STAR VIBE (ScanSAT, GROOVE-EVO?)

Earth Observation constellation demo based on mirrors from range of 400nm to 12um.

The optical system design based on precise deflected mirrors will allow to scan the Earth's surface in the range from 400 nm to 12,000 nm, which also means the possibility of thermographic observation of the planet. See objects of size less than 5 meters from a distance of 500 kilometres. The use of mirrors instead of lenses makes the system free from many optical distortions/aberrations and what is the most important – allows it to be used for multispectral applications in a very wide electromagnetic spectrum.

This is a demonstration mission of two proprietary systems - a small Earth observation telescope called STAR and a self-inspection system for the state of the satellite called VIBE.

The goal of the mission is to test the STAR telescope and VIBE technology in space conditions, as well as to raise the technology readiness level to the highest, ninth level. For this purpose, the impact of space conditions (vacuum, temperature fluctuations, high radiation, microgravity) on the telescope's components, electronics on board and the quality of the collected data will be checked.

• The STAR telescope is a telescope operating in the visible light spectrum. Its matrix allows you to take pictures with a resolution of 25 meters per pixel and provides a large field of view (102.4 x 76.8 km). This allows you to quickly collect data for many purposes, e.g. on climate change, natural disasters, or data supporting effective agriculture.
• VIBE is an optical system that is one of the configurations of the SHS system - Spacecraft Health Scanner designed by Scanway - a system used for autonomous diagnostics of the nanosatellite. VIBE is a de facto vision system located on a folding beam. The camera is connected to the on-board computer of the space vehicle, which by collecting images in its database enables the analysis of the collected data using artificial intelligence, which is able to detect various damages, e.g. damage to solar panels.
• The STAR VIBE mission is unique for the Polish space sector primarily due to the deployment of the VIBE instrument, which is the first Polish optical instrument for self-inspection of orbital infrastructure, which is equipped with an algorithm based on artificial intelligence.
• During the conversation with Karol Wójcicki on the channel "With Head in the Stars", representatives of Scanway Jędrzej Kowalewski and Mikołaj Podgórski pointed out that the assumed time horizon for data collection and system testing is 3 months, and optimistic scenarios assume the functioning of electronics installed on STAR VIBE up to 12 months. They pointed out that at the same time, as part of the Eagle Eye project, they are intensively working on a much larger optical instrument, characterized by much better parameters in terms of e.g. for spatial resolution. The launch into orbit of this observation satellite, which is being developed in cooperation with three Polish entities: Creotech Instruments SA, Scanway Sp. z o. o. and the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences is also planned for this year.

April 2023 update: More than 100 days on orbit, 200 communication sessions and 80 images taken - the newest one from the Iran and Turkmenistan you can see below. Satellite is doing good job, our mission operation team works on providing an image sessions all the time. Now we're planning to go to next stage of extended mission, among others to download the imagery using S-band in high resolution and VIBE instrument launching.

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