LONDON - British scientists are hoping to develop an out-of-this-world solution to the global scourge of malaria - by using space satellites to detect mosquitos’ breeding locations.

the government has announced that the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is to pump £3.4 million ($5 million) of new funding into ten “leading-edge projects that back UK academics using space to tackle global development problems”.

These problems including the spread of malaria, which caused 405,000 deaths in 2018 alone, with a total of 228 million cases reported worldwide, according to latest figures from the World Health Organization.

The government says that “using satellite, air-borne and ground-based sensing technology, academics at The Open University will detect where mosquitoes are most likely to breed”.

Once these hot spots are identified, “sprayer drones” will then release biocontrol agents that will kill mosquito larvae “without affecting other species”.

The pioneering new projects also include the development of “space-based solutions that will help protect wildlife habitats in Kenya, and another that will improve resilience to flooding in Bangladesh”, says the government statement.