Last week a new edition of SpaceUp Barcelona was celebrated at GTD. We are proud of hosting such a dynamic and productive event as well as participating by explaining our experience in the area of space: we have accumulated more than 240 launches in operations with the European Space Port at Kourou over the past 29 years (French Guiana) and we are thrilled to keep working in the Aerospace sector! SpaceUp Barcelona was great fun. We met wonderful people, made new friends and discussed fascinating topics such as micro-launcher start-ups, solar light sails, or a sociologist’s perspective on the issues facing the ISS. We have seen great young talent and plenty of interesting ideas for the promising aerospace panorama. SpaceUp-Barcelona is a two-day space unconference about the space sector, where participants decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event. Everyone who attends SpaceUp is encouraged to give a talk, moderate a panel, or start a discussion. Sessions are proposed and scheduled on the day they are given, which means the usual hallway conversations turn into full-fledged topics. Expecting more than 90 participants on both days, attendees have learned from the several speeches that took place at the GTD offices, where we have met fellow space enthusiasts and heard from expert panelists, including: - Ángel Ramírez Navarro, President and founder of GTD Software and Systems Engineering, talking about Tailoring Critical Solutions for the Aerospace Sector. - A debate between José Mariano López-Urdiales, CEO and Founder of Zero 2 Infinity, and Eduard Díez, Project manager at GTD for ALTAIR, discussing the Revolution of Commercial Microlaunchers. - Marco Bressan, Chief Data Scientist of Satellogic, presenting the company’s application of artificial intelligence and machine vision to remote observation in a talk named Anaerobic Data. - Ariadna Farrés Basiana, PhD in Applied Mathematics and Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, talking about solar light sails in “From Surfing Waves to Surfing in Space”. - Elisabeth Canalias, PhD in Aerospace Technology and CNES Mission Analysis Engineer, introducing the Design of Interplanetary Trajectories or How to Rise to New Challenges in Space Exploration. - Paola Castaño, Newton International Fellow in Cardiff University, UK, brought a fresh view to the unconference by presenting the Sociology of Science on the International Space Station. - Mariona Badenas, project engineer at GTD and Cayetano Santana, head of the Spanish section of the Mars Society, presenting their project for a Spanish-led Mars Analogue Mission. - Pablo Miralles, project engineer at GTD, opening up discussion about the feasibility of mining asteroids for resources. - Jordi Barrera, Head of Systems Engineering at OpenCosmos and exposing Re-thinking How Space Missions are Developed and Implemented. - Amaya Gamarra, presenting GTD’s approach to the design of the control benches for Ariane 6. And many more! GTD believes that hosting Space Up Barcelona was a great opportunity to share its work in and promote collaboration across the space industry, fostering productive relationships, and learning from each other. We want to thank all the organizers of the Space Up Unconference for their work and effort! We hope to see all of you again soon.
