The UK Space Agency is offering young people expert advice and a share of £50,000 for their ideas on how satellites could improve life on Earth.

The SatelLife Competition (now in its fourth year) is looking for innovative proposals that could use data collected from space to benefit daily life —by (for example) growing new businesses, improving health services or tackling climate change.

The winning ideas from last year’s competition included tracking abandoned shopping trolleys, fighting crime with drones and designing a mobile app to locate public toilets.

The Agency said (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-space-agency): “Satellites support the economy and everyday life; this competition gives young people the chance to test their ideas with space experts and perhaps one day become part of one of the UK’s fastest-growing industries.

The UK space sector already supports 42,000 jobs and could create another 30,000 in the next decade.”

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said: “The SatelLife Competition will help the next generation of scientists and innovators to unleash their imaginations and turn their ideas into real-life proposals that could eventually transform our lives — from saving the planet from climate change to improving health-care services.

"UK space is booming, and we are at the forefront of the space industry.

"I would encourage all young people who are fascinated by space to enter the SatelLife Competition and play a key part in the second space age.”