AsturExplorers: Among the Top 40 global finalist on NASA SpaceApps Challenge 2024, with their Landsat Connect App

NASA SpaceApps 2024 AsturExplorers among the 40 global finalists of the NASA Space Apps Challenge with Landsat Connect, a satellite tracking application.

Asturexplorers, a team from Asturias, manages to position itself as part of the 40 global finalist teams in the world's largest hackathon.

This year, for the first time, Asturias joined as a host in the NASA Space Apps Challenge and they have certainly managed to exceed all expectations: the Asturexplorers, finalist team from the city of Gijon, has been among the 40 world finalists, standing out among thousands of teams from around the world.

The team, composed by Coral Izquierdo Muñiz, Samuel Guerrero Camarero, Daniel Álvarez Conde, Daniel Piñera Villar, Vladimir Cortac and Juan Ignacio Bousquet, has developed Landsat Connect, an innovative web application that responds to the challenge “Landsat Reflectance Data: On the Fly and at Your Fingertips” posed by NASA.

Landsat Connect: Asturian innovation at the service of satellite observation

Landsat Connect is a web application that allows users to follow Landsat 8 and 9 satellites by accessing surface reflectance data and receive notifications of their trajectory. Users can set a location and obtain relevant data without having to constantly monitor schedules. Designed to be accessible to users with different technical levels and capabilities, this application has enormous potential for sectors such as agriculture, environmental management and climate research, facilitating access to critical data for decision making.

Asturias on the global innovation map

The participation of the city of Gijón in the NASA Space Apps Challenge marks a milestone for the region, which this year joins for the first time this international event that promotes creativity and innovation around space data and challenges. The achievement of one of the city's teams to be finalists not only highlights the talent and ability of young Asturians, but also positions Asturias as a benchmark in the field of science and technology.

Argentine Talent in the Top 40

Among the members of the Asturexplorers team, Juan Ignacio Bousquet, an Argentine researcher specialized in space cybersecurity, stands out. His experience in the sector includes the founding of Patagon Space, an initiative dedicated to security research and space initiatives in Argentina, and a key role as Security Engineer at Satellogic, one of the most innovative companies in the Latin American space sector.

His multidisciplinary career also includes his participation in the University of San Martín, where he was part of the team that designed and 3D printed a vital piece that allowed little Valentino to breathe and saved his life.

He is currently working on his master's thesis in Cyber Defense and Cybersecurity at the University of Buenos Aires, doing research on satellite security at the Stratosphere Laboratory of the Technical University of the Czech Republic. His participation in Asturexplorers reflects the international and multidisciplinary character of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, where talent transcends borders to provide innovative solutions to space challenges.

About the NASA Space Apps Challenge

The NASA Space Apps Challenge is a global hackathon that annually brings together thousands of participants from more than 150 countries. During a weekend, interdisciplinary teams work to solve challenges proposed by NASA, using open data and proposing creative and impactful solutions for the future of the planet and space.

With this important achievement, the Asturexplorers demonstrate that innovation has no borders and that Asturias has much to contribute to the world of technology and space exploration.

By Veronica Diaz