Like the Red Arrows, but in space: how an aerobatic display of satellites could unlock innovation in orbit

Challenge Works is currently working in partnership with the Canadian and UK space agencies to design a challenge prize on lunar water. Subject to final approval, we hope to launch it in December 2023.

But as well as being rich in natural resources, space is rich in challenge prize potential.

One of the most famous challenge prizes in history is the Ansari X Prize, awarded to the first privately-funded and privately-launched crewed spacecraft, launched by team Scaled Composites. Our partners in the Canadian Space Agency have run challenge prizes on space food and healthcare. The EU, with consultancy from Challenge Works, awarded a €10m prize for miniaturised space launchers. And most prolific, Nasa’s Centennial Challenges programme has deployed a battery of challenge prizes on topics including low-carbon flight and astronaut glove design.

So we don’t want to stop with lunar water.

Space is full of opportunities. The sector is changing fast – with falling launch costs (thanks, in no small part, to Elon Musk’s SpaceX) leading to ever more satellites in orbit. Huge ‘constellations’ – formations made up of multiple identical satellites – are becoming possible. Large arrays – for instance for generation of electricity by solar panels – could soon be commercially viable too.

As space becomes more crowded, and as constellations and arrays deploy satellites in ever-closer formation, the space sector will need improved technologies to safely deploy, maintain and repair these critical assets.

We think a challenge prize could help unlock innovation in this field. After a series of stages to develop and refine the technology, the prize would culminate in an in-orbit test in which satellites had to fly in close formation without incident.

Such a prize wouldn’t just develop the technologies – sensors, software, AI – needed to unlock these new opportunities. 

It would mean demonstrating them to the world. 

Just like the RAF’s Red Arrows show both the pilots’ skill and aircraft’s manoeuvrability when they put on an aerobatic display, a challenge prize could show investors and customers what the technology is capable of.

We’d love to talk to funders about this prize idea and other opportunities for innovation in space. You can read more about the proposed prize design, and get in touch.