Changemakers: Niels Buus

For Danish entrepreneur Niels Buus SLN1994, the great voids beyond Earth’s stratosphere are full of commercial possibility. Denmark’s Business Leader of the Year in 2017, Buus is CEO of GomSpace, which produces nanosatellites; satellites the size of a shoebox that can perform the functions of larger models at a fraction of the cost.

Through disrupting the traditional satellite business model, Buus is at the forefront of a pioneering movement. On one hand, there is a vast spectrum of new commercial channels for observing the Earth for a variety of civilian and military applications. “The expectance of a long-term growth in the low Earth satellite business segment is made possible through nanosatellites,” says Buus.

Then there is the prospect of mining in space, perhaps the single most exciting business opportunity of all time. “The necessity in the long term for humans to find resources outside our Earth is being considered more and more,” he says. “We are looking at the ability of nanosatellites to monitor asteroids, because there is potentially a lot of mineral wealth on them.”

Gomspace’s tiny but powerful satellites operate at between 400 and 900km from the Earth, orbiting the planet every 90 minutes, or 17 times a day. They can harvest energy from the sun, rotate, communicate and pick up data in space. The firm’s business proposition addresses several sectors which, Buus says, “we believe we have the potential to disrupt.” These include scientific and security needs, tracking aircraft and ships, and weather forecasting in remote areas.

The company is also talking to large satellite operating companies about the possibility of supplying them with nanosatellites. The nanosatellites are fired into space on rockets owned by pioneers such as Elon Musk’s Space X, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit and dozens of other companies from countries including China, India and New Zealand. Despite the number of operators, Buus reveals there aren’t enough launches to meet demand from commercial satellite companies.

Based in Aalborg, in the north of Denmark, GomSpace is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The firm grew by 70% in its first three years and by 2017 was worth around £300 million. Although GomSpace has had to pare back operations in recent months, Buus says growing pains are par for the course: “If you look at high-tech, high-growth companies, they all had to deal with struggles at some time. Finding a way to sidestep problems and find a way through is key.”