Three Incubed satellites were launched from the Vandenberg Space Forces base, California, Emphasizing the role of ECA as an industry partner and its support of business and technological innovation.
Incubated, ESA program from land observation, focused on developing innovative and commercially viable products and services, who create or use images and Data Sets.
The launch took place 14 January on SpaceX Falcon 9, Transporter 12, which has placed several small and nano-satellites in sunny synchronous orbits. Since the launch location is located approximately in 200 km northwest of forest fires, Which last week caused enormous damage to the northern areas of Los Angeles, Quite appropriate, that one of the satellites Incubed offers improved detection of forest fires.
According to Giuseppe Borgi, Esa-Lab Laboratory Head, Missions reflect ESA efforts to maintain cosmos commercialization. Giuseppe said: “Three satellites are a great example of positive and effective cooperation between Incubed and industry. All three satellites bring innovative services and products to the Earth observation market in thermal infrared and on-orbit processing, providing new services to institutional and private clients and supporting critical wildfire detection programs, of agriculture, asset monitoring, etc.".
A trio of InCubed satellites, launched into orbit, it:
- AIX, or AI-express, which offers intelligent data processing in orbit, which allows customers to test technologies, in particular artificial intelligence (NE) and blockchain, in space.
- Forest-3, nanosatellite, which has infrared sensors to detect forest fires.
- Hive, high-precision microsatellite Versatile Ecosphere, which is part of a group, that uses thermal infrared sensors to collect land surface temperature data.
AIX developed, with the support of ESA, main contractor Planetek Italia. He offers equipment, software and services, which can be used by customers to build and test AI applications.
Timely detection and real-time monitoring of wildfires is essential to minimize carbon emissions and damage to the environment as a whole, as well as cities. Forest-3 is a group of nanosatellites, developed by the main contractor OroraTech with the support of the ESA. OroraTech, based in Germany, and develops solutions based on thermal sensors, for a variety of users ranging from insurance companies to governments. Forest-3 is equipped with an advanced multispectral thermal infrared camera and updated technical equipment for long-term orbital thermal imaging.
Hive was developed by Constellr. Its data will be used, including in agriculture, to monitor the condition of the crop, in infrastructure to identify the vulnerabilities of transport networks during extreme weather conditions, as well as urban planners for the development of sustainable cities.