Luxembourg Space Resources Week brought together leaders from space agencies, research institutes, start-ups, and industry from around the world discussing ways towards an inclusive space resources ecosystem and the use of space for the benefit of humankind. It was a week of captivating speeches and interactive sessions on new technologies and business models.
With only two years since the creation of ESRIC, we are happy to see the community growing and contributing to a strong, international space resources ecosystem
, says Kathryn Hadler, Director of ESRIC.
The audience had the opportunity to discover the 1:1 scale of the lander developed in the ESA Argonaut project, exhibits from OffWorld, Polimak, DoraHacks, Ispace, the UK Space Agency, Robominers, EURO2MOON and the University of Luxembourg, as well as an art exhibition courtesy to the Moon Gallery foundation.
The five finalists of the first ESA – ESRIC Space Resources Challenge presented their projects. The winning team, a consortium between FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik and Team Glimpse which was led by ETH Zürich and the University of Zurich, got awarded a €200.000 development contract with ESA, and a €300.000 contract with ESRIC.
ESA is committed to drive innovation in lunar resource extraction and the ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge is one of the initiatives that aims to generate new ideas and technologies from the community
, says Melchiorre Conti, Space Resources Engineer ESA.
“With this annual event, ESRIC is contributing to the market consolidation of space resources, with new ventures shaping the future of commercial activities, aiming to make the Lunar Economy a reality”, states Lari Cujko, ESRIC Start-up Support Programme Lead.
The fifth edition of this event was organised by the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) together with the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), European Space Agency (ESA), and the Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST). It took to the stage more than 70 speakers from key institutions in front of an audience of more than 1350 people. Amongst the speakers were Franz Fayot, Luxembourg Minister of the Economy, and German Astronaut and Materials Scientist, Matthias Maurer, as well as key representatives from ESA, NASA and KIGAM.
Photo credit ©ESRIC/LSA
Press release by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA)