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Along with Spain and Portugal, the UK will contribute a “pathfinder” satellite designed to aid early detection of climate change indicators. This will be built by the UK space startup Open Cosmos with funding provided by the UK Space Agency.
Four satellites will be launched in the same orbital plane and will constitute the first batch of the constellation.
Based in Oxfordshire, at the Harwell Space Campus, the company says the UK satellite will increase the frequency of revisit time by 33% at the beginning of the Constellation’s formation, offering regularly updated data and supporting services such as the detection, monitoring and mitigation of natural disasters.
The prototype satellite will be built by Open Cosmos at its HQ at Harwell Space Campus, using the same design as three of the Portugal satellites.
The four satellites will be launched in the same orbital plane, constituting the first batch of the constellation. The UK satellite will increase the frequency of revisit time by 33% at the beginning of the Constellation formation, offering valuable and regularly updated data, and supporting critical services such as the detection, monitoring and mitigation of natural disasters.
“Earth observation will play an absolutely vital role in tackling global challenges like climate change and disaster relief, providing the data we need at speed, while supporting key UK industries like agriculture and energy,” said Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Andrew Griffith.
“By working with Open Cosmos on a new satellite and supporting our Atlantic partners, Spain and Portugal, we can harness space tech for our shared goals, while creating new skills, opportunities and jobs for the future to grow the UK economy.”
The data access and provision policies for members of the Atlantic Constellation has yet to be decided. During the first year of operation, however, UK users are expected to be able to task the satellite over an area of interest and benefit from higher-frequency data and shorter re-visit times over the UK.
“Building a shared satellite constellation is a very effective way of having high revisit diverse data over each region of interest,” said Rafael Jorda Siquier, CEO of Open Cosmos.
“The UK aiming to join Portugal and Spain in the Atlantic Constellation is a major step forward in the national EO strategy and we are very proud that Open Cosmos has been contracted to deliver the first UK pathfinder satellite.”
The commitment is meant to complement the UK’s contributions to the EU Copernicus programme, European Space Agency and bilateral missions. Specifically, the UK Space Agency is providing £3 million to support the build of the new satellite.
Open Cosmos is the startup behind the OpenConstellation, which seeks to mutualise climate change data. Essentially, entities that contribute satellites to the constellation gain access to the wider data. It has offices in Spain and Portugal.
UK Space Conference
The UK Space Conference 2023 – involving governments, industry, and academia – is being held 21-23 November in Belfast, taking the theme of ‘Space For Our Future’.
The venue for the biennial event for the UK space sector is the ICC Belfast conference centre.
There are three main tracks to this year’s content programme: DISCOVER (the potential of space), GROW (the opportunities of data and AI) and SECURE (future-proofing assets and services). And there are also exhibitors, networking events and a Gala Dinner
