Open Cosmos Expands Open Constellation with Two New Satellites

Open Cosmos Satellites Reach Orbit

Open Cosmos, the satellite data provider, has announced that its latest two satellites, MANTIS and PLATERO, have successfully reached orbit following the launch of the SpaceX Transporter-9 mission at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.

These launches mark a significant milestone for Open Cosmos as both satellites will join MENUT, which was launched earlier this year, as part of the OpenConstellation. OpenConstellation is a global, shared Earth Observation satellite infrastructure built and managed by Open Cosmos.

"The satellites mark our latest launch for the OpenConstellation, and the data they collect will benefit companies and organizations around the world," says Rafel Jorda Siquier, founder and CEO of Open Cosmos.

Data collected from OpenConstellation satellites can be accessed by organizations and businesses of all sizes, as well as national and regional governments. This data can be used to address challenges related to the climate crisis, energy, natural resources, and more. Open Cosmos aims to democratize access to critical space data while maintaining high levels of governance and security.

Both satellites will be used to track the environment from space. PLATERO combines Earth Observation (EO), Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) onboard processing. It has been commissioned by the Junta de Andalucia through the Andalusian Agricultural and Fisheries Management Agency (AGAPA). PLATERO will monitor biodiversity, desertification, emergencies like wildfires or floods, and the effects of farming on the territory to inform future policies on preserving the environment.

MANTIS is the first satellite launched as part of ESA InCubed, the co-funding program run by ESA Φ-lab and supported by the UK Space Agency. The satellite hosts an innovative multispectral, high-resolution optical payload for EO from Satlantis. It also includes a secondary payload, a high-performance and reconfigurable processing unit made by Ubotica, aimed at exploiting the power of AI to derive insights onboard. The EO data from MANTIS will address the challenges of accessibility and periodicity in the energy and mining sector. Additionally, the data will be applied to further applications that address environmental challenges such as climate emergency monitoring and biodiversity conservation.

The data from both satellites will feed directly into DataCosmos, Open Cosmos's cloud-based data and insights platform. DataCosmos represents a shift in how businesses and groups can access and leverage data. It transforms satellite imagery into numbers that can be visualized and processed through algorithms, producing actionable intelligence to address the world's most important environmental challenges.