s Co-Founder Zafer Şen said Hello Space wants to put Turkey among world’s pioneers in the PocketQube satellite field, which is practically new to everyone.
