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Among the proposals to be presented is the IACTEC-Space project, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). It includes the innovative DRAGO infrared camera, a tool “not comparable to any other instrument” for disaster relief.
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The Cartuja Auditorium in Seville will host from 17 to 21 March 2025 the first edition of ‘New Space & Solutions’, a pioneering meeting where the New Space industry will come together to jointly explain the solutions they provide to citizens.
This 6 February 2025 marks 100 days since the terrible DANA that left 227 confirmed fatalities and incalculable material damage in 75 municipalities in the Valencian Community, two in Castilla La-Mancha and one in Andalusia, with many, many questions still hanging in the air, according to data from the Data Integration Centre (CID). One of them has hung over public opinion since that tragic 29 October 2024: could the tragedy have been avoided or, at least, could the catastrophic consequences in terms of fatalities have been minimised?
Imagen: X | @Defensagob
Beyond the debate about who had to take control of what happened or whether the civil protection warning was sent to mobile phones when municipalities were already completely flooded, one of the questions that most concerns society is whether the emergency services have sufficient and effective instruments not only to deal with this type of natural catastrophe, but also to be able to anticipate them.
The DANA that almost completely devastated some Valencian towns in October 2024 was the latest of the many natural disasters we have suffered in recent years in Spain, such as the eruption of the volcano on La Palma in 2021 that devastated everything in its path, or the Filomena squall that buried the city of Madrid under snow in January 2021. Is it possible to manage a disaster from Space? Are traditional methods sufficient to act against an unbridled force of nature? How can Space help us in critical situations such as a flood or a forest fire? These and many other questions will be answered by experts in the field such as Álex Oscoz, Head of Telescopic Operations at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, at ‘New Space & Solutions’, from 17 to 21 March 2025, in Seville.
“Our society is facing a new generation of increasingly virulent and frequent natural disasters: floods, fires and desertification, among many others,” says Álex Oscoz, who will present the IACTEC-Space project: a unique system, designed and patented by this Canary Islands research centre, based on DRAGO infrared instruments.
What is the innovative DRAGO infrared camera like?
It is a system that “has no comparison with any other current instrument on small satellites” and which, moreover, “opens up a new era in earth observation“, Oscoz says. Unfortunately, traditional methods for dealing with these situations have proven to be insufficient, so new solutions are needed to meet the needs of citizens in critical situations such as forest fires, floods, flash floods or extreme storms.
“A crucial aspect is to be able to obtain data from the affected areas as soon as possible in order to act effectively,” says Oscoz, for whom the possibility of seeing the situation of an affected area in real time significantly improves the emergency teams’ options for action. In this sense, “a greater number of instruments and observation devices from space provide information at the right time”.
Imagen: X | @Defensagob
And that is precisely what DRAGO offers, this infrared camera, unique in the world, which has already begun to offer results, helping, among other cases, in the eruption of the volcano of La Palma in 2021 or in the Tenerife fire of 2023, the worst in the history of the island.
The first edition of ‘New Space & Solutions’, which will turn Seville from 17 to 21 March 2025 into the capital of New Space, is an international event with a hybrid format: two face-to-face days (Monday 17 and Tuesday 18) and three virtual days (Wednesday 19, Thursday 20 and Friday 21). Its exclusive agenda will showcase what Space can do for citizens, the inspirational messages of the leading women in the space industry – with a day dedicated entirely to them – and the relevant role of Universities within this sector. The importance of New Space in the Emergency, Health, Telecommunications, Logistics, Mobility, Agriculture, Environment, Meteorology and Maritime sectors, among others, will also be addressed.
In addition, the Spanish Space Agency will play an important role, as well as international agencies such as NASA, ESA and Japan’s JAXA, which will also form part of the agenda.
All the presentations can be followed through ‘The Observatory’, the digital platform of Medina Media Events, in the style of an on-demand service, where each intervention will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for free.