Oxford Space Systems (OSS) has won the Grand Prix at this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards. Just two years old, the company has already raised more than £1million in investment and will see one of its products launched into space in 2016.

Every satellite requires some form of deployable structure and designers need to improve the stowage efficiency of these structures. OSS’ solution is AstroTube, a proprietary rolled composite material that unfurls like a tape measure. This allows structures such as antennas, panels and booms to not only be lighter and smaller, but also less complex. To achieve this, OSS is working with a world leading expert in origami techniques.

OSS was also recognised as Start Up of the Year. In the opinion of the Judges, OSS has demonstrated everything you could plan and hope for from a start up; a viable range of innovative products and demand for its technology from the global space industry.

OSS has already signed five ‘significant’ development contracts and says it is succeeding because it has ‘genuinely innovative and disruptive technology, strong backing from investors and demand from companies in the US, the UK and Japan.

The OSS team is encouraged to ‘think big’ and to not be scared of proposing apparently ‘wacky’ ideas. In founder Mike Lawton’s opinion, there is no such thing as a ‘daft idea’. “History,” he says, “is littered with so called experts saying that the technology we take for granted was impossible.”

What the Judges said: “It’s a huge success story for UK manufacturing plc and an example to other companies of how to identify and exploit a market opportunity.” For more on the event, go to www.beeas.co.uk