Kvarken Space Center’s Workshop at Wasa Future Festival – Space Data Opens New Business Opportunities

On Wednesday, August 7th, people gathered at the Wasa Future Festival to hear and discuss how space data could be utilized in business. The Space Business Learning Café highlighted the growing importance of space data in the business world and encouraged participants to make use of the opportunities brought by this development to foster new innovations.

*Project Manager Jari Ratilainen from Design Center MUOVA instructs the workshop participants.*

The Space Economy workshop, organized by the Kvarken Space Center, hosted by the University of Vaasa, and the EU co-funded ORBIT and AuroraSpace projects, was opened by Professor Heidi Kuusniemi, the Director of the Digital Economy research platform at the University of Vaasa. In her introduction, she explained what kind of data is available from satellites and how this data is being utilized across different industries.

*Heidi Kuusniemi presents the business opportunities brought by space data.*

According to Kuusniemi, the core mission of the Kvarken Space Center is to act as an innovation hub for the space economy and to promote the use of space data in businesses, as well as to enhance Nordic and international cooperation. The Space Center also hosts a branch of ESA BIC Finland, the European Space Agency’s business incubator that supports startups focused on space technology.

Postdoctoral researcher Reino Virrankoski from Aalto University provided a quick overview of data acquisition through terrestrial networks, such as the post-5G NextG network, and the opportunities offered by the use of drones. He also discussed situational awareness and the increasing issue of satellite navigation interference and spoofing, emphasizing the importance of protecting against these threats.

The space technology sector is currently developing rapidly and is becoming increasingly accessible even to small businesses. This leads to more innovations, more markets, and more opportunities, Virrankoski stated.

Johanna Haveri, Project Manager at the University of Vaasa, spoke about Nordic cooperation in the AuroraSpace project, funded by the EU Interreg Aurora program. In this project, 12 universities and research institutions from Finland, Sweden, and Norway are collaborating to promote the space economy, innovation ecosystem, space education, and research in the northern region.

Programmer and doctoral researcher Cem Özcan from University of Vaasa discussed the diverse possibilities of remote sensing applications, such as monitoring and researching land areas, bodies of water, weather and climate, and urban environments.

*Space Business Learning Café participants at the Wasa Future Festival.*

In the space economy workshop session moderated by Riccardo Notarangelo, Jari Ratilainen, and Philipp Holtkamp, the diverse expertise and different perspectives of the participants were combined, and ideas were brainstormed together on what kind of new businesses space data could enable. In different groups, they considered developing new products and internal processes using space data applications.

The ideas generated in the workshop were encouraged to be further developed, for example, by participating in the weekly Vaasa Space Garage, where the idea can be refined further with the help of experts. Another excellent event for developing ideas is the NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon, which will be held on the Vaasa campus at the beginning of October.

➔ Read the article in Finnish on Vaasa Insider’s website: Merenkurkun avaruuskeskuksen työpaja Wasa Future Festivalilla – Avaruusdata avaa uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia