Date to be determined for the launch of ‘Menut’ from Cape Canaveral, USA

2022-12-05 12:00:00
Date to be determined for the launch of 'Menut' from Cape Canaveral, USA
Menut (small, in Catalan) is the second nanosatellite promoted by the Catalan Government and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC – Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) as part of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, and is developed by the company Open Cosmos. 

The nanosatellite will be launched during December 2022 from the Cape Canaveral space base, in Florida (USA), aboard a Falcon 9 rocket of the SpaceX company. The final date, however, will soon be confirmed by the company in charge of the launch and will be later than the one announced during the inauguration of the new OpenCosmos facilities in Barcelona, last 11 October.

Menut, named by the children of Catalonia in a contest of the InfoK TV3 youth programme, is a CubeSat of 6 units (cubes of 10 cm3) and weighing less than 10 kg who will observe the Earth to improve the management of the territory and help control and combat the effects of the climate crisis. Once in space, the nanosatellite will orbit around 500 km from Earth at an approximate speed of 8 km/s (28,000 km/h) and will collect images of Catalonia approximately every 5 days.

Equipped with a latest generation camera that allows images from different spectral bands to be obtained, Menut will be able to record images with a resolution of 5 metres from anywhere in the world, although it will prioritise obtaining images of the Catalan territory. These images will make it possible to monitor the impact of climate change, after being analysed and treated with artificial intelligence technologies. 

The data obtained by Menut will provide key information to influence crucial aspects of the management of the territory and the fight against the climate emergency. Some examples are: the analysis of crop and soil productivity; the prevention and detection of natural disasters and forest fires; the planning and supervision of urban and rural development; the management of drought and water resources, and the monitoring, control and protection of the environment.

The data collected will be available once the calibration and start-up tests of its systems are completed, as well as those necessary for the control of the satellite's operations. This data will be transmitted to the Montsec Satellite Ground Station, located at the Montsec Observatory (OdM), in Sant Esteve de la Sarga (Pallars Jussà). The Ground Station is developed and managed by the IEEC together with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya·BarcelonaTech (UPC).

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