Bulgarian start-ups make CubeSats, Quantum Physics Experiment in Space

EnduroSat
Space scientist Raycho Raychev's three-year-old start-up, EnduroSat, aims to make miniature satellites available at affordable prices to universities, research institutes and commercial users. "There's an unprecedented number of applications for our modules — from ship and truck tracking and navigation to astronomy, astrophysics and pharmacology," he says.

EnduroSat has received seed capital from a venture capital fund, followed by EU funding to provide more than 100 EnduroSat modules and online educational tools to selected European schools.

Its cheapest module, a 10cm-cubed "CubeSat" complete with miniature solar panels and retractable communications antennas, was designed by an in-house team and manufactured locally. EnduroSat satellites sell for €35,000-€65,000, compared to €100m for a conventional 3,000kg satellite.

Bee Smart Technologies
Sergey Petrov and his team at Bee Smart Technologies have an ecologist's sense of mission about their award-winning start-up: a remote beehive management system that uses algorithms to collect data on health and productivity in honeybee communities.

"Bees are nature's most important reproductive mechanism through pollination but they're rapidly disappearing . . . and I wanted to work on solving this problem," says Mr Petrov, an engineer and beekeeper who took a technology course in Silicon Valley before setting up Bee Smart with backing from angel investors.

"Our technology can help, for example, by alerting beekeepers to an infestation in one hive so they can prevent the disease from spreading."

The Beebot, an in-hive sensor-based system, monitors temperature and humidity while also analysing sounds inside the hive. Another device, the HiHive, uses a wireless scale to...