Sen, a UK startup specialising in video streaming, has turned to NanoAvionics for building the first five nano-satellites of its “EarthTV” constellation.

Sen is looking to stream real-time and Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video of Earth from space, and NanoAvionics is a nano-satellite bus manufacturer, enabling critical satellite functions and optimising their launch and operation. The envisaged launch of the first satellite, EarthTV-1, will take place by mid-2021.

“Our planet is constantly changing and Sen’s satellites will provide a new and persistent way of seeing events unfolding, empowering humanity to witness the evolution of our planet in a unique way. We hope to increase awareness of environmental events and human movement with information that can educate, inspire and empower people to change and improve the outcome,” said Charles Black, Founder and CEO of Sen.

“We are delighted to be working with NanoAvionics. They have a great team of engineers, first class facilities and a successful track record of building nano-satellites. Our teams have worked extensively together over the last six months to ensure the satellite bus will meet our specific requirements for streaming high definition videos from several cameras.”

NanoAvionics will build the 16U nano-satellite buses and integrate Sen’s payload at their European manufacturing and research facility in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“Building a real-time video service in space is a fantastic mission and shows the growing capabilities of nano-satellites”, said Vytenis J. Buzas, co-founder and CEO of NanoAvionics.

“We have scaled our flagship preconfigured M6P bus to achieve 12U and 16U form factors and to provide customers like Sen with more possibilities for their missions and payloads. These scaled-up versions have already become our most sought-after products and main workhorses in enabling innovative satellite missions in LEO.”

Each satellite will be equipped with several UHD cameras, providing multiple perspectives of Earth, from wide angle imagery down to 1.5M resolution, over a mission lifetime of 10 years.

After a successful test demonstration of EarthTV-1 in 2019 (see below), sending real-time UHD quality video from low Earth orbit (LEO), NanoAvionics will build the remaining four nano-satellites for launch in 2022.