Open Cosmos’ MANTIS satellite to launch on SpaceX Falcon 9
Author: EIS Release Date: Oct 12, 2023
Open Cosmos, the UK space tech data specialist, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have announced plans for the launch of the MANTIS satellite aboard the upcoming SpaceX Transporter-9 mission.
The mission was arranged jointly by SAB Launch Services and Exolaunch. MANTIS was successfully integrated with its EXOpod Nova deployment system in Berlin, provided by Exolaunch as part of their mission management and integration service, prior to completing its integrations with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 ahead of lift-off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S.
MANTIS, which stands for Mission Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services, will be the first satellite launched as part of ESA InCubed, the co-funding programme run by ESA Φ-lab which focuses on commercial development activities across the entire Earth observation (EO) value chain, including satellites, ground applications, downstream applications and new EO business models.
As a participating member state, the UK Space Agency has contributed £2.2m of funding to this initiative in order to support the advancement of space-related innovation within the UK.
The satellite will host an innovative multispectral, high-resolution optical payload for EO and a secondary payload, a high-performance and reconfigurable processing unit aimed at exploiting the power of Artificial Intelligence to derive insights onboard.
It will also further sustainability by addressing the challenges of accessibility and periodicity in the energy and mining sector. Approximately 60% of the resources required within these supply chains can be found in remote and inaccessible locations necessitating ground stations with high costs to climate and biodiversity. EO data from MANTIS will reduce this requirement and create an efficient solution over a widespread area.
Outside of this sector, the data from MANTIS can be applied to further applications that will contribute to addressing environmental challenges and promoting sustainable development, such as climate change monitoring, deforestation and land use monitoring, water resource management, biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture.
As the prime contractor for MANTIS, Open Cosmos will oversee the end-to-end space mission service. This includes satellite design, integration of the payloads, build, launch, operations and dissemination of the data through their DataCosmos platform. Once operational, MANTIS will join the OpenConstellation, a global, shared Earth Observation satellite infrastructure built and managed by Open Cosmos which will enable anyone to access satellite data to address challenges around the climate crisis, energy, natural resources and more.
Deploying satellite infrastructure has, in the past, been prohibitively expensive. The OpenConstellation will allow national and regional governments, as well as businesses and organisations with more conservative budgets, to participate and access insightful, actionable data from space for the first time while keeping high levels of governance and security.
“Once operational, MANTIS will allow us to better monitor our use of natural resources, allowing governments and organisations to make more informed decisions to support sustainable resource management practices,” says Open Cosmos vp Aleix Megias, “and by joining the OpenConstellation, the Earth Observation data derived from MANTIS will allow many other organisations to improve their impact too.”