LBS Space night – a blazing success

On April 5, Lauder Business School launched its one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary project that will pioneer an outstanding concept of marketing: space marketing. After the opening remarks of Alexander Zirkler, Executive Director of Lauder Business School, Professor (FH) Ing. Mag. Robert Kotal CFP ®EFA®, the LBS space trailblazer, presented the details of the high-altitude flight project to an audience of fellow space-enthusiasts, students and distinguished guests.

In late August, LBS and its partners, TU Wien Space Team , and K-Sat Stuttgart, will send off into the stratosphere over Stuttgart a weather balloon carrying an LBS-built advertising gondola and a cube satellite built by the TU Wien Space Team. Its mission is to collect various data for the Central Institution for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), but with an innovative business twist – four green-minded and sustainable companies will get the chance to showcase their company on the gear, thus testing a new concept of marketing, as well.

In addition, this project aims to spark inspiring cooperation between business students and the Space Teams, to provide ample opportunities for sustainable development and interdisciplinary entrepreneurship in the long run.

Joining Prof. (FH) Kotal on stage from TU Wien Space Team were Patrick Enzensberger, president, and Mr. David Wagner, Technical Lead CubeSat Mission STS1. The TU Wien Space Team is responsible for building the CubeSat for this project, and its representatives used this opportunity to present their impressive project portfolio and display samples of their rockets and CubeSats to all the curious eyes.

The K-Sat Stuttgart delegation, comprised of chairwoman Anastasia Natascha Bonidis, and Simon Müller, M.Sc. Student Aerospace Engineering and BUBBLE project lead, joined the event online. As flight operators of the incoming flight, they acquainted the audience with the process of flying (and recovering) a high altitude balloon and also with the possible mission risks, as unpredictability is inevitably a part of the process.

As part of accent, the Lower Austrian high-tech incubator company that helps start-ups develop and thrive, Florian Schirg closed the evening off with remarks on the broadness of space-related projects and infinite interdisciplinary cooperation possibilities that can lead to unprecedented business ventures. He offered his insights into why these types of collaborative ventures can spark extraordinary ideas that would impact positively society as the founding of a start-up company offers a unique opportunity to proactively engage in an exciting market quickly.

Finally, Prof. (FH) Kotal stressed the importance of forging new ways to bring together business, entrepreneurship and engineering, affirming that these joint collaborations between business and space engineering are a treasure trove of untapped potential, inviting students to join the LBS space team.

After the presentations, LBS students had the chance to network with our guests, and examine the models of rockets and CubeSats, encouraged to join the LBS space team in its amazing journey and explore the space further.