RadioLabs is the Prime Contractor of a European consortium that made a successful bid for an ESA contract on the topic “Space Assets for Demining Assistance”. The project is called SAFEDEM (Space Assets For Enhanced DEMining).

A consortium led by RadioLabs, with the participation of:

• University of Rome “Sapienza” (Italy),
• MEEO - Meteorological Environmental Earth Observation (Italy),
• Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium),
• Aurensis (Spain),
• GTD Sistemas de Información (Spain)

and supported by

• AID - Agenzia Industrie Difesa (Italy),
• A.B.C - Appalti Bonifiche Costruzioni (Italy),

has won the ESA tender AO/1-6392 “Space Assets for Demining Assistance (Landmine Detection Service)”, in the framework of Integrated Application Promotion programme (IAP) - ARTES 20.

Nowadays landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) still represent a danger for civilians (i.e. each year around 20,000 people are victims on landmines). In the last years, many efforts have been done in demining actions, in order to accelerate the global humanitarian demining effort through an increase in investment and an effective international coordination in demining and assistance. The current rate of clearance is about 500.000 mines per year, and assuming no additional mines are laid from now on, it could still take hundreds of years to find and clear all the landmines around the world. The need of efficient demining actions is also supported by cost factors, considering that the average cost of clearance is around 1 $/m², whereas well-informed land release (without such clearance efforts) costs only 0.02-0.05 $/m².

Leveraging on the main needs of world‐wide community against landmines, it seems reasonable to focus new efforts in employing new potential methodologies and technologies –such as space assets– to enhance actual landmine clearance solutions and improve effectiveness of detection problem (i.e. mapping and land release). In SAFEDEM project, the innovative methodologies based on space assets (i.e. Earth Observation, Satellite Navigation, and Communication) will be all involved for an integrated end‐to‐end demining assistance service.

ESA asks to highlight the potential tasks of each space assets, oriented to enhance the scheduling, preparation, organization and execution of different demining activities. The whole process will result more efficient and suitable for different applications and services. Eventually, SAFEDEM focuses on developing the add-value coming from the integration of satellite technologies within the actual demining operations.