During the recent SpaceTech Europe event, Leanspace hosted the first Space Hackathon ever, where participants were challenged to build a satellite control center in two days. Leveraging the Leanspace Cloud, and using the ClearSpace-1 debris removal mission as a use case, ten competing student teams proved possible what until today had been out of reach: that state-of-the-art ground software can be developed in a matter of days when using a dedicated space cloud.
"It's incredible what you can do in two days! The services from Leanspace are really impressive, they enabled us to build a disruptive solution very fast," commented Smit Patel, one of the participants. His team successfully built an application that sends notifications to mobile phones when a satellite encounters a critical problem.
From hundreds of applicants, 40 students from 12 different countries were invited and gathered in Bremen to reimagine the software tools needed to manage space missions. Building on top of Leanspace's open innovation platform, they developed completely novel applications for LEOP Automation, Monitoring & Control, Mission Management and Docking & Rendezvous. In only 48 hours they presented their solutions in front of an impressed space VIP jury, consisting of IAF and ISU president Pascale Ehrenfreund, CNES Space Exploration Manager Lionel Baize, Clearspace CEO Luc Piguet, and Leanspace CEO Guillaume Tanier.
"Our state-of-the-art solution was a wrapper around the Leanspace products using webhooks and a storage server, enabling us to automate mission activities triggered by conditional statements without human interference. This improves real-time adaptability and drastically reduces operational costs", remarked Joel Tomas Pimentel, participant from one of the winning teams.
With the proper technology, what yesterday was impossible is now a reality. As highlighted by Guillaume Tanier during the launch speech, 'This is the only way to allow space businesses to thrive, and together build the future space economy. We are providing them the technology to do it."