CrystalSpace wins Space Hackathon Estonia

Tartu-based CrystalSpace wins Space Hackathon Estonia with their brand new solution for satellite monitoring – portable vacuum chamber cameras. CrystalSpace idea was to the robust space grade miniature camera originally designed for CubeSats as independent mobile unit to monitor processes inside vacuum chamber.

“This victory definitely validates our business idea of making a good use of the already developed nanosatellite camera in down on Earth applications. Winning the competition is a good motivator to continue working in that direction to get to new markets.” – commented Pätris Halapuu, co-founder of CrystalSpace.

The company specialising on rapid designing and production of nanosatellite parts has been around for over 3 years already. The team behind CrystalSpace has developed payloads for satellites, including ESTCube-1, Aalto-1 and ESEO. Their clients also include Tartu University and other educational and research institutions that want to test their payload.

“Next up we continue gathering feedback from the end users, who use vacuum chambers daily, and vacuum chamber manufacturers to fix the final requirements. One very important milestone for us is the ESA BIC that is expected to kickstart in Estonia later this year. That is exactly the place for us to be with this project to incubate and grow faster and bigger.” – commented Halapuu on CrystalSpace future plans.

The Space Hackathon served as a first step preparation for the upcoming ESA Business Incubation Centre in Estonia. The incubator will focus on early stage startups helping them to implement space tech solutions in day-to-day life.