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This Challenge is a qualifier to the final validation phase where algorithms will be tested on a hidden test set. Best teams will be invited to this 2nd phase that will determine the overall winner(s) eligible for prizes. The full list of prizes currently includes:
- **1-month remote access to the Leopard processing unit by KP Labs** via the brand-new [Smart Mission Lab platform](https://sml.kplabs.space/) to benchmark your models on flight-proven hardware with KP Labs’ expert support (+ an option to widely promote the results through KP Labs’ social media) - estimated value €5,000.
- Gifts from ESA and KP Labs

The award ceremony and best teams presentations will take place during the [**ESA AI STAR 2025**](https://atpi.eventsair.com/ai-star-2025). Winner(s) will be invited as co-authors of a joint paper summarizing the Challenge. 

All participants are invited to submit regular or short papers describing their algorithms to the dedicated session at the [ML4ITS workshop](https://ml4its.github.io/ml4its2025) of the [**ECML PKDD 2025 conference**](https://ecmlpkdd.org/2025/submissions-workshop-track/). The foreseen deadline for submissions is **~~14 June 2025~~** **21 June 2025** - nine days after competition ends, so participants are expected to work on the paper already before the Challenge finishes. The final Challenge results should be included in the paper. **Submitting at least a short paper or a presentation to the workshop is necessary to be eligible for the II phase and the final prize! The novelty is not essential and you do not need to present or participate at the conference to win the competition (however, in this case, your paper will not be included in the official conference proceedings).**

Intermediate results will be presented at [**SpaceOps 2025 conference**](https://www.spaceops2025.org/) 26-30 May 2025. 

## Hackathon (closed)
The Challenge started with a hackathon on 13 March 2025 during the [AI Symposium on Ground Segment Engineering, Operations, and Space Safety](https://commercialisation.esa.int/event/ai-symposium-on-ground-segment-engineering-operations-and-space-safety/) at ESA's European Space Operations Centre. The winner was **Simon Schaefer** (SHS Telespazio team, user: [shsshs](https://www.kaggle.com/shsshs))