Satellites and apps, anti Covid solutions from space

From the app to monitor the spread of the pandemic thanks to satellite data to the platform to train very young aspiring astronauts: these are two of the winning projects of Space in Response to Covid -19, the tender resulting from the collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA), Ministry of Digital Innovation and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) created to stimulate innovative ideas on the use of space technologies to respond to the Covid-19 emergency.

"Launched in full pandemic, in March 2020, the success of this call was extraordinary. A large quantitative response, about 100 proposals, but at the same time many of the highest quality", said Giorgio Saccoccia, in the online event that has wanted to tell, two years later, the stories of some of the winning projects of the tender supported with a contribution of 10 million euros from Asi. Six are the main stories of the event, three in the health field and three in the educational one, and which continue to grow even now. Thus was born Epico-19, an app that combines epidemiological data with satellite images to monitor and predict, thanks to artificial intelligence, the evolution of the pandemic by evaluating in particular factors such ascrowding of hospitals or supermarkets observing the movement of cars or the quality of the air.

Robotic technologists and satellite connections are instead behind Code - 19 a project already tested in 3 Italian hospitals which involves the construction of a series of small autonomous robots able to move in hospital environments to transport materials, reports or biological samples and thus reduce the contacts between personnel and the infected.

Code - 19's robot in the hospital (source: e-novia)

A section of the call has favored the birth of new solutions in the educational field including the Dreamcoder 2.0 project, a kit to learn coding and scientific disciplines and to carry out experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS).

All thanks to a small electronics kit, with sensors and a Raspberry Pi board, on which to experiment by playing and transfer your digital project to the mirror kit on board the ISS.

Or Space for Children, a video game in which children interact with the protagonists of a story, aliens and real actors, in a space adventure with quizzes and puzzles to solve and finally fight the Covid virus.