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Business Plan for a commercial space telescope

Objective

"The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a masterpiece for astronomy and astrophysics and also for public outreach and education, serving as an inspiration for all mankind. However, the HST is coming to age and will have to be retired soon. Unfortunately, the James Webb Space Telescope cannot be considered a follow-on telescope to the HST as its observing spectrum will be mostly in the infrared spectrum only while the HST can observe in the ultraviolet (UV) and the visual spectrum too. Consequently the UV-community will be left behind or even blind.

Acknowledging that professional UV-astronomers are mostly interested in observing celestial objects eof the milky way and nearby galaxies and that the hobby astronomer community as well as the general public's interest in astronomy is centered on bright objects offers an interesting opportunity to establish a follow-on telescope to the HST, which can be extremely cost-effective. This is due to two reasons: a) a telescope focusing on bright objects is not required to work with a huge aperture and b) recent advances in electronics, sensors, light-weight structures etc. have enabled the rise of small satellite systems.

By combining these aspects an interesting concept arises, which is the aim of the project ""Public Telescope"":
• Sub-meter space telescope for UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy and imaging
• Internet-based service-platform for order and configuration
• Combination of huge scientific need with a sustainable commercial potential

The opportunity is now! PlanetLabs and similar initiatives in the US showcase that the time is right to launch such endeavors - if the Europeans do not act now, then it will be the US that will be the first and likely there is no early market for two or more systems.

We need the feasibility study for:
• Concretion of user requirements
• Development of a functional mission concept
• Estimate of the overall project cost
• Development of product, price and quantity structures"

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

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Coordinator

ASTROFACTUM GMBH
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
SCHNABLSTRASSE 2A
81247 MUENCHEN
Germany

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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