List of Use Cases and Open Challenges

(Click on each use case or open challenge on the left to read more details.)

• Use Case 1 - Delivery of Water to the Lunar Surface
• Use Case 2 - Space-based Farming
• Use Case 3 - Orbital Hotel
• Use Case 4 - Artifact Collection
• Use Case 5 - Orbital Fireworks
• Use Case 6 - Planetary Defense System
• Use Case 7 - Space Debris Cleanup
• Use Case 8 - Collision Avoidance for Immobile Objects
• Use Case 9 - Satellite Secure Digital ID
• Use Case 10 - Add-on Passive Deorbit Hardware
• Use Case 11 - LIDAR Constellation
• Use Case 12 - Routers for Global Internet of Things
• Use Case 13 - Buried Among The Stars
• Use Case 14 - Climate Engineering the Easy Way
• Use Case 15 - Metals from the Moon
• Use Case 16 - Orbital Lab Bench
• Use Case 17 - Storage of Sensitive Data in Space
• Use Case 18 - Preserve the ISS
• Open Challenge 1 - Novel Satellite Constellations
• Open Challenge 2 - Recreation Facilities for Space Hotel

Use Case 1 - Delivery of Water to the Lunar Surface

• Background

  The challenge of delivering water to the lunar surface is complex, primarily due to potential resource limitations and a strong focus on lunar water prospecting. At present, there are no companies attempting direct water transport to the Moon. Instead, the focus is on identifying and extracting water resources already present on the lunar surface. NASA's lunar rover, VIPER, is scheduled for a November 2024 deployment, where it will spend 100 days exploring for water ice on the Moon's surface. Several companies are also contributing to lunar exploration and water prospecting like Astrobotics and Honeybee Robotics, etc. A critical aspect of this challenge is the potential presence of water in the Moon's polar regions, estimated in the millions of tons. However, extracting water from lunar regolith poses significant technical and logistical challenges. Recent measurements by SOFIA in 2020 indicate relatively low water concentrations in lunar regolith, below one part per thousand. To obtain substantial quantities of water, extensive lunar regolith mining would be required, making it a resource-intensive process.

• Task Description

  Human occupation of the moon for long periods of time will require significant amounts of water. Two main uses of water are for human use (drinking, bathing, and perhaps crop growth) and for rocket fuel (conversion into LH2 and LOx via hydrolysis). For the hackathon, teams should design an internal payload structure to carry 100 tonnes of water + structure into orbit and to land this on the Moon. Participants might consider aspects such as how to fill/drain the water in zero or low gravity, how to prevent freezing in space, and whether the structure should be reusable for cycling water from Earth to Moon or find alternate uses for the structure remaining on the Lunar surface.

Use Case 2 - Space-based Farming

• Background

  Efforts to advance space agriculture are underway. Significant progress in space farming includes Sierra Space's Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat systems on the ISS. The German Aerospace Center tests automated greenhouse tech, while the Orbital Farm project simulates space conditions. Aleph Farms achieved cultivated meat in space, and Redwire develops a commercial space greenhouse. Interstellar Labs' BioPod offers Earth-based advanced farming, with a space version in progress. These endeavors advance space farming for sustainable food production.

• Task Description

  If humans are to colonize the Moon and Mars, learning how to grow a variety of crops in space will be essential. Starship, with a payload volume greater than the enclosed volume of the entire International Space Station, offers a new capability to pursue such studies. The hackathon challenge is to design an autonomous orbital greenhouse where crop growth research can be carried out. The module would have to have the ability to provide power, attitude control, water/fertilizer maintenance, and monitoring/observation/control of the crops. Designers could also incorporate more advanced elements such as crop-tending robots, rotational artificial gravity, harvesting/replanting devices, or other ideas.

Use Case 3 - Orbital Hotel

• Background

  Several companies are pioneering orbital facilities, with aspirations of creating orbital hotels. Blue Origin's Orbital Reef, a collaboration with Sierra Space, comparable in size to the ISS, can host up to ten occupants, providing living quarters, labs, and amenities. Axiom Space, committed to constructing the first commercial space station, intends to separate from the ISS by late 2028. Above Space presents the Pioneer Station, featuring hybrid gravity, and the Voyager Station with simulated gravity, projected to be operational by 2025 and the decade's end, respectively. Bigelow Aerospace is renowned for its expandable space modules and proposals for autonomous space stations, primarily using the B330 module. Sierra Space introduces the Life Habitat, accommodating 4-12 occupants and incorporating orbital farming. Lockheed Martin is pioneering inflatable habitat/storage modules, albeit still in the early stages of design.

• Task Description

  If Starship launch costs become as inexpensive as SpaceX claims, space tourism may grow viable. Hackathon participants are challenged to design a modular hotel comprised of elements launched by Starship. The Orbital Hotel can use up to 24 launches to build all the required components, but each launch must use one of no more than four difference assemblies to allow for modularity in production on Earth. What are the modules your Orbital Hotel needs, and how are they connected? How many guests can it accommodate, and for how long? What activities can the guests engage in while in space?

Use Case 4 - Artifact Collection

• Background

  Currently, there is no company known to be engaged in the mission of retrieving spacecraft to Earth.

• Task Description

  An anonymous benefactor has decided to open a Museum of Space Artifacts. This museum is intended to show case actual spacecraft that have been recovered from orbit and returned to Earth. Among the desired targets are TIROS-1 (the first weather satellite, in a low Earth orbit), LANDSAT-1 (an early Earth imagining satellite, in a polar Sun-synchronous orbit), and eventually the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA’s premier space observatory for most of the last three decades). Your challenge is to design a special version of Starship with a modified payload bay and avionics to allow the spacecraft to maneuver to any of the targets, grapple it, latch it into place, and return it to Earth. Given the mass of some of these objects (Hubble is over 10 tonnes), particular attention must be paid to how to hold such precious cargo during the rigors of descent into gravity, and to the required fuel necessary to land with them intact.

Use Case 5 - Orbital Fireworks

• Background

  Currently, only one company, Astro Live Experiences through its project SKY CANVAS, is working on a human-made shooting star. They release meteor particles from satellites, creating a dazzling light show in the sky at designated locations worldwide.

• Task Description

  As a new means of celebration, Starship can now provide you with an orbital fireworks display! A special payload module launched on Starship will carry up to 100 tonnes of glass beads. The module can be commanded to re-enter at a specific place and time, burning up in the atmosphere in a brilliant display of fireworks resembling shooting starts. Your hackathon task is to design this module so that it can carry the beads and deploy them where they’re desired. Clever module design could include the ability to separate and provide multiple re-entries, or to use different sizes of beads to burn up at different altitudes, or any other idea you can think of to increase the appeal of the display!

Use Case 6 - Planetary Defense System

• Background

  NASA's DART demonstrated planetary defense by successfully impacting the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, using kinetic impact to deflect it. DART aimed to alter the orbit of Dimorphos, which orbits the larger asteroid Didymos, with no threat to Earth.

  Regarding Starship's potential in planetary defense:

  • Kinetic Impactor: Starship could act as a high-speed kinetic impactor, using its propulsion to collide with a NEO and alter its orbit, preventing Earth impact.
  • Nuclear Explosive Device: For larger NEOs, Starship could carry a nuclear device, detonating it near the object's surface to divert its trajectory or destroy it.
  • Asteroid Propulsion System: A smaller NEO might have a mass of around a million tons. A propulsion system that can, over time, provide a sufficient thrust will eventually be able to shift the orbit of the NEO enough to avoid threatening the Earth.

• Task Description

  Imagine a future in 2030 when NASA's NEO Surveyor telescope discovers a potentially hazardous asteroid that will threaten the Earth in 2035. With an estimated diameter of 80m, it has a kinetic energy 100 times that of the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013. This would mean the new threat would be the equivalent of 50 megatons of TNT, bigger than the 1908 Tunguska event. Fortunately, a planetary defense system is promptly deployed to deal with the threat, preventing a potentially catastrophic impact.

  Your challenge is to design a planetary defense system using the Starship. This could take the form of the Starship itself, suitably loaded with a heavy payload, to be used as a kinetic impactor: its collision with the asteroid would deflect its trajectory. It could take the form of a propulsion system that attaches to the asteroid and slowly pushes it in a controlled way. It could take the form of a nuclear explosive device delivered to the asteroid's surface, using the explosive energy and ejecta from the asteroid's surface to create an impulse that pushes it out of our path.

  This system must take into account that there is a need for a 'cruise phase' where Starship or its payload would need to move into an orbit that approaches the potentially hazardous asteroid within only a few years. A good solution would be able to handle a wide range of possible asteroid orbits (for instance, including asteroids in the near-Earth families Apollo, Atira, Aten, and Amor). Since the total time to impacting the Earth is fixed, a good solution would allow for an optimum trajectory so that the time for the planetary defense spacecraft to reach the asteroid would leave the best amount of time for its deflection to have a significant effect. This challenge will require some amount of orbital mechanics calculations to demonstrate feasibility.

  Technical Aspects to Consider are as below.

  Kinetic Impactor Approach

  • Collision Precision: How can Starship be precisely navigated to collide with the incoming NEO with high accuracy?
  • Trajectory Planning: What trajectory planning and adjustment systems are needed to ensure that Starship hits the target NEO at the right angle and velocity?
  • Deflection Robustness: Since the precise effect of the kinetic impactor is difficult to predict, the change in the asteroid's orbit will have a range of possible outcomes; how can the impactor be used to ensure that the outcome is guaranteed to result in the astroid being deflected enough that it does not threaten the Earth?
  • Onboard Propulsion: How will Starship's onboard propulsion be optimized for a high-speed kinetic impact, and what is the required thrust level?
  • Collision Energy: How can the kinetic energy generated by Starship's impact be calculated and controlled to alter the NEO's orbit adequately?
  • Multiple Impactors: For larger or more massive NEOs, what strategies are needed for deploying and coordinating multiple impactor Starships?
  • Collision Timing: What is the critical timing required to initiate the collision, and how can it be synchronized with the NEO's approach to Earth?

  Nuclear Explosive Device Approach

  • Device Delivery: How can Starship safely and accurately deliver a high-yield nuclear explosive device near the surface of the threatening NEO?
  • Device Safety: What safety measures and fail-safes need to be in place to prevent premature detonation or accidental damage to Starship?
  • Detonation Energy: How will the energy released by the nuclear blast be calculated and controlled to divert the NEO's trajectory effectively?
  • Deflection Robustness: Since the precise effect of the explosion is difficult to predict, the change in the asteroid's orbit will have a range of possible outcomes; how can the nuclear device be used to ensure that the outcome is guaranteed to result in the astroid being deflected enough that it does not threaten the Earth?
  • Debris Management: What strategies are needed to manage potential debris and fragments resulting from the detonation?
  • Legal and Ethical Considerations: What regulatory approvals and international agreements are required for deploying a nuclear explosive device in space?
  • Radiation Effects: How will the detonation of a nuclear device in space affect nearby spacecraft, including Starship itself?

  Propulsion System Approach

  • System Deployment: How can Starship be precisely navigated to arrive at the asteroid and deploy a propulsion system that secures to the asteroid well enough to act as a thruster to change its orbit?
  • Trajectory Planning: Given that the asteroid will be tumbling in an uncontrolled (although measurable) manner, what propulsion system operation would be needed to ensure that the NEO can be moved consistently to a new orbit?
  • Propulsion Performance: How can the thrust generated by the propulsion system be calculated and controlled to alter the NEO's orbit adequately?
  • Propulsion Technology: What is the optimal choice of propulsion technology, given the need to turn on and off and potentially to operate over years?

  General Considerations

  • Mission Planning and Risk Assessment: What mission planning processes will be used to assess the risks, benefits, and potential consequences of each planetary defense approach?
  • Spacecraft Modifications: What specific modifications or design enhancements are needed to adapt Starship for planetary defense missions?
  • Remote Operation: How can these missions be remotely operated and controlled to minimize risks to human operators?
  • Data and Observation: What sensors and data collection methods will be used to monitor the NEO and assess mission success?

Use Case 7 - Space Debris Cleanup

• Background

  Several initiatives are taking significant steps to address the growing issue of space debris. ClearSpace, commissioned by ESA, is working on ClearSpace-1, a mission aiming to capture and safely dispose of large space debris by 2026. Meanwhile, the UK's CLEAR Mission is making progress through crucial reviews. Astroscale is actively engaged in addressing this challenge with its ADRAS-J mission, selected by JAXA, which focuses on data acquisition from an upper-stage rocket body scheduled for JFY 2023. Additionally, Astroscale is collaborating with the UK Space Agency on the COSMIC project, designed to remove defunct satellites from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This endeavor involves the inspection of debris and secure capture techniques. Obruta Space Solutions offers a streamlined solution, the RPOD Kit, which simplifies on-orbit services, including debris removal. CisLunar Industries is developing a Modular Space Foundry, a technology aimed at recycling metallic space debris. These initiatives are at the forefront of tackling space debris issues and contributing to the sustainability of activities in Earth's orbital space.

• Task Description

  Robotic space vehicles equipped with navigation and attitude control systems can be used to approach, rendezvous, and grab debris from congested orbital regions. Your hackathon task is to work through the technical challenges to optimize the use of fuel, number of objects captured, mass of objects captured, and range of possible object size/mass. At the end of life, enough fuel would have to remain to place the space vehicle and its cargo into a parking orbit or to burn up in reentry. Clever solutions would include the ability to transfer the debris to an orbital facility for recycling materials.

Use Case 8 - Collision Avoidance for Immobile Objects

• Background

  There are companies that are currently working on space situational awareness and collision risk assessment, such as ComSpoc. They use a network of commercial sensors to collect data and turn it into useful information.

• Task Description

  As certain orbits become more congested, the likelihood of collisions increases. Conjunction analyses are already routinely done for the tens of thousands of objects in Earth orbits, and vehicles with the ability to adjust their orbits move to reduce their collision risk. But what about spacecraft without thrusters, or defunct spacecraft that cannot move? Your hackathon challenge is to design a small spacecraft that would carry efficient thrusters to allow it to adjust its orbit to match an immobile object, grapple with it, and give it a gentle push to move it out of harm's way (or out of the way of harming others). Clever solutions could include the ability to move the immobile spacecraft to parking orbits, recycling facilities, or to re-enter for disposal.

Use Case 9 - Satellite Secure Digital ID

• Background

  The digital age has witnessed significant advancements in secure digital identification, including biometric authentication systems and blockchain-based identity platforms. However, secure digital ID through satellites is one area that remains relatively unexplored. The "Satellite Secure Digital ID" use case within the Starship project aims to bridge this gap by exploring innovative solutions that leverage satellite capabilities to enhance secure digital identification, ushering in a new era of identity management.

• Task Description

  A trusted digital ID is a set of attributes (like verified ID documents or biometrics) that provide a certifiable link between an individual and their digital identity. Terrestrial networks are at risk for hacking, spoofing, and interception. Is there a better architecture that could be achieved in space? A network of satellites that store a secure digital ID could be made more robust. Users would communicate directly with the spacecraft, which would respond in a point-to-point way to provide tamper-proof certification. Your hackathon challenge is to develop a workable concept for such a network of satellites, and to think through all the ways it could improve over terrestrial secure networks.

Use Case 10 - Add-on Passive Deorbit Hardware

• Background

  Several organizations are developing drag augmentation technologies to expedite the atmospheric reentry of retired satellites, a process that typically spans several years. The University of Surrey's Space Center introduced InflateSail, an inflatable drag sail, designed to facilitate satellite deorbiting upon mission completion. InflateSail enhances reentry by increasing a satellite's frontal area, thus promoting efficient momentum transfer to Earth's thermosphere. This approach mitigates orbital debris and ensures the protection of space operations. Cranfield University offers a family of Drag Augmentation Systems (DAS), providing lightweight and cost-effective solutions for small satellite deorbiting. These dependable and practical sails contribute to responsible space usage by supporting satellite deorbit missions. Meanwhile, the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies demonstrated the effectiveness of drag-sail-based deorbiting through the CanX-7 mission. Launched in May 2017, CanX-7 successfully deployed four 1-square-meter drag sails, adhering to space debris mitigation guidelines. These advancements lay the groundwork for the Add-on Passive Deorbit Hardware use case, inviting innovative solutions to further advance satellite deorbiting technologies.

• Task Description

  International norms specify a 25-year lifetime for satellites in low-Earth orbits. Many spacecraft do not have systems to enable them to deorbit in this time, or may become inactive and unable to use such systems. A spacecraft can deorbit more quickly with a passive system that increases atmospheric drag, akin to a parachute. Your hackathon task is to design a spacecraft that can approach another spacecraft and add a passive deorbit system to it. The desired performance is to be able to attach something that could enable spacecraft of a wide range of sizes/masses to deorbit within 25 years from a variety of altitudes. Clever designs might increase the range of spacecraft or orbits that can be accommodated, or which could enable multiple spacecraft to be deorbited with one servicing spacecraft.

Use Case 11 - LIDAR Constellation

• Background

  Ground-based LIDAR technology has improved greatly in recent years for drone, automotive, and airborne platforms. Space-based LIDAR can be used in concert with imaging to produce 3D maps of cloud density. These measurements can be done at all times of day, permitting near-real-time monitoring of clouds. With a constellation fo spacecraft, a synoptic view of clouds over a wide area could be provided to customers. Space-based LIDAR can also be used to measure the Earth's surface, distinguishing between tree canopies, soil surface, and even underwater surfaces in shallow waters.

• Task Description

  What new services could be provided by regular measurements showing the changing profile of areas as reservoirs are drained, trees felled, waters polluted, or buildings constructed? What constellation concept could provide these measurements frequently and broadly across the Earth’s surface? What design of a space-based LIDAR instrument could provide high spatial resolution, good vertical resolution, and good separation of canopies/surface/underwater features?

Use Case 12 - Routers for Global Internet of Things

• Background

  As more and more smart devices come to market, these will need wireless communication to reach their full potential in connectivity to users and other devices. In the home or at work, this is straightforward with a central wifi system. However, devices that are farther from people (things like agricultural sensors, weather stations, or autonomous vehicles on land or at sea) may be far from even cellular towers. Satellite communications are optimized for low-latency, high-bandwidth communications that people value. A global Internet of Things could use a network of communications capabilities with relaxed latency and bandwidth but with a high user count. Cell towers and Starlink satellites can serve roughly 1000 customers. From LEO, a single satellite can see over a million square miles, and so could potentially communicate with orders of magnitude more devices.

• Task Description

  Overall, the question is this: How could you develop a satellite network and a communication protocol to enable a single satellite in a constellation to serve a million devices? What about 100 million devices? The challenge is to develop a concept for all or part of a system that permits very large numbers of low-bandwidth devices to communicate via a space-based router system. An aspect of this challenge is to consider the RF linking protocol(s) that would permit connection of many thousands of devices all sharing the same frequency band. Another aspect is to consider how to design small spacecraft for LEO operation that would be able to communicate with such a large number of devices using modest electrical power and plausible antennas. A good solution would also consider ways in which the routers could exchange high speed, low latency data between each other to bring them to downlink sites.

Use Case 13 - Buried Among The Stars

• Background

  Many of us will remember Spock's burial in space at the emotion-filled end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. While there is a nascent market for sending cremated human remains into space where they quickly re-enter and burn up, the advent of Starship could allow for a true burial in space, à la Spock. A properly-encapsulated body could be placed into a high enough orbit that it would remain in orbit for aeons. At altitudes above roughly 1000km, orbital lifetimes are centuries to millennia or beyond, and these orbital regions are seldom used by active satellites.

• Task Description

  Your challenge is to consider how best to encapsulate a body to remain intact for thousands of years in a space environment, and to work out the logistics of getting hundreds of such containers into a parking orbit where they would be deployed and spaced apart. Family members would receive an ephemeris where the dearly departed could be spotted. A more appealing container could be designed to reflect as much sunlight as possible, enable it to be visible from the ground at night. This legacy could last for centuries, being one of the longest-lasting resting places possible.

Use Case 14 - Climate Engineering the Easy Way

• Background

  Climate change is considered by many to be the greatest challenge humanity faces. Although nations have made commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions, all current trends imply significant climate change leading to catastrophic impacts to people and the biosphere. The transition to a carbon-neutral economy relies not only on the widespread adoption of technologies that aren't yet ready for worldwide deployment, such as grid-scale power storage, but on carbon removal from the atmosphere using technologies that haven't even been demonstrated beyond the experimental stage. Yet there are other possibilities out there, including one that was proposed by Hermann Oberth a hundred years ago. If sunlight can be blocked above the atmosphere, the total radiation balance of the Earth can be shifted.

• Task Description

  Using Starship, your challenge is to design the best payload to provide a shading to our planet. The payload would need to be able to cast a shadow covering the equivalent of at least 16,000 square kilometers (which would block 0.01% of the Sun's light). This could be one giant deployable membrane, a trillion tiny mirrors, or anything in between. How easily this can be deployed and maintained is important to consider. A large membrane would need to be constantly oriented to maximize the sunlight it reflects. The altitude that the reflecting materials are deployed to affects the orbital lifetime and therefore how long the cooling effect would last. And the problem of creating orbital debris needs to be considered. A very clever solution could be a material which would slowly disintegrate in the hard ultraviolet illumination from the Sun.

Use Case 15 - Metals from the Moon

• Background

  The lunar regolith is mostly silicate minerals plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine. However, there are substantial amounts of iron and aluminum in these; the total concentration is roughly 30% (those with more iron having less aluminum and vice versa).

• Task Description

  The challenge is to design a processing plant that could be carried to the Moon by Starship in only a few flights, and which could then autonomously process regolith into technically useful metals. At a minimum, one of either Iron or Aluminum should be extracted. Ideally, both metals plus Magnesium would be separated and stored. Residual slag of Silicon and Oxygen could be disposed of or find other uses.

Use Case 16 - Orbital Lab Bench

• Background

  Lots of space startups are trying to build new technologies to use in space. They may benefit from a low-threshold incubator enabled by Starship. The Orbital Lab Bench would be a modular setup where companies could rent a portion of the overall volume and put whatever they want to demonstrate into a dedicated research cargo space. Some of these could have windows (for instance, if you want to try out a hyperspectral imager for a CubeSat). Some could have very robust cases (so if you are developing an ion propulsion system, you could fire it in a contained space). Some could contain specialized temperature controls (so if you wanted to run biology experiments or run a trial of producing medicines or the like).

• Task Description

  The challenge would focus on the affordability and flexibility of payloads the Orbital Lab Bench facility could accommodate. What kinds of modular spaces would be possible in a Starship payload? What support functions could you provides for various kinds of experiments? If you have optimizations for life science research, plant growth systems, human habitat systems, propulsion systems, material processing systems, or other novel space flight hardware or research, how would your Orbital Lab Bench facility provide support for those customers?

Use Case 17 - Storage of Sensitive Data in Space

• Background

  NASA, alongside Lonestar and the Isle of Man, is pioneering blockchain-verified data storage on the Moon, using "data cubes" set to launch in February 2024 and authenticate future Moon landings. The Artemis missions, including Artemis 2 and 3, play a pivotal role in this endeavor. Lonestar and the Isle of Man are developing sustainable lunar data storage solutions using blockchain-verified "digital franking" stamps. This technology could allow future Moon visitors to validate their presence. However, for the purpose of space data storage, considering cost-effectiveness and scalability, satellite constellations emerge as a compelling alternative.

• Task Description

  Space-based data storage using satellites and blockchain technology offers secure and tamper-proof storage but faces challenges like radiation, high launch costs, limited launch opportunities, and the need for data accessibility. Your task is to design a Starship-enabled space data storage system that includes proposing satellite constellation details, implementing blockchain for data security, ensuring data integrity and protection, describing Starship deployment for the constellation, developing a budget-friendly approach, optimizing launch scheduling, and explaining user data access methods. Create a feasible, secure, and cost-effective space data storage solution.

Use Case 18 - Preserve the ISS

• Background

  Currently slated to be retired in 2030, there has recently been some pressure to consider keeping the aging facility going. One aspect of this is to be able to boost its orbit to keep it from decaying. Starship could carry up a propulsion module that would be able to lift the million-pound facility, perhaps slowly over time as a maintenance rather than a one-time boost. Lifting it to a substantially higher orbit would have a commensurate decrease in all other cargo deliveries, so the challenge would have to consider how to keep the ISS in orbits accessible to other launch services while maximizing its lifetime aloft.

• Task Description

  The challenge is to develop a concept for how the ISS orbit could be maintained or raised using the Starship and whatever payload it could carry there. Propulsion that maintains it indefinitely at an orbit that remains accessible to existing launch vehicles is the goal; the ability to push the ISS into a graveyard orbit or to a controlled reentry would be a beneficial additional capability. What technologies would have to be developed to make this possible? What are other uses of those technologies, once developed?

Open Challenge 1 - Novel Satellite Constellations

• Background

  The cargo version of Starship will be able to launch entire satellite constellations in a single launch inside its payload bay. For perspective, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can carry up to 60 Starlink satellites in a tight configuration inside its 5.2-meter diameter fairing, Starship will be able to carry 400 Starlink satellites to deploy in a single launch inside its fairing. Starship will be capable of deploying giant spacecraft to space inside its clamshell-like fairing, which has an outer diameter of 9-meters –“the largest usable payload volume of any current or in development launcher,” the company says. SpaceX also plans to design an extended Starship volume capability for payloads requiring up to 22-meters of height.

• Task Description

  Unleash your creativity and innovation in this open challenge! Design novel satellite constellations leveraging Starship's remarkable lift capacity and cost-efficient launches. Imagine any use case and build satellite constellations tailored to your vision.

Open Challenge 2 - Recreation Facilities for Space Hotel

• Background

  When envisioning a space hotel to cater to the basic needs of future space tourists, there's room for creative recreation facilities that can enhance their experience. For instance, ever wondered how to make a zero-gravity swimming pool work? A cylinder that spins slowly would have enough artificial gravity to hold the water around the outside, and so there would be air down the center for breathing. Swimming laps of spirals in very low gravity could be fun! Furthermore, consider an orbital sensory deprivation chamber. It might be even more effective than one on earth. A small cabin that can be darkened and made sufficiently quiet, with warm air and no gravity, would be almost perfect.

• Task Description

  In Use Case 3 - Orbital Hotel, we invite hackers to craft a modular space hotel. However, in this open challenge, we encourage you to use your imagination to propose additional recreational and entertainment activities you envision for the hotel, much like the concepts outlined in the background section. Please provide a comprehensive solution with the engineering details.