Auckland, New Zealand, August 16, 2023— SpaceBase, a New Zealand based education and consulting social enterprise, announces partnership with Orbica Global Limited, a leading geospatial AI platform provider excelling at exposing insights from satellite data. Orbica is an Amazon World Services (AWS) Partner, a global leader in cloud computing. Orbica will be providing the use of their geospatial data platform – a service that aggregates open sourced satellite data from various sources and provides easy access and analysis tools for users. Through Orbica, AWS will provide cloud compute access offering scalable and secure computing power for processing large amounts of data. Both organizations are the latest in-kind sponsors for the “Space for Planet Earth Challenge 2023,” a competition that leverages satellite data to address climate change.
The Space Challenge aims to identify target areas for methane emissions on Earth, one of the major contributors to global warming. The challenge is open to students and innovators across New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and the Pacific Islands.
Some of the key features of the challenge are:
Two categories: high school level and university/start-up level
Qualified teams will participate in an online research incubator that will include learning about remote sensing and data analysis, as well as design thinking and prototyping
Shortlisted teams will pitch and demo their ideas during the closing event on 15 March 2024
Grand prize winners will win up to $25,000 NZD
Proposals to participate in the incubator programme can be submitted online until 31 August 2023.
“The Space for Planet Earth Challenge is a great opportunity for young people and innovators to use space technology to solve real-world problems,” said Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, CEO of SpaceBase. “We are very grateful to Orbica and AWS for providing their platform and cloud services to support the teams who will participate in the Challenge Incubator programme.”
“Orbica is proud to sponsor this challenge and enable the ecosystem to innovate and scale New Zealand and Pacific IP to tackle the big challenges humanity faces,” said Kurt Janssen, CEO and Founder of Orbica.
For more information on participating and submitting a proposal, visit the Space for Planet Earth Challenge website or contact info@spacebase.co.
The challenge is made possible by SpaceBase Limited and its partners across the Pacific region. Sponsors include K1W1 Ventures, NZ Space Agency – MBIE, Australian Space Agency, Callaghan Innovation, Rich Bodo via the Gift Trust, Auckland Space Institute, Outset Ventures, Auckland Unlimited, and Aerospace Auckland.