The virtual Hackathon ended on Saturday November 14, which for Italy saw 10 teams competing online and connected from all over the world: 31 countries, 61 cities, 3597 competitions and 51 challenges.

A two-day challenge that began on Friday 13 and ended on Saturday 14 November, held on an online platform chosen by the national organizers due to the emergency situation due to Covid-19. However, it was an opportunity to field a series of skills and abilities which, with the support of satellite technology, in this case have achieved a small success. Not only for ASI (Italian Space Agency), but also for Openet, a company that has been operating in the satellite technology sector for over twenty years, developing projects and services on a worldwide scale in partnership with ASI and ESA (Agenzia Spaziale Europea), and for I3P, with its experience in the field of innovative startups with high technological intensity.

The 10 teams in their presentations were supported during the Hackathon by three experts in economics, business and technology such as prof. Frank Cinque General Director of E4Impacat Foundation, prof. Andrea Mezzadri professor of Business Economics and the engineer Guglielmo Faggioli Deep Learning Engineer at AIKO. They were then evaluated on innovative ideas in various fields of application, from space technologies to data, patents and infrastructures, by the Italian jury composed of:

Dott. Anilkumar DAVE, head of ASI’s Innovation and Technology Transfer Unit;

Ing. Tanya SCALIA, Aerospace Engineer and PhD in Aeronautical and Space Technology, within the ASI Technology Transfer Unit;

Ing. Roberto GROSSO, Aerospace Engineer, manager and entrepreneur, Founder of Maxq Space Business;

Dott. Vito GAUDIANO, Founder and CEO of Openet Technologies S.p.A;

Ing. Lorenzo FERUGLIO, PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Founder and CEO of AikoSpace.

The winner of the national competition is the POLIMI SPACE team, explained the jury, “for having proposed an innovative idea that contributes to the new era of lunar exploration while maintaining good attention to the economic model and the needs of end customers. The idea, called “MoonSweep”, fits into the ISRU context and could also have interesting implications in the terrestrial context for the sustainable use of resources“.

The winning team of this edition of ActInSpace® 2020 “SPAZIO POLIMI / MOONSWEEP”, composed of Enrico Mario Giovanardi, Marco Morgese, Giulio Pelenghi, Asuthosh Conda Ramesh and Davide Iafrate, developed the project by facing the challenge la “AIRBUS 03: The Moon Race Challenge ”.

The winners explain: “Today the terrestrial imaging and data processing market is growing at an unprecedented rate, the very complex network of terrestrial and space resources allows us to see our planet in ever more detail. Now let’s imagine the year 2025, a new race to the moon is starting and this time private companies will play a key role in creating lunar infrastructure.

In this new lunar economy, geographic, topological and geological information will be crucial to address the harsh environment. Our goal is to collect, process and provide this information clearly to our customers. This will foster a safer and more conscious development of human activities on the moon. MoonSweep is mainly divided into a data processing / software part and a data collection part. With the second highly scalable part: from collecting data already available on the moon to having a fleet of satellites and rovers that constantly expand the capabilities of MoonSweep ”.

The SPAZIO POLIMI / MOONSWEEP team will have access to the international finals in Toulouse in France. The winners of the ActInSpace 2020 contest will receive many prizes, including the grand prize: a parabolic flight aboard a Zero-G Airbus A310.

The aim of the Hackathon is always to launch startups in these sectors, effectively becoming a unique opportunity for participants to work on creating business prospects for the proposed challenges, using patents, technologies and satellite data made available by CNES. , ESA, Airbus and all local partners. For Italy, the initiative saw lined up: the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in collaboration with OPENET Technologies S.p.A. of Matera with SparkMe, the Business Accelerator dedicated to the Space Economy, and the Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino I3P.

Thus, 3 special mentions were also awarded: «A special mention from the jury is awarded to the two teams SPACEBROS and THE SPACE BRIDGE, in particular for their potential impact on both business and society. The theme of training and early education towards the very new generations will be increasingly felt in the future and in the generational change, while the theme of health and access to space for the pharmaceutical industry raises interesting new perspectives. Finally, a mention of ASI was assigned to the SIMCOMPOSITE team which won the ASI02 challenge which, starting from a joint patent between ASI and the University of Rome Sapienza, was able to propose new uses and prospects for the commercialization of a technological process of clear spatial derivation “.

ASI has made the following services available : Innovation coaching, meeting with the agency’s experts on technology / innovation and intellectual property rights. Project presentation: unique opportunity to present the project to ASI experts to evaluate possible developments. Access to innovation stakeholders in the region and presentation to the heads of ESA’s Incubation Program in Italy.

By Openet Technologies S.p.A.: the opportunity was offered to use – for 30 days free of charge – the Coworking spaces and services within SparkMe, the technological accelerator dedicated to the Space Economy. In addition to the visibility of the business idea through Openet’s various communication channels and assistance to deepen the project, the winning team will have the opportunity to present their business idea to the partners of the Openet network.

While I3P ensured the winner of the “ActInSpace” Hackathon an international visibility of the project and the team on its main communication channels. In addition, the team will be given the unique opportunity to present the project to the I3P experts, to evaluate its possible developments and the possibility of being included within the incubator’s Pre-Incubation program.

Maxq Space Business offers the following services: 3 days of consultancy with a business model object, development plan, fundraising with private investors.