On 22-24 November 2024, hackers, inventors, entrepreneurs and anyone else interested in entrepreneurship, the defence industry and EU Space technologies gathered in various places across Europe and online for the 8th edition of the CASSINI Hackathon. Participants were challenged to create solutions that use European space technologies to strengthen Europe’s defence and security capabilities.
The three challenges of this Hackathon edition were:
- Challenge #1: enhancing defence and security with geospatial intelligence
- Challenge #2: unmanned drone applications for defence and security operations
- Challenge #3: Orbital Security: navigating the collision frontier
For the first time, a CASSINI Hackathon challenge asked participants to develop solutions for in-orbit conjunctions. As part of Challenge #3, participants were asked to devise a collision avoidance strategy that leverages Conjunction Data Messages (CDMs) and other advanced techniques to safeguard satellite operations against debris and potential threats.
Participants were asked to develop innovative approaches that enhance Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and ensure secure, uninterrupted satellite missions. Based on access to CDM data and a realistic scenario, they were prompted to assess and mitigate collision risks using CDM and other analytical tools, and to propose viable business models that commercialise these innovative solutions.
The winner of this edition’s CASSINI Hackathon was SpaceGuardian, a company based in Slovenia which automates collision prevention, optimises orbital manoeuvers, extends satellite lifespans, and reduces space debris for a safer, more efficient orbital environment.
Background
EU SST is a subcomponent of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) component of the EU Space Programme. It safeguards space assets, especially EU Space Programme satellites such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, GOVSATCOM and in the future IRIS², along with the space assets of EU Member States and other space operators.
EU SST uses a network of ground-based sensors capable of surveying and tracking space objects and processing capabilities aimed at improving, operating, and providing data, information and services on space objects orbiting the Earth. This helps to mitigate the risk of a collision between space assets and other spacecraft and debris, in-orbit fragmentations and uncontrolled re-entries of space objects into the Earth’s atmosphere.
CASSINI is the European Commission's initiative to support entrepreneurs, start-ups, and SMEs in the space industry, including New Space, during 2021-2027. The initiative is open to all areas of the EU Space Programme, and covers both upstream (i.e. nanosats, launchers, etc. and downstream (i.e. products/services enabled by space data, etc.). CASSINI includes a €1 billion EU seeds and growth fund, hackathons and mentoring, prizes, a business accelerator, partnering and matchmaking.
CASSINI Hackathons and mentoring consist of online competitions to foster EU Space data ideas that target high social impact business opportunities. It is designed for students, researchers and entrepreneurs who see investors’ visibility. Hackathons are held twice a year on variable themes addressing EU sustainability and digitalization goals.
More information
Details
- Publication date
- 22 November 2024
- Author
- Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space