MANTIS (Mission and Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services, OpenConstellation?)

MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
MANTIS
Name MANTIS (Mission and Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services, OpenConstellation?)
Form factor CubeSat
Units or mass 12U
Status Operational (LinkedIn post after launch as of 2023-12-12)
Launched 2023-11-11
NORAD ID 58257
Deployer EXOpod Nova 12U/16U [Exolaunch]
Launcher Falcon 9 (Transporter-9)
Organisation Open Cosmos
Institution Company
Entity type Commercial
Headquarters UK
Manufacturer AIVT by Open Cosmos
Operator Open Cosmos
Launch brokerer SAB Launch Services
Partners Satlantis, Terrabotics, ESA (European Space Agency), UK Space Agency
Oneliner

Earth observation satellite with novel data analysis. Possibly a start of a constellation.

Description

First of an aggregated constellation operated by Open Cosmos where customers will have access to diverse types and volumes of information depending on the number of satellites contributed to the constellation.

Periodic statistics reports on activity in the regions of interest, computed through the latest data processing and machine learning techniques on top of other data sets, such as Copernicus. The satellite will obtain images to feed these data processing algorithms in a revisit pattern that is optimised for specific areas of interest. The high resolution of these images will be complementary to lower resolution data that is already available from the Copernicus programme.

The requirements of the natural resources sector for remote sensing products are generally very demanding both in terms of data quality and coverage/revisit time. 

The space segment is composed by the Open Cosmos 12U spacecraft platform hosting the Satlantis Microsats SL iSIM-12U (integrated Standard Imager for Microsatellites), an innovative high-resolution optical payload for Earth Observation missions.

iSIM-12U is a compact binocular telescope specifically designed to fit within a volume of 8U, and thus ideal for 12U CubeSat standard platforms. The design relies on the integration of four key technologies: a binocular diffraction-limited optical system working at visible and near-infrared wavelength; a high precision, robust and light structure; a set of innovative COTS detectors with 2D CMOS sensors; a high-performance and reconfigurable processing unit with Super-resolution algorithms implemented on-board.

The downstream heart is represented by Terrabotics’ object recognition and change detection algorithms which will enable the processing of data on ground using the latest machine learning techniques.

The onboard computational unit processes the imagery using AI algorithms created by IngeniArs in Italy, meaning that the data downlinked to the ground have already had unwanted features like clouds removed. Further processing is completed by British company Terrabotics’ analytics, delivering actionable insight to the customer on their chosen locations.

As ESA’s Earth Observation commercialisation programme, InCubed supports many upstream activities involving the launch of satellites by European private operators, including Ororatech, constellr and Kuva Space. MANTIS is the first InCubed-supported satellite to lift off from the launch pad and so represents a significant landmark for the programme.

InCubed contributed to the development of MANTIS with financial support together with technical and business mentoring, working closely with the Open Cosmos project team to review progress at key milestones. Funding was made available thanks to the UK Space Agency’s contribution to ESA.

Sources [1] [2] [3] [4]
Photo sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
COTS subsystems
  • IMAGER - Satlantis
  • PLATFORM - Open Cosmos

Last modified: 2023-12-15

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Created by Erik Kulu

Email: erik.kulu@nanosats.eu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/erikkulu

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