CATEC played a key role in the second edition of the international New Space & Solutions event, which took place from 14 to 17 April at the Cartuja Auditorium in the Sevilla TechPark Technology Park, in Seville, under the slogan “Where we tell you what New Space does for us”, and which brought together more than 120 speakers from 18 countries, representing leading companies, experts and public bodies from the global space industry, to discuss emerging technologies in the space sector and their application in providing solutions to society’s problems.
Our technology centre was one of the partners of this industry event, organised by the company Medina Media with the support of the Regional Government of Andalusia and Seville City Council, and played a very active role both through the presence of an exhibition stand and by participating in various round-table discussions and sessions within the event programme.
Miguel Ángel Trujillo, head of CATEC’s Autonomous Systems Unit, spoke at the event to present our new BRISA technology, a highly efficient drone designed to capture high-resolution data. It has already demonstrated its effectiveness and capability in covering large areas of land and has achieved various milestones and successes during its testing and validation phase. Our colleague highlighted some of these, such as its 3-hour operational autonomy, its ability to fly for 90 minutes continuously covering over 200 hectares and more than 135 km of linear flight, its accumulated flight hours, and the completion of missions in locations such as Ortigueira, in A Coruña (Galicia).
It was precisely this new technology developed by CATEC that was on display at our exhibition stand during the event, generating a great deal of interest among attendees. The stand also served to showcase the various services and technological capabilities of our centre specifically dedicated to the space sector, and to hold meetings with institutions, partners and potential clients in this field.
Meanwhile, Antidio Viguria, Director of Avionics and Systems at CATEC, took part in an online panel discussion on ‘Unmanned aerial mobility: the CUAM Innovation Ecosystem”, which analysed the opportunities for collaboration offered by the new Centre for Innovation in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Urban Air Mobility (CUAM) in Andalusia and what this could mean for positioning Andalusia as a leader in this field. Also participating in the round table were Ángel Luis Trigo, Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship at the University of Seville; Rafael Fernández-Shaw, Brigadier General and Deputy Director of Training for the Air and Space Force; and José Ramiro Martínez, Director of CUAM; moderated by Daniel Escacena, Secretary General for Research and Innovation at the Regional Ministry of Universities, Research and Innovation.
Gracia Catalina Piñero, manager of ESA BIC Andalusia – the organisation that runs CATEC – also took part in the round-table discussion ‘ESA BIC – Andalusia in Orbit: A Commitment to Innovation and Space Entrepreneurship’, during which she explained the support work carried out by this European Space Agency business incubator in Seville with innovative start-ups and SMEs in the space sector, and how it contributes to the growth of the space and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Andalusia. Piñero highlighted that, beyond offering a workspace, the real value of this incubator lies in professional mentoring and direct access to the European Space Agency’s network, support that is essential for scaling business models and consolidating Andalusia as a strategic hub for the industry. Our colleague took part in the panel alongside José Pulido, founder of Albor Space; Carlos Javier Martín, CEO of Orbital Boost Aerospace; and Nacho Mancha, co-founder of OLMA Space; as well as Javier González, Director-General for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Continuing Education at the Regional Ministry of Universities, Research and Innovation, who acted as moderator.
In addition to this, Aníbal Ollero, scientific director of CATEC and professor of Robotics at the University of Seville, gave a talk in which he presented various R&D projects and initiatives in the space sector currently being developed in Andalusia. These include a recently launched innovation project focusing on space debris and the search for new solutions to eliminate it, as well as in-orbit services for satellite maintenance and support for planetary exploration.
