Great you made it here. On this page you will find technical information on the drone, the tool or other mission equipment and instructions on how to apply.
Technical information
- Your idea should be a physical device or software which you want to try or operate in a space environment.
- If your idea requires some physical equipment like an imager, radiation detector or any thing else, you need to design a tool or mission equipment.
- As a rule of thumb, mission equipment should be smaller than 60cm x 60cm x 30cm and not exceed a mass of 4kg.
- Your mission equipment can use following resources from the drone itself:
- Power supply 24V with 1A continuous and 90A peak current.
- A radio link down to earth
- Position and orientation data from the drone
- Thrust to change the orientation of the equipment in space.
- Your mission equipment should not rely on a continuous power suppy, because it may be powered down under certain conditions and during launch.
- If your idea is based on software only, it can be integrated into the drone’s flight software.
Application
Phase 1
- Fill in this form this brief and simple application form from here. The contest is open until 29th February 2024. The deadline applies to phase 1 only.
- Please also feel free to ask for an online meeting if you have any questions.
Phase 2
- After initial evaluation of your idea, you may be accepted to phase 2. The criteria for acceptance are straightforward: We think you are serious about participating, your idea is technically feasible and is space-related.
- We will provide you will all technical details required for further refinement of your idea. If your idea reaches some maturity, you can ask for a sample of the mission equipment adapter free of charge.
Legal stuff
Questions on technical details of the drone or its interfaces will require a non-disclosure agreement to be signed. This is to protect your ideas and our intellectual property. You can get a copy of the NDA upfront and check it for as long as you need before signing.
You’ll keep all the rights to your idea and we will not publish anything on this unless agreed with you.
In case you are one of the contest winners, spaceutilitydrones.com may offer to support you in the realization, i.e. help you building a prototype. We also intend to put one or more winning ideas into orbit on an actual space flight. However due to the significant cost of a launch and availability of slots we cannot promise in any shape or form that this launch takes place.
Application Form