Two Teams Competing for a Half-million Prize [Jan/2020]
Two European teams are competing
for the first Metalysis–ESA Grand Challenge worth €500 000 rewarding innovation
that will support space exploration.
The ESA Grand Challenge is part
of the Agency’s Space 4.0 commitment to competitions that create new European
entrepreneurs, innovation-led start-ups and new ventures.
Metalysis in South Yorkshire, has
spent more than a decade developing and scaling up its electrochemical
technology; a process that converts refined oxides and ores directly into
valuable metal alloy powders used in 3D printing for aerospace, automotive and
high-value manufacturing.
The competitors shall devise
process-monitoring systems that will work with the Metalysis electrochemical
cells in space. Entries should be based on the electrochemical technology of
Metalysis and support sustainable operations and outer planetary exploration
from long-term space settlements.
The requirements of
the Metalysis–ESA Grand Challenge are available here.
The two teams are SMEs registered in
one of the ESA Member States, Associate Member States or Cooperating States of
ESA.
The first team is called MALT. The
MALT team is an interdisciplinary group including scientist and engineers with
a background in spectroscopic solutions for applications such as heritage,
biomedicine or space applications. The team members have participated as part
of Spanish public research institutes and universities in the development of
Raman and LIBS spectrometers for space applications such as RLS for ESA ExoMars
or SuperCam for NASA Mars 2020 missions. Now, the aim is to incorporate this
state-of-the-art technology for space to the civil society by spinning off to
industrial applications. The participation of the team in the ESA Grand
Challenge is a unique opportunity to demonstrate how laser-based spectroscopic
techniques can be reliably used for specific applications, while also serving
as a catalyser for the consolidation of this relatively young group of
professionals into a long-term and auto-sufficient European-based company.
The second team, San Jorge
Tecnológicas is led by Maria Pilar Del Alamo. Its active team includes engineers,
scientists and technicians enjoying research and development of mechanisms,
sensors, prototypes and new challenging technology and attracts cooperation
from the best research institutions along Europe. In the last years they have
successfully developed R&D projects for ESA, the European Commission 7th
Framework Programme and Horizon 2020, Airbus, , OHB DARPA among others.
Particularly, among the several inventions developed by this team, there are
non-contact sensors, magnetomechanisms, devices for extreme environments and
test benches. More information is available at www.sanjorgetecnologicas.com and
www.magsoar.com
The Challenge is divided into two
phases:
·
Phase 1, which will potentially reward a team
after the submission of a deliverable at the end of 2020. The Deliverable of
Phase 1 is a Project Report detailing the process to be implemented by the
Participants in order to develop the final Breadboard and its potential
functioning.
·
Phase 2, which will be over at the end of 2022
and will reward the winner after the submission of the final breadboard.
During the next Global Space Economic
Forum, ESA and Metalysis will announce the winner of the first phase.