Garage48 SpaceTech 2016 Hackathon Is Reaching The Universe With Down-To-Earth Ideas

Today is the day the first hackathon to boost space technologies in the Nordic and Baltic region has kicked off. Garage48 SpaceTech 2016 is in full swing with smart ideas and incredible support. To enable all the teams to bring their working prototypes come to life in the tight 48-hours time frame and to actually give the tools for these ideas, companies like MassPortal, CartoDB, PlanetOS, Veebimajutus.ee, Rohde & Schwarz and many others are offerings their services for free. Plus, we have an enviable set of expert mentors ranging from Erika Ilves and prof. Ene Ergma to Jaan Praks, Silver Lätt and our host Priit Salumaa.

During the next 2 days now the teams will prove that developing space technologies is not as sci-fi as one might think. Even in the Soviet Estonia times the chemists and physicists worked on space rocket components. There are of course loads of technologies that we use every day, which were originally meant for NASA Space Agency. Some teams at Garage48 SpaceTech hackathon are trying to build currently new space related innovations, some are thinking of improving the lives of astronauts and even space travel. But you can have a better sense of what the participants have in mind for #SpaceTech when reading the ideas they pitched on the stage this evening and which made it to teams.

Here are the 12 ideas that will be working in the next 48 hours to bring their prototype to life:


1.     Interaction with robot and space - AI  Algorithm between 2 IoT devices so they wouldn’t collide in space.
2.    E-sail deorbit module for sattelites using tin charged tethers. Propellantless propulsion. 
3.    Project Apple TripsTrees are providing oxygen and humidity in space and food during long space flights. 
4.   Camera casing – camera case for cubesat with 2 imagers. Proposed design may fly with actual space mission in 2018. Camera for space in the end.
5.   ICEYEMaking images taken from the air less cryptic and clearer. This could be used for counting objects.
6.    Airsplint – first aid splints to immobilize fractured bones. Splint that folds down to the size of a thermo blanket in a pocket. Individually sealed air ducts that would make the splint safe if punctured.
7.   Facemelt – An app to use when you want to avoid sitting on the side of the sun when driving on a bus, in a car. A heat map on the car based on the route you’ve entered by tracking sun movement. Algorithm for  positioning the Sun to the point and orientation.
8.   Descentinal one data - Deformation calculating. See which building will probably collapse. Successful markets could be oil and gas fields, mining areas.
9.   Captain corrosion - Protection against corrosion in space with nanotechnology  
10.   Relationships - For physical relationships between a man and a woman in space. Creating a suit, capsule or something else, where a couple can enjoy themselves 
11.  TasteBud - Food in space is boring. This wil make eating of  any astronaut food interesting.
12.   Stabilizer -  An electronic device, casing for a pad for an item that needs to be stabilized.

Ideas that can try their luck next time:

1.       Gum Data - making the bubble gum smarter. Helping astronauts know more about their teeth. 
2.       Laser show in space – optical and visual communication from space. TUT Mektory satellite can carry lazer diodes used for public promotion of space technologies.
3.       High Voltage to High Speed – fix the one specific flaw in the other wise successful ESTcube-1 sattelite. How we get high voltage from our PCP into thethers which gather the momentum of solar wind.

4. Space Logbook Space/IoT – a logbook for a device sent in space. Value in the data that is retrieved from space. Like an aircraft’s black box.
5. Agrospace - grow food in space. Economically and sustainably. Building a 3D prototype of how it would look like and web page.

6. Rotating antenna
7. Live in space – app in your phone that would function as a telescope. App connected with a telescope that will look into space.
8. Selfie drone that would also take 3D pictures.
9. Simulator that could simulate several sattelites.
10. Taking down terrorists by isolating their Internet connections, telephone, wire connections and blacking out some areas. Blackouts as a service.

How will these teams deliver? Find out tomorrow by following our Facebook Page and our Garage48 blog here on this website.

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