Moonshot Bootcamp 2022 - Get a taste of space revolution

Fancy a taste of space? Sign up for Moonshot - a 48-hour Bootcamp. Join the community, assemble a team and choose a challenge. Be quick though, the challenge is happening at the end of April.  

Bootcamp is a 48-hour competition being hosted by Moonshot Space Co. that opens opportunities for anyone interesting in the broad field of space technology to meet others, share ideas and form a team to work on a challenge over a very intense 48-hour period. Bootcamp starts as a hackathon but Moonshot judges are looking for entrepreneurs with commercially viable solutions.  

The six challenges were revealed on 8 April 2022 but teams need to hold off until April 22 - 24 before kicking off their challenge development. In the meantime, Moonshot gives people an opportunity to join the community, discuss ideas, form and register a team (with all the diverse skillsets needed to succeed), and then chose a challenge. There are also mentors available to give support and answer questions about the challenge as well as opportunities to try out tools.  

Whilst the challenges are technical, teams also need to pitch their ideas with a convincing and engaging business case. And the winners? First prize wins \$1000 cash, \$2000 worth of units in the 2022 Moonshot Space Co. Spacefund which targets 12 space tech investments, merchandise and coaching.

Moonshot Space Co. is Australia’s first space-focused incubator and investment fund founded by CEO Troy McCann in 2016 following a conversation in an elevator with none other than Buzz Aldrin. Now his son and CEO of Aldrin Space Institute is one of the fund's investors and mentors along with almost 40 others spanning the Australian space industry including Flavia Tata Nardini, Founder and CEO of Fleet Space, Adam Gilmour, Founder and CEO of Gilmour Space, Alice Sidhu, Executive Director at LIVLAB, and Steve Winnall, VP Engineering at Myriota.

Each investor in the fund is also a mentor committed to investing their time, experience and money into the fund and the next generation of entrepreneurs.

There are six challenges in the Bootcamp that cover a wide array of technologies, capabilities and interests. Some look to the future of space travel and living outside Earth while others are using space technologies to help real issues here on planet Earth.  

Challenge 1 - Ground Control to Major Tom: Build a prototype of a telemetry product or service that would be useful for customers operating spacecraft in Earth orbit and beyond.

Like any remote system, spacecraft like satellites and rockets need to stream significant amounts of data to mission control, and for a dashboard to present it as useful information. The process of using sensors to measure the data is called ‘data acquisition' while the process of streaming it back to base is called ‘telemetry’.

A winning team will not only produce a technology prototype but will be able to make a compelling business case for a spacecraft telemetry product/service.

Top competing teams will win an opportunity for their technology to be flown and evaluated in zero gravity on a Beings Systems parabolic flight, as a first step to validate that your system can really operate in the space environment.

Challenge 2 - Flushing for Humanity:  Design and build a mass manufacturable Martian toilet. That is, a toilet that can be used on Mars without an existing sewerage system in place.  Should humanity succeed in settling on Mars, this will be essential. And what if this same design could be used for the billions on Earth that don’t have access to a safe household toilet today?

Challenge 3 - Go for dust-off: Design a prototype of a system to contain, separate or reduce dust that would decrease the risks of dust created by mechanical drills on the moon. And propose a potential use case for the technology to be used here on earth too.

Top competing teams will win an opportunity for their technology to be flown and evaluated in zero gravity on a Beings Systems parabolic flight as a first step to validate that your system can really operate in the space environment.

Challenge 4 - Emergency lifeline: Develop a solution that uses space to make telecommunications and IT infrastructure more resilient, more easily accessible in emergencies, that can scale, and be cost-effective. In an emergency such as floods or bush fires, telecommunications based on terrestrial infrastructure are vulnerable. Reliable communication networks are critical in emergencies.

Challenge 5 - Star Wars: Design and build a prototype of a platform to integrate satellite data and information from conflict zones to support humanitarian relief efforts, human-rights monitoring, reconstruction initiatives as well as broader global supply chain impacts.

Monitoring the impacts of war is not easy, generally relying on, on-the-ground accounts which are often delayed, incomplete and potentially biased. Satellite data can help see through the fog of war and enhance the information gathered from other sources.

Challenge 6 - No space for Cancer: Design a prototype of an experiment that can test and validate the first step towards a broader space medicine opportunity. Consider existing research in areas like protein crystallization in space and 3D printing of synthetic replacement organs as inspiration.

Top competing teams including a first-step microgravity experiment as a part of their proposal will win an opportunity for their technology to be flown and evaluated in zero gravity on a Beings Systems parabolic flight, to validate that your system can really operate in the space environment.