The largest space industry event in the Nordic and Baltic countries, The Finnish Satellite Workshop (FSW), took place in Espoo in January. This was the first physically organized FSW after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The satellite workshop brings together experts, researchers, and students to discuss current business and research opportunities in the space industry. This year the theme focused on New Space, small satellite missions, Earth Observation, small satellite platform development, and space science missions and instruments. The scope also highlighted the need for sustainable utilization of space as well as the potential collaboration opportunities from the private to public sector and politics surrounding it.
Several members of the INCUBATE project team attended the satellite workshop listening the presentations and meeting with colleagues from different organisations. Assistant professor Jaan Praks and his team were the main organizers of the whole FSW event, but also other partners of INCUBATE project were actively participating the event.
For example, our team members had posters (Design study of LEO-PNT constellation satellite, Assessing machine learning approach for LEO satellite orbit prediction) in the poster session.
In addition, our researchers Sofia Hassinen, Arto Ojala and Mikko Punnala from the University of Vaasa had presentations in the Space Business section of the FSW.
Sofia Hassinen visited the FSW for the first time, and she didn’t know what to expect. She was positively surprised by how wide-ranging and big the event was.
“I particularly liked to listen to different presentations from various fields, and in this way, also learn a lot of new things. Especially with a business background, it was great to be able to learn more about the technical side as well, and what in general is currently happening in the industry and is being developed, which in turn also helps to understand better the satellite industry and the market”, says Sofia.
She admits she was a bit nervous before her presentation but at the same time she was excited that she could share her current research and future research interests, which specifically touch on the commercial perspective of the satellite industry.
“I felt it important to provide some information on the current status of the satellite market and what are the prospects of it, as this could give some new information to people who may not have read or heard about this before”, Sofia continues.
With almost 1,000 pre-registered participants, the event emphasized the need for joint gatherings in the industry. It is important to meet other players in the field face to face. Many ideas and promising seeds of cooperation began to germinate through the discussions held during FSW.
We are looking forward to meeting you again next year in Espoo!
Some more pictures from the FSW 2023:
