BY UE STUDIO

Updated Thursday,30march2023-12:33

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The gold of the twenty-first century is information. But, contrary to what happened in the Industrial Revolution with the railroad, today you do not need a physical means to transport that gold from one place to another. It can be done with the Internet of Things, "the steam engine of the age of digitalization". That is, through a constellation of satellites. That is what FOSSA Systems does, the Spanish company of which Vicente González is co-founder and director of Technology. As he likes to say, they take information "literally, from Madrid to heaven."

In the capital of Madrid they develop pocket satellites, weighing less than a kilogram, called picosatellites. Then, SpaceX, the company of the famous Elon Musk, is responsible for launching them into space. When they are already in orbit, these traditional minisatellites receive real-time information from devices located on Earth. Then all that remains is the analysis of the data and draw the conclusions.

Thus, on the earth's surface, with his feet glued to the ground, a livestock entrepreneur can know, through a smartwatch, located on the collar of a cattle head, if a cow is sick or in heat or has escaped from the parceled area. A freight forwarding company monitors whether the temperature, pressure and relative humidity of a container with perishable goods has changed in maritime transport along an entire journey. Or you know instantly if the infrastructure of a water distribution network or an oil pipeline has been corrupted. Information that allows to avoid losses of thousands and even millions of euros.

Those tons of information, ones and zeros, are the pure and gleaming gold of the age of digitalization. And they no longer go by rail.

Fossa Systems is the first Spanish company to deploy a constellation of miniature satellites.

"More and more private companies are accessing the space to provide a service," González acknowledges. It is called NewSpace and is the philosophy that has democratized the use of outer space. Where before there were ministries of defense, government associations, space agencies or large telecommunications multinationals dedicated to scientific missions, now there are also entrepreneurs with commercial interests. A truly emerging private industry. "What you do is generate intelligence. If I am fully aware of how my infrastructure works, I can identify where I can improve it," warns González. Its impact, both in the economic part and in terms of sustainability and its impact on the environment, is evident. The pioneers have traded the Wild West for outer space.

FOSSA Systems' satellites, in fact, are continuously improving, still far from their final product: the first, developed in 2019, had capacity for less than 20,000 devices per day. On the other hand, those that will launch into space in the middle of this 2023, will already have capacity for millions of devices. And, in addition, they will completely disintegrate upon re-entry into Earth so as not to generate space debris.

And all from the hand of a 28-year-old man, Vicente González, and his 20-year-old partner, Julián Fernández. And with passion as "gasoline, the trigger" to launch satellites into space. "I encourage people to study, to try to find their vocation, their true passion, but never close to learning new things and specializing in other subjects," warns González. He says: "The secret ingredient is passion. If you have a passion for what you do, you're going to be able to be an improved version of yourself every day and push yourself to limits that you thought were impossible."

Limitless. From Madrid... to heaven.

The story of success and innovation of Vicente González is a testimony of Buscando Vocaciones, the project of the European University that gathers the experiences of referents of our society to guide people who begin their university formative stage and also those who are looking for a transformation in their professional life.

In Buscando Vocaciones, innovators like Vicente González draw us, from the present, the world that awaits us, with passionate and inspired, purely vocational speeches. Like that of Paula Carsí, aerospace engineer and director of manufacturing innovation at Ford of Europe, who recalled that "your work of the future does not yet exist". Meanwhile, Javier Gómez Elvira, doctor in Aeronautical Engineering and director of the Department of Payloads and Space Sciences at the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), launched a challenge to the new generations: "You have a challenge to set foot outside the Earth," he encouraged.

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