The Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation has been selected as one of the organisations to run the French Space Command’s competition DefInSpace will take place, a classic hackathon for space defense.
This is the first time that the French Space Command’s competition DefInSpace is held worldwide, and it comes to Cyprus, as one of a handful of countries that have been selected to run this high-profile competition. In Cyprus it takes place on 3 – 4 June 2022, at CSEO Discovery Alpha, in Nicosia.
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.
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.
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?
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 comprising 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 International Final takes place on 28 June in Paris, and the world 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.
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.
DefInSpace Cyprus is organised by the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO), with partner the Municipality of Nicosia, and media sponsor the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).
Source: Cyprus News Agency