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Fellowship Commitments
Karman Impact Themes
In building a common space future, we look to creating and supporting tangible impact.
Each year, the Karman Fellows traverse global issues informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals that space technologies can contribute to solving, together with challenges that exist within the space sector. As a ‘space-for-impact’ foundation, the Karman Project supports the Fellows in addressing six key Impact Themes: Sustainability, Education, Empowerment, Cooperation, Science and Inspiration.
Space for Sustainability
Space plays a crucial role in our transition towards a sustainable future. This Impact Theme encourages our Fellows to address topics such as climate monitoring and mitigation, water conservation, agriculture and supply chains, wildfire tracking and conservation, disaster management and space debris.
Commitment
Removing the barrier to design solutions around climate change adaptation and the mitigation of its impact by opening up pan-India processed satellite imagery and weather datasets at SatSure.
Progress
Prateep and the team at SatSure have successfully launched SatSure Sparta, an open innovation platform with the objective of developing a collaborative and co-innovation attitude in the agricultural ecosystem. The platform has been founded upon the ideas of democratisation in agriculture and community building, where amateurs and expert volunteers can come together to achieve a common objective, solving problems in agriculture. SatSure Sparta has different forms and formats of datasets available which can be accessed through APIs like remote sensing derived crop insights, weather data, public and econometric data (to name a few). So far, SatSure Sparta has served over 4.3 million Indian farmers with critical datasets.
Commitment
To provide affordable IoT solutions based on direct-to-satellite communications to support sustainable applications in agriculture, water management, climate monitoring or any other environmental applications. To involve local entities in the co-development of these solutions.
Progress
In his capacity as Founder & CEO of Astrocast, Fabien and his team developed a global Satellite IoT Network providing comprehensive direct-to-orbit services that include advanced nanosatellites and communication modules, and enterprise-class services. The team has launched a Pilot Program dedicated to enabling organisations working at the intersection of satellite technology and climate mitigation to expand their reach.
One of their partners, Wildlife Computers - the leading provider of advanced wildlife telemetry - is providing a solution that is key in getting important data about energy savings, climate change tracking and water prediction, among others. You can read more about this Pilot Partnership on Astrocast’s website here.
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Space for Education
In the course of eduction-focused commitments, our Fellows leverage space technologies to bridge the digital divide, further communication technologies and encourage future generations to engage with space.
Commitment
In a commitment toward bridging the digital divide, Temidayo and Christopher achieved first-time internet connectivity for the Okaka Community Grammar School in Nigeria in April 2023 via satellite technologies.
Progress
With the partnership of the Temidayo Oniosun Foundation, Temidayo and Christopher selected the Okaka Community Grammar School in Nigeria, Africa - a school of approximately 480 students - and worked with Karman community partners at SpaceX's Starlink to connect the school. The team have also secured the leading content partnership with code.org - a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and already working with 60 million students worldwide. Additionally, they have signed partnerships with Africa Code Week (An initiative by SAP), Google CS First and Google Scratch.
Commitment
Together, Clarisse and Jonathan successfully launched the ‘Rwanda Space Agriculture Entrepreneur Challenge’. With the goal to support entrepreneurial students in creating a product that will utilise space technologies to enhance their agricultural economy, the challenge supported teams of secondary students to engage in research, surveying, concept design, prototyping, product testing and pitching.
Progress
They partnered with the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda and held the first 10-week pilot program in March 2023.
Commitment
As Korea’s first and only astronaut, Soyeon is committed to leveraging her influence to encourage space education within developing nations and underserved communities. Throughout 2022, Soyeon has been working with a variety of partner organisations - such as Space Prize, which is dedicated to supporting young women in STEM - to speak on a number of technical, educational and inspirational space topics.
Progress
Soyeon is interested in creating a structure to support certain students in the pursuit of space studies (e.g. via the creation of a scholarship or similar), and is looking for partners with whom to explore this idea further.
Commitment
Increasing accessibility to space education and employment for underserved and underrepresented demographics (e.g. those coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds; women who currently account for 1/5 of the space industry, etc). This Commitment was founded upon the recognition that diplomas and degrees often represent a barrier to entry for certain demographics, and there is a paradigm change in hiring trends within space with the growing need for "hands-on" talents.
Progress
Pierre successfully launched ‘Space Elevator’ as a registered non-profit association June 2022, aimed at increasing the accessibility of space education for underrepresented youth through hands-on training and skills development. Pierre has successfully implemented his first full program alongside Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse, France. Together, they launched a curriculum (combination of hands-on/practical experiments and theoretical content) to provide young students with the fundamental skill-development required to be an aerospace engineer and eventually undertake further studies, or apply for industry jobs without formalised education. Focus areas include: spatial/orbital dynamics, propulsion, communication and radio frequency, software development, space physiology in space, etc. The team is now working on ensuring that the curriculum is scalable, accessible and easily reproducible to be deployed in numerous areas and communities.
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Space for Empowerment
Empowering minority groups and underserved areas, as well as educating or raising awareness on various issues: the Space for Empowerment theme looks to serve communities that can significantly benefit from space. Our Fellows work on solving issues in developing regions and for underrepresented communities, and create projects focused upon capacity building.
Commitment
Increasing accessibility to space education and employment for underserved and underrepresented demographics (e.g. those coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds; women who currently account for 1/5 of the space industry, etc). This Commitment has been founded upon the recognition that diplomas and degrees often represent a barrier to entry for certain demographics, and there is a paradigm change in hiring trends within space with the growing need for "hands-on" talents.
Progress
Pierre has launched ‘Space Elevator’, an educational, inspirational and applied program dedicated to increasing diversity within space. He has partnered with the renowned Cite de l'Espace, Toulouse to launch a curriculum (combination of hands-on/practical experiments and theoretical content) to provide young students with the fundamental skill-development required to be an aerospace engineer and eventually undertake further studies, or apply for industry jobs without formalised education. Focus areas include: spatial/orbital dynamics, propulsion, communication and radio frequency, software development, space physiology in space, etc. Space Elevator will launch with a pilot program with three high schools in Toulouse. It is key that the curriculum is scalable, accessible and easily reproducible to be deployed in numerous areas and communities.
Commitment
Neha is launching ‘Space2Invest’, a platform which shall gather a community of experts who can provide technical advice to prospective investors - particularly VCs - to encourage greater confidence in investing in startups within the DeepTech and Space sectors. Neha anticipates that in opening up a direct pathway of education and relationship-building, more opportunities will arise for entrepreneurs within the Indian space ecosystem.
Progress
Neha is currently building a platform which will connect the most promising Space and DeepTech projects in India with a network of curious investors and experts who can advise them on the finer details.
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Space for Cooperation
Promoting cooperation through effective space governance is a goal that Karman Fellows actively work towards throughout the course of the Fellowship. In addition to strategic discussions, Fellows can pursue dedicated commitments towards space governance, space diplomacy and improving participation for emerging space nations.
Commitment
Author a series of articles under the working title “Space Done Wrong Right” - exploring a number of topics that support best practices for a truly commercial space industry in Europe.
Progress
Tom is deep diving into ten key themes and has so far explored questions such as who sets the terms and conditions for space, the psychology behind innovation and whether agency-sponsored satellite programs are destroying the commercial space industry. Follow Tom on LinkedIn here to ensure that you never miss an article, and check out his ‘Space Done Wrong’ series here.
Commitment
In their roles as CEO of Atomos Space and Ursa Major Technologies respectively, Vanessa Clark and Joe Laurienti want to leverage their influence to make space sustainability more than a matter of corporate social responsibility - but something which companies, third parties and investors are legally obligated to address.
Progress
As part of their Karman Fellowship Commitment, they are taking the following actions: Collating best practice sustainability references for pre-launch (Joe) and post-launch (Vanessa); establishing relationships with key research stakeholders in the fields of space impact and environmental impact (e.g. MIT Media Lab, World Economic Forum, Space Safety Coalition); drafting a Space Sustainability Clause that can be open-sourced and adapted to various negotiations/contracts; and establishing a public register on which organisations can pledge their commitment.
Commitment
To capture the stories and history of African space heritage in order to remind people of role models/inspiration, convince policy makers that investment into space yields benefits and to show people across Africa that space is an exciting profession and industry of choice.
Progress
Throughout 2022, Davis has been interviewing 25 people across the continent, compiling all knowledge and outcomes into open access database, and translating this into to French and Kiswahili. He aims to launch the project to the public in conjunction with Karman Week 2022.
Commitment
Author a series of articles on the best practices on establishing a national space policy for developing countries.
Progress
Rogel has authored a chapter entitled "The Philippine Space Program: A Modern Take on Establishing a National Space Program" in the book "ASEAN Space Programs - History and Way Forward". Additionally, he is working together with the Karman Community to organise a webinar for emerging space nations on how to proceed with developing their own national space programs. Stay tuned! In an additional committed effort toward bridging the digital divide, Rogel has led the ACCESS Mindanao Program (Ateneo de Davao University Community Connectivity Empowered by Satellite Services for Mindanao), connecting remote and isolated communities to the internet using satellites. 9 out of the 12 intended antennas have been successfully installed, and the program is now expanding to other regions.
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Space for Science
Science drives innovation and advances our understanding of Earth and the Universe. Karman Fellows are inspired by science and they work on commitments related to space exploration, microgravity research (e.g. medicine, agriculture, life sciences) and the advancement of human knowledge.
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Space for Inspiration
Art and storytelling is key to engage and inspire a wider audience about the potentials of space, and Karman Fellows are working to raise awareness on the time-critical challenges that space can help us to solve on Earth.
Commitment
To use satellite data and AI to generate stories from various natural places on Earth to give an objective and poetic voice to nature and to inspire ecological compassion.
Progress
As an artist and the founding director of KOSMICA Institute, Nahum created Stories From Home project.The foundation of the project uses Earth observation satellites as a starting point to understand the spatial context of recent changes on the planet. The project will look at data from 4 planetary spheres: Hydrosphere, Geosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere.
After gathering the available data, AI will be trained to detect and cross-reference the different variables (e.g. rainfall and deforestation at a specific point) and select those incidences where the changes in the variables are most transcendent. After the changes are traced along with their relationships, AI will generate stories.
The NLG output will be augmented with OpenAI’s GPT3. Nahum create a dictionary of poetic language and literary forms to give a lyrical language to the narratives generated. The resulting stories will give a vehicle of expression to the planet. Output Objectives include: (a) Book, (b) Live Reading & Open Air Drawing Sessions and (c) Immersive Exhibitions. Nahum will exhibit with the Hong Kong Arts Centre in September 2022.
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The Karman
Impact Fund
The Karman Impact Fund has been created to directly support the Fellows’ commitments and cooperative projects through scholarships.
It provides kickstarter donations to eligible Karman Commitments. With the support of the Karman Impact Fund, Karman Fellows work together to explore global challenges and better understand their purpose, motivations and opportunities to amplify their impact. The Karman Impact Fund is awarded by a Committee pursuant to §2(1) of Stiftung Karman Project's Bylaws.
Contribute
The Karman Impact Fund is open to sponsor donations
if you’d like to have a hand in directly supporting the Karman Fellows in bringing their commitments to life to create cooperative and impactful projects, we’d love to hear from you!
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