Clever 17 year-old measuring cow burps from space
Cairo has just been announced as one of the winners of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Space Prize for Student Endeavour for his research and start-up company Cattle Credit which uses satellite data to track cow methane emissions.
The prize awarded him $25,000, a tour of the New Zealand and California Rocket Lab facilities next year and six months’ mentoring from Rocket Lab staff.
He will scale up his commercial product so farmers can use the data to measure and prove their emission levels meet requirements for low-emission meat and dairy products and compare their efforts with other farms and the national average.
“I have very big ambitions in aerospace,” Cairo said.
“New Zealand has the opportunity to be a big leader in space. We are pioneering a lot of technology here and it is the time now for us to become one of the biggest and make a big impact on the world.”
Cairo has no background in farming, but has always been fascinated by space. He first harnessed his passion into astrophotography three years ago, shooting deep space and the Milky Way.
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