NASA in Cyprus for Space Apps Challenge

NASA returns to Cyprus this weekend, in search of solutions and innovative ideas for several challenges it faces with its space missions as the Agency aims to extend human presence deeper into the solar system and to the surface of Mars in the 2030s.

It is noted that last year, one of the winner teams of the Space Apps Challenge Limassol 2015, “ArachnoBeeA”, was selected by NASA’s judging committee as the global winner in the “Best Mission Concept” category, among over 950 participants from 135 cities.

Besides that, the 2013 Cypriot winner team “MarsSense” was voted as the second best project worldwide in the category People’s Choice Award.

The NASA Space Apps Challenge, the biggest event for the development of innovative and space oriented ideas, is back in Cyprus for the 4th consecutive year.

The competition will be hosted at the premises of the Cyprus University of Technology, in Limassol, the weekend 16-17 of April.

Space Apps Challenge is a two-day hackathon, which is organised this year in 200 cities around the world. Its main purpose is to bring people together, regardless of their background or skills.

“Even though the title might prompt you to think that it is just about software applications, you have to know that the competition is much more than that,” the organisers say in a press release.

The winners, who will be chosen by a judging committee of academia, industry and entrepreneurship experts, will represent Cyprus at the International Space Apps Challenge Competition, in an attempt to repeat ArachnoBeeA’s success.