The Dark Side of the Earth
Pays up to EUR200K for feasibility studies on space-based night-time observation services.
This is a competitive Open Competition call run through ESA-STAR under reference 1-12188, open to companies from ESA's Business Applications member states (BASS). A webinar with a guest speaker from SatelliteVu preceded the call. Bidders register and submit their full proposal through the ESA-STAR tendering system by the closing date.
ESA wants feasibility studies that build new downstream applications around events and phenomena that can only be observed, or are best observed, at night using satellite visible and infrared imagery. Named domains include maritime, environmental and forestry monitoring, natural resources management, smart cities, financial institutions, and the oil and gas industry. Every proposal must use satellite night-time imagery somewhere in the study.
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