Ever dream of taking your startup technology to space? In my previous company I probably wouldn’t have dreamt of it, but that was before programs like Hyperspace Challenge. It’s opening new, startup-friendly doorways that provide friendlier access to otherwise hard-to-reach customer discovery opportunities.

This year’s Hyperspace Challenge centers on small satellite technology and connecting startups with customers within the US government. This year, our team has curated eight problems from the Air Force, NASA, and Navy and we’re looking for teams with new approaches to the following challenges:

1. Better ways to aggregate large data from small satellites and assistance in building and deploying a connected network of devices on the moon.
2. Help developing a new CubeSat communications system and a new power system for deep space missions, plus ways to improve microsatellite propulsion systems.
3. Creating self-organizing distributed satellite networks.
4. Enabling large data transfer from low-Earth-orbiting satellites to determine changes in human patterns of life.
5. Building and Deploying a Connected Network of Devices on the Moon – Air Force Research Laboratory
6. Leveraging new technologies in SmallSats for isolated personnel rescue.

Six of the 10 participating startups in our inaugural 2018 program, which focused on geospatial data analytics, have gone on to sign government contracts.

Check out what last year’s winner, CrowdAI, had to say about their experience.