My Role & Responsibilities

As Project Manager, I led the project’s definition, structure, and delivery under extreme time constraints (48 hours).

My role covered both strategic product definition and team orchestration:

• - Defined the product vision and positioning aligned with NASA’s challenge goals.
• - Structured the business plan, revenue model, and financial projections.
• - Created the user journey and digital platform architecture for experiment management.
• - Coordinated a team of engineers, designers, and data scientists to ensure technical coherence.
• - Designed the pitch narrative and final presentation for NASA’s judging panel.
• - Outlined the partnership roadmap with the European Space Agency (ESA) for future development.

SpaceLab was a crash course in product leadership — prioritizing clarity, focus, and feasibility in an environment defined by time and ambition.

Problem/Opportunity

Access to microgravity biotechnology research is extremely limited.

Sending an experiment into orbit can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the logistics, infrastructure, and approval process are prohibitively complex for smaller institutions.

This creates a global gap in innovation:

• 1. Startups and universities cannot test products in microgravity.
• 2. Pharmaceutical and biotech industries lose potential discoveries due to limited access.
• 3. The space economy grows, but the entry barrier remains high.

SpaceLab emerged as a response to this inequality: to make space research accessible, modular, and data-driven.

Hypothesis

If we design a modular orbital laboratory system managed through a digital SaaS platform, we can dramatically lower the cost and complexity of space-based experiments, opening the microgravity economy to smaller players.

The hypothesis connected two industries — aerospace and biotechnology — through a scalable digital product model.

Research & Process

• 1. Market & Competitor Analysis
• - Studied existing space biotech companies: Varda Space Industries, SpacePharma, Space Forge.
• - Identified high entry costs and lack of accessibility as the main pain points.


• 2. Concept Definition
• - Designed SpaceLab as a hybrid system: orbital hardware (modular racks) + digital control platform (web dashboard).
• - Each rack hosts up to six individual cartridges, allowing multiple companies to share one launch.


• 3. User Flow Design
• Researchers access the platform to:
• - Select experiment type (biotech, materials, food science).
• - Book an orbital slot (LEO – Low Earth Orbit).
• - Simulate parameters and preview data via AI-driven models.
• - Monitor progress and download experiment results in real time.


• 4. Business Model & Pricing
• Developed a three-tier model:
• - Premium: exclusive slots for pharma corporations with dedicated telemetry bandwidth.
• - Pro: shared missions for startups and universities.
• - Open Science: subsidized access for educational or collaborative research.


• 5. Design & Prototyping
• - Created a digital prototype showing the mission dashboard, data visualization, and simulation modules.
• - Simulated API interactions between the orbital rack and the ground platform.


• 6. Pitch Development & Presentation
• - Built a visual pitch deck summarizing problem, opportunity, business model, and future scalability.
• - Delivered to NASA’s jury — where SpaceLab was selected among the top 3 projects in Valencia.

Solution

SpaceLab consists of two integrated components:

• 1. Modular Orbital Laboratory (Hardware Layer)
• - Each lab rack can host multiple cartridges (miniaturized experiments).
• - AI-based monitoring systems track temperature, microgravity behavior, and biological growth.
• - Data transmitted in real time via satellite downlink to the Earth platform.


• 2. SpaceLab Digital Platform (Software Layer)
• - Cloud-based platform for experiment configuration, tracking, and analysis.
• - Users can simulate results using machine learning models before the actual launch.
• - Includes data-sharing options for Open Science collaborations.

This combination makes SpaceLab a hybrid product — both physical and digital — designed to transform how biotech innovation happens in orbit.

Results & Recognitions

Impact Area	Outcome
Competition Result	🥉 3rd Place – NASA Space Apps Challenge Valencia 2024
Feasibility Validation	✅ Positive feedback from mentors and aerospace advisors
Business Plan	📈 Complete financial model and cost structure defined in less than 48 hours
ESA Readiness	🚀 Preparing proposal for European Space Agency incubation
Team Performance	⏱ Coordinated a multidisciplinary team under tight 48-hour deadline

Insights & Learnings

SpaceLab was not just a competition project — it was a proof of leadership under pressure and a lesson in building structure out of chaos.

Key learnings:

• - Product Management is clarity under uncertainty. The biggest challenge was translating a complex, scientific concept into a simple, testable product vision.
• - Innovation thrives in constraints. Working with limited time and data forced us to focus on essentials — narrative, feasibility, and impact.
• - Communication drives alignment. Coordinating engineers, designers, and analysts with different expertise required clear prioritization and vision.
• - Scalability is not about size — it’s about structure. Designing SpaceLab as a modular system ensured long-term flexibility and cost efficiency.

The project reaffirmed my belief that great product management is the bridge between vision and execution — especially in innovation ecosystems.

Next Steps

After the hackathon, our team decided to take SpaceLab beyond the competition.

The next steps include:

• - Formalizing collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
• - Seeking public–private partnerships with biotech and aerospace companies.
• - Developing the first ground-based prototype for module simulation and testing.
• - Refining the data architecture for AI-assisted predictive simulations.

The long-term vision is to turn SpaceLab into an operational SaaS platform that manages orbital labs worldwide — combining science, data, and design to redefine access to space.

Closing Reflection

SpaceLab represents what I love most about product management: turning abstract ideas into structured, scalable realities.

In just two days, we built a product concept capable of bridging biotechnology and space — not as science fiction, but as a tangible path toward open, accessible innovation.

It reminded me that design and data, when guided by purpose, can literally reach orbit.

And that every great product starts the same way: with curiosity, collaboration, and a vision big enough to challenge gravity.