The Space Exploration Masters offers all visionaries with entrepreneurial spirit and innovators the chance to actively shape space exploration with their future-oriented business ideas.
Europe’s first innovation competition dedicated to space exploration is open for submission until 31 July 2018! The Space Exploration Masters annually awards the best products, services, and ideas providing concrete business opportunities to strengthen the benefits of space exploration to society.
Join the space exploration forefront and boost your business idea straight into orbit! In this competition, brilliant minds meet powerful organisations to leverage the global endeavour of exploration with innovations.
Why participate in the Space Exploration Masters?
- Profit from the prize pool worth more than €800,000 (cash, coaching, testing facilities …)
- Benefit from invaluable expertise from renowned partners
- Build awareness for your business idea on stage & through extensive promotion
- Work together with the most important space stakeholders
- Access to venture capital
- Help shape the future of space exploration
Who are the partners of the Space Exploration Masters?
The Space Exploration Masters portfolio offers prizes in five different challenges. These prizes are presented and awarded by renowned partners: The European Space Agency (ESA), the Ministry of the Economy of Luxembourg with its SpaceResources.lu initiative, Stevenson Astrosat Ltd. and Huntsville Madison County Chamber, Airbus together with Air Liquide and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, WHO, ASI, CNES, Space Applications Services, Surrey Satellites and Goonhilly (GES Ltd.) as well as Maxq.
Five challenges target a wide diversity of space exploration application fields
This year, the Space Exploration Masters challenges feature exciting topics tackling global societal and business-related issues, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Life Sciences, Space Resource Utilization (SRU), Infrastructure & Habitats, Robotics & Automation as well as Sustainability and much more.
No matter what kind of new idea interested people will come up with, the Space Exploration Masters offers a challenge and respective prizes to all sorts of application fields.
The Overall Winner is selected from among all challenge winners during the Awards Ceremony in Bilbao, Spain, in line with the Space for Inspiration 2018 event on 30 October.
Who can participate?
The spectrum of the competition is wide: Startups, entrepreneurs, SMEs, students, developers, researchers, engineers, space and exploration fans, data and high-tech enthusiasts. One common goal unites them: The urge to make the world a better place with new ideas for smart solutions based on space exploration.
The Space Exploration Masters Mission
In 2017, AZO has launched the Space Exploration Masters on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and in line with the goals of the ESA Space Exploration Strategy, in cooperation with space stakeholders. Almost 150 remarkable entries from 34 countries were submitted by 430 participants for seven different prizes in the competition’s first year. The Space Exploration Masters mission is to identify the best technology transfer business successes, as well as to empower and foster business innovation around space exploration activities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), on Moon, Mars, or beyond – for the benefit of society and Earth.
Business and society constantly need new ideas for forward-looking solutions to enhance the quality of life! The same applies to space exploration. Let’s go! Turn new ideas into high-flyers with the Space Exploration Masters!
Check out the greeting message below by ESA Astronaut Dr. Matthias Maurer: