Space defence is of paramount importance, President of the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO) George Danos told CNA, ahead of the DefInSpace hackathon, a space defence competition that is held for the first time worldwide by the French Space Command.
DefInSpace comes to Cyprus as well, as one of a handful of countries that have been selected to run this high-profile competition. It takes place today and on Saturday 3 and 4 of June 2022, at the CSEO Discovery Alpha, CSEO’s new home for research and innovation located in the heart of Nicosia’s old town.
“This day and age that we live in, defence is of paramount importance, and especially defence from the high-tech big frontier of space. Other than the usual dangers of asteroids and solar storms, we have a build-up of space debris that’s starting to plague space activities and our own planet” Danos told CNA.
He added that last year, “we saw the uncontrolled re-entry of a Chinese space rocket, that scared humanity with the possibility of crashing in a populated area.”
Now, he stressed, we want to proactively, with the guidance of the French Space Command, develop solutions here in Cyprus that will contribute to global safety from such dangers.
“We have talented engineers in Cyprus, and we will be supporting them to innovate in this important field”, he stressed.
DefInSpace, the hackathon of the French Space Command (CDE, or Commandement de l’Espace), opens for the first time in the world, and in Cyprus with the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO – www.space.cy), and participants are given 24 hours to imagine solutions for the future of space defence.
Cyprus has been selected as one of few countries and partners where this competition will take place and offers winning teams the chance to form their own start-up companies, get access to funding or even career opportunities in space. Participants will have a chance to be connected and mentored from professionals in the space sector and if they win to attend the launch of a rocket and its satellites at the Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana.
The DefInSpace 2022 Hackathon is open to students or young innovative people from the space sector, passionate and eager to discover the world of defence.
“Cypriot teams have always performed well in international competitions; several teams have won globally in their categories in NASA’s annual Space Apps Challenge. Cypriot teams have also received special commendations in ActInSpace, Europe’s space start-up competition, which returns later this year”,Colm Larkin, CSEO’s Director of Discovery Alpha, told CNA.
He added that “this combined with being the first in-person competition we’ve held in our new Space Research Centre – CSEO Discovery Alpha – is a very exciting experience and we’re all looking forward to the impressive solutions our teams will come up.”
DefInSpace is part of CSEO’s Innovation and Start-up program – creating innovative solutions to challenges in space exploration and research and progressing them into commercial entities, as part of CSEO’s space cluster, stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship.
Who can participate?
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Anyone with a passion for space and a good idea can take part. Special skills or specific degrees aren’t needed. The competition is purposely divided in two challenges. One that does not require any technical skills and one that does require technical, scientific and engineering skills.
DefInSpace is anopportunity for participants to discover the little-known space defence sector, its future challenges and the new jobs that will result from meeting those challenges. Political science, economics, international and commercial law are just some of the many fields required to prepare comprehensive viable solutions for Europe’s space defence.
As space traffic increases, it becomes relatively ‘cheaper’, and it opens to the private sector. The CDE wants to promote the search for innovative solutions in order to be prepared for consequent issues before they arise. The new space era has already been marked by the emergence of a great number of new technologies with both spatial and terrestrial applications. Space defence research and innovation will move forward faster if it is flexible, inclusive, multinational and imaginative.
To register for the competition and for more information people may visit https://www.space.cy/definspace/
What are DefInSpace’s 2022 challenges?
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This year’s competition is related to Space Traffic Management. Space Traffic Management (STM) encompasses the means and the rules to access, conduct activities in, and return from outer space safely, sustainably and securely.
Space based applications such as communications, navigation and earth observations all affect Europe’s economies and societies. For example, wildfires in the summer displace a huge number of people every year and have a drastic impact on a regional and national economic output. An effective and responsive STM is essential to maintain space-based applications that improve all our daily lives such as communications, navigation and weather forecasting.
The two challenges for this year are: Challenge 1 (General): How can the EU approach the Space Traffic Management problem, on both the regulatory and strategic levels (autonomy, stakes, space diplomacy etc)? What are the stakes for the Ministries of defence of the member states? Challenge 2 (Technical): What resources (sensors, networks, data processing etc) are mandatory to benefit from an autonomous and reliable Space Traffic Management system on an EU level? What contribution could the armed forces of the EU member states bring?
What is the competition format?
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Participants will work on the two challenges related to Space Traffic Management, individually or in teams, and will deliver an analysis and an action plan.
After 24 hours, a jury comprised of judges with various backgrounds (such as academia, industry and armed forces) will appraise each entry to choose the two teams that will represent Cyprus in the international semi-finals and finals, in Paris, at the end of June 2022.
The schedule for the weekend is:Friday 3rd June 2022 – Starting 14:00 with the Opening Ceremony. The Mayor of Nicosia, Constantinos Yiorkadjis, will open the competition. Representatives of the French Embassy, the USA Embassy, Ministries, the National Guard and industry, will attend the ceremony. Following this, the participants will receive mentorship and work on their selected challenges. Saturday 4th June 2022 – Starting at 10:00 with work on the challenges. At 17:00 the teams will present their solutions to the judges and later in the evening the winners that will progress to the International Finals in Paris, will be announced.
What are the benefits of the competition?
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The International Final takes place on 28 June in Paris, and the global winning team will have the opportunity to attend the launch of a rocket and its satellites at the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana.
Furthermore, the participants will receive mentoring on space engineering and space matters. They will also be provided with networking opportunities and possibly even career opportunities.
“As with every competition we ran in the past, the most valuable aspects are the experience gained and the future career opportunities to the participants”, Colm Larkin told CNA.
CDE was established in 2019, and its priorities included improvement of the operational efficiency, consistency, visibility and simplicity of the French Military Space organisation. As part of CDE’s initiatives, DefInSpace was launched as an annual hackathon in 2021, with a focus on their own prerogatives: to foster the emergence of innovative ideas that will enable the CDE to address concepts and technologies that can modify the use of space in the short- and middle-term, benefiting armed forces, promoting the knowledge of spatial defence and its ecosystem, in France and Europe and promoting the CDE’s image to the general public of France and Europe, through its role and missions in serving spatial defence.
The Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO) is the prime space institution of Cyprus, that promotes and advances space exploration and astronomy in Cyprus and around the world. It was founded in 2012, with the goal of “Launching Cyprus into the Space Era” and building the next generation of space scientists, participating in global space research exploration missions, while bridging international collaboration in space initiatives and technologies.
Today it has over 1500 registered researchers, scientists, educators and volunteers and an active presence in social media with over to 350,000 followers.
With multiple space research projects currently in progress, including the integration of a mechanism that will date the Martian sediments, CSEO is creating high-tech opportunities in space exploration in Cyprus.
CSEO is the official representative of Cyprus to the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the Moon Village Association (MVA), the Global Experts Group for Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGSLA), Mars Society and other international bodies. CSEO’s International Council comprises some of the world’s most distinguished individuals that are highly decorated for their contribution to space exploration and astronomy.
Source: Cyprus News Agency