Exceptional ideas afford exceptional surroundings to literally take off. This article is dedicated to all innovators who have new space ideas and have the wish to take their experiment into microgravity. More precisely to the International Space Station (ISS). Airbus’ Bartolomeo and myBiorack platforms, enable the hosting of science and technology payloads in low-Earth orbit (LEO), on-board the ISS.
Now how can you get your experiment up there? Airbus hosts its own Challenge in the INNOspace Masters competition and is looking for outstanding ideas – meaning scientific experiments, technical solutions, products, services and business models. These ideas are to use space technology and data, thus making a contribution on our daily lives through new insights and technology transfer.
The application fields are as widespread as space itself: From autonomous driving, robotics, Earth observation (even active instruments), 5G connectivity, the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M), life sciences, thruster tests, material research to totally new technologies and services. Payloads can be hosted for institutional, non-government and private organisations alike.
What’s in it for Participants of the INNOspace Masters Airbus Challenge?
The prize for the winning idea comprises an entire customised Airbus support package with the following components:
- Access to the global Airbus expert network
- A place on the shortlist for the Airbus BizLab accelerator
- Possibility of pitching to Airbus Ventures
- Consulting for a mission proposal*
- Development of a crowd investing campaign for a space experiment**
*with the aim of a joint application for public funding
**with the aim of financing an ISS experiment (www.my-experiment-in.space)
Send Your Experiment to Space – Crowd Investing makes it Possible
- Airbus enables the preparation and implementation of a SpaceStarters crowd investing campaign
- The crowd invests money and the experiment flies to space powered by Airbus and SpaceStarters
Get Easy Access to the ISS
Fun fact: The Bartolomeo platform, attached to the European Columbus Module of the ISS, is named after the younger brother of Christopher Columbus. Airbus provides all mission-related elements and can even assist when it comes to building the actual payload with its All-in-One Mission Service.
Operating a space mission on the Airbus commercial platforms Bartolomeo and myBiorack offers a highly cost and time-efficient opportunity to bring a payload into space. Benefiting from the long-standing experience of Airbus with its partners in integrating and operating payloads on the ISS, customers can focus 100 per cent on their own space mission. How come? Because interfaces and mission preparation have been streamlined and therefore there is no need to develop a complex space system or a deep understanding of the ISS itself.
All-in-One-Mission Service Facilitates Commercial Cooperation
The All-in-One Mission Services by Airbus with its partners include all mission elements and compile them into one commercial contract. This service comprises: mission preparation, payload launch, payload on-orbit installation, commissioning, operation, payload data processing and delivery – in brief a reliable and an integrated solution. On top of that, the offer includes the option to return the entire payload or a selected sample to Earth and if needed Airbus can be your reliable partner for the development of new payloads.
This unique service is based on a low-cost mission approach. Thereby, customers can save considerably as compared to traditional mission costs. This opens up opportunities for a variety of new types of applications and makes Bartolomeo or myBiorack the perfect platform for new space players including R&D or market-proving missions, such as technology or minimum viable revenue demonstrations.
Have a close look at the Airbus Challenge of the INNOspace Masters and submit your idea by 16 February 2018 to shape the future of commercial space together.
About the INNOspace Masters ideas competition
The INNOspace Masters competition is being organised by the Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as an embedded component of the INNOspace® initiative. AZO Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, an international networking and branding company for the European space programmes, has been implementing the competition since 2015 on behalf of DLR. Partners of the competition are Airbus, OHB and the ESA Business Incubation Centres (BICs) Bavaria and Darmstadt.
