Midnight Sun Challenge

Challenge

Come up with ideas, concepts and solutions related to space tech and data or its use on Earth. We want an insight on your new software, hardware, components, algorithms, data products or services. Space is the only limit of this challenge!

As a participant, you get plenty of support from the experts from Ultrahack, ESA BIC and Business Lappi. Join us to co-create your solutions in the nightless night of Lapland for the betterment of the Finnish NewSpace industry and conquer both earth and space!

The Event will take place from 11th-13th of June 2019.

Application deadline

May 29th at 23.59

Venue

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory

Tähteläntie 62, 99600 Sodankylä

Co-ordinates:

Geographic: 67° 22' N, 26° 38' E, 180 m

Geomagnetic*: 64.1°, 119.2°, -23.2°, dip = 80.0°

Corrected geomagnetic*: 64.1°, 106.7°, L=5.25

(* IGRF-11 model for 2010)

Solution Domains we appreciate

• Utilize satellite, climate, geo and technical data to create new insights and innovations
• New materials, technical components and sensors used in Spacetech, rockets or satellites
• Space food, or vertical/urban farming solutions
• Utilizes Space Data, IoT Data & AI for innovations
• Create new satellite data products or map products from the space data, i.e. new algorithms for better or more usable data products, re-using existing satellite data. This can be, for example, improved data visualization of existing datasets
• Nanosatellites and their components
• New use cases using, for example, super accurate location-based services.

Constraints

This challenge is suitable for:

• Teams or individuals based in Finland with a relevant startup or thinking of establishing a company
• Ideas/solutions that relate to spacetech (upstream or downstream) in any way
• Ideas/solutions which have at least a draft business model (eg. describe your uniqueness, market/competitors, product/service and earnings logic)

About the company / Background

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Business Incubation Centre in Finland was founded in 2017 to support aspiring innovative entrepreneurs and young ambitious start-ups financially and technically to reveal their full space potential. We help you to introduce new technologies to the ESA and its partner network or to transfer existing ESA space technologies from hardware to data such as satellite data to terrestrial uses.

Sodankylä Space Campus consists of two institutions in Tähtelä, Sodankylä. Finnish Meteorological Institute operates the Arctic Space Centre (FMI-ASC) focusing on Earth observation research and service, arctic climate change research and development of weather-related intelligent traffic applications. Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO) is a separate research institute of University of Oulu, with a national task of carrying out geophysical measurements and related research. Studies of cosmic rays, magnetospheric physics, ionospheric physics and aeronomy of the middle and upper atmosphere belong to one of the research spearheads selected in the strategy of University of Oulu. FMI-ASC and SGO together operate a globally unique research infrastructure, providing integrated long-term observations of the processes and couplings in the Earth-atmosphere-space system at high latitudes.

Arctic Geoinvest is a marketing name for project officially called Centre of Arctic Geoinnovations. The project is lead by Tähtikunta Oy. Project partners are:

• Arctic Space Centre of Finnish Meteorological Institute
• Finnish Geospatial Research Institute
• Geological Survey of Finland
• Lapland University of Applied Sciences
• University of Oulu, Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory

The project is financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

We make business and science collide. Arctic Geoinvest is a network concept and a supporting service for research institutes, companies, funders and developers. Our operations and single activities are primarily focused on supporting networking and innovation activities of our project partners. We have selected 3 operational spearheads in Arctic Geoinvest: New Space Economy, Geodata visualization and Intelligent traffic. Our role is to promote cooperation between companies and research institutes and be strongly involved to develop the Nordic space cluster, in order to build a more solid position in Europe. We are looking for the most promising project ideas and the best financial channels to kick them off. With the aim of sharing good practices and excellence as well as increasing research collaboration. Arctic Geoinvest is looking for network partners representing different roles in the value chain. We look for information exchange and contacts to technology suppliers and in general close cooperation with space actors in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Resources

• Copernicus Science Hubs and data: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/
• NASA Data Portal: https://data.nasa.gov/
• Weather data networks: see https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/worldweather/
• Navigation satellite constellations: see http://www.gano.name/shawn/JSatTrak/
• Open GIS systems and datasets in Finland: https://tiedostopalvelu.maanmittauslaitos.fi/tp/kartta?lang=en
• FMI open data, FMI observation data, radar data: https://ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/avoin-data
• FMI Satellite Data, incl. Sentinel 1,2,3 etc: http://nsdc.fmi.fi
• FMI Observations at the Arctic Research Centre (Sodankylä): http://litdb.fmi.fi
• AURA satellite / air quality, OMI-instrument (incl. O3, SO2, cloudiness, UV-index, aerosols): http://sampo.fmi.fi
• SGO standard geophysical data sets: http://www.sgo.fi/Data/archive.php
  • The above includes geomagnetic data, satellite tomography data, riometer data (cosmic radion nose absorption data), all-sky camera data, ionosonde data, VLF (very low frequency radio wave) data, cosmic ray data (neutron monitor) and seismic data.

Judges and Mentors

Judges

• Kimmo Isbjörnssund/ESA BIC Finland
• Esa Turunen/Space Campus
• Jaan Praks/Aalto University

Mentors

• Kari Mäenpää, scientist, Finnish Meteorological Institute / Arctic Space Centre

All teams will receive

Tickets to Midnight Sun Film Festival

Prizes

• 5000€ cash prize
• Good chances of getting into ESA BIC Finland, Space Accelerator with funding
• Possibility to demo at ESA Booth in Slush 2019

Travel Grants

500 euros per accepted team from Finland.