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The European Space Agency (ESA) invites individuals and teams to join the #OrbitalAI Challenge where they can showcase their innovative solutions for in-orbit data processing.
ESA wants to create an ecosystem of Earth observation applications through edge computing in space. The challenge aims to drive progress in earth sustainability, business, industry, and science by leveraging the latest technology in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Earth Observation (EO).
The #OrbitalAI Challenge offers an opportunity to harness the full power of AI and cloud computing in space and for space science and applications. It provides an insight into how much this new capability could shape future space missions, data value chains, and new business models.
Two teams will get the opportunity to have their solutions running onboard the Φsat-2 mission, meaning that their solution will be launched into space and have an in-orbit demonstration for their concept!
Those two teams will be selected from a total of ten best teams coming out of Phase I of the competition. Besides the chance of having their solution onboard a satellite, we will reward those teams with various prizes ranging from invitations for visiting researchers to vouchers for computation or access to premium data. Stay tuned as we are going to announce the complete pool of prizes in the following weeks.
Any person, start-up, or large enterprise with an innovative mindset and ideas is invited to join this track of the OrbitalAI Challenge.
Age
All participants must be 18 or older to be eligible to participate in the OrbitalAI Challenge.
Team
Teams must consist of a minimum of 2 and maximum of 5 people.
Geography
Applications will be accepted from anywhere in the world. For full information about the conditions of being part of the top ten winners, check our Rules section.
Phase I: The open competition
Duration: February – June
During Phase I, participants will submit their best solution in the form of a Jupyter Notebook together with a PowerPoint presentation, saved as a .pdf file, and a pitch video of their solution.
After the first phase 10 teams will be selected for the next stage.
Phase II: Incubation & production release
Duration: July - October
During the second phase, the selected teams will work on their solution together with the Φsat-2 consortium led by Open Cosmos and the Φ-lab team. The solution will be tested and verified on conditions with Φsat-2 configuration and integrated within the NanoMO framework.
In the end, 2 teams will have their solutions launched into space.
Throughout the challenge, we are offering participants the chance to win exclusive space-themed swag. These first 3 milestones are checkpoints along your journey to building a winning solution and will focus on various components of your project such as team composition, idea concept, initial model description and prototype.
Stay on track and submit your challenge milestones in time to be eligible for the chance to win limited edition space swag. Get in on the action and put your skills to the test!
Worth: 200 credits
Deadline: 24 March
We want to know more about the brilliant minds behind the idea and get to know you better. With this milestone, you have to present your team members and their expertise. Upload to the AI4EO platform the team profile milestone by 24 March 2023, by 17:00 CET!
A complete description of this milestone can be found here.
Worth: 300 credits
Deadline: 19 April
AI technologies coupled with onboard processing can change the paradigm of Earth observation on how EO data is captured, processed, and used. Nonetheless, ultimately it depends on which insights can be extracted from that data and how it can potentially improve our lives here on Earth.
These are some of the questions that you have to answer in your idea concept!
We seek ground-breaking and innovative ideas for new concepts that are exploring the use of in-space edge/cloud computing and AI to revolutionise the way we do business and science, today and in the future.
Worth: 500 credits
Deadline: 16 May
We want to see the initial architecture of your software solution and how you considered the unique set-up on which your solution will have to run.
With the points from the first three milestones, you can claim some unique goodies. Check out the below swag that you can win and once you are in the possession of your cool goodies send us a picture with your new win.
Worth: No credits, mandatory to be submitted for your solution to be evaluated for the top ten teams and to receive the swag.
Deadline: 30 June
We want to check the final version of your AI app in the form of a Jupyter notebook. We’ll test it out against our judging criteria.
Worth: No credits, mandatory to be submitted for your solution to be evaluated for the top ten teams and to receive the swag.
Deadline: 30 June
We want to hear why your idea deserves to win. You will have a maximum of 3 minutes to convince us about the potential of your idea and why your team deserves to be part of a space mission. Ready for the challenge?
Your solution will be judged by a panel of experts against the following criteria:
AI4EO is carried out under a programme of, and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this site shall not be construed to reflect the official opinion of ESA.
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