‘Menut’, the second NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia’s nanosatellite, promoted by the Catalan Government and the IEEC, is successfully launched

'Menut' has been successfully launched today from the Cape Canaveral Spacebase in Florida (USA), and is already in space. The launch took place at 15:56h (CET) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket launcher from SpaceX, where along with Menut, other 113 satellites travelled. 62 minutes later, the rocket launcher ejected the Catalan nanosatellite into its target orbit, at 538 km from Earth, as planned.

The Minister of Business and Labour of the Government of Catalonia, Roger Torrent i Ramió, accompanied by the Secretary of Digital Policies, Gina Tost i Faus, has followed the take-off live from the headquarters of Open Cosmos in Barcelona, together with the director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), Ignasi Ribas, the CEO of Open Cosmos, Rafael Jordà, and members of the technical teams of companies and institutions involved in the project.

The space sector in Catalonia gathered at the Open Cosmos facility in Barcelona to witness the launch of ‘Menut’ from Cape Canaveral (USA). Credit: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Minister Torrent has been very pleased with the success of the launch into orbit of ‘Menut’, “the second nanosatellite of the Government of Catalonia, which will help monitor the evolution of the territory in our country, make decisions to manage the environment and respond to climate change and also to face the great global challenges that the planet has today”. Torrent has stressed that "this second step in the NewSpace Strategy must also be a lever to help an industry, an ecosystem, which will be very growing in the coming years, in which we want to position ourselves as a country and, as an administration, we want to continue helping". For this reason, he added, “We will not stop here: today we announce that during the first part of this year 2023 we will be able to award and launch into orbit the third nanosatellite of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, dedicated to IoT communications.”
  
The director of IEEC, Ignasi Ribas, wanted to point out that “successfully reaching the launch milestone was only possible thanks to the great teamwork and collaboration with the Government of Catalonia, Open Cosmos, the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia and other promoters of the NewSpace strategy, such as the i2CAT Foundation”.

In his speech, the CEO of OpenCosmos, Rafael Jordà, described ‘Menut’ as "a great satellite for three reasons: because it is a technological wonder, because it will help to resolve major global challenges, and especially because it is an exciting project that will help to retain, attract and grow world-class talent in Catalonia".

Fostered by the Government of Catalonia and the IEEC and developed by Open Cosmos, Menut is the second nanosatellite that the Government puts into orbit within the framework of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, and the first that has Earth observation as its mission, to contribute, with the data it will provide, to improving the management of the territory and to help control and combat the effects of the climate crisis.

‘Menut’, the great observer of the Earth

‘Menut’, which was named by the children of Catalonia, is a CubeSat of six units and less than 10 kg of weight that will orbit around the Earth at a speed of about 8 km per second and will pass over Catalonia every 5 days approximately.

The nanosatellite is equipped with a state-of-the-art camera that will allow it to record 5-metre-resolution images from anywhere on the planet, although it will prioritise taking images from the Catalan territory that, after being analysed and treated with the latest artificial intelligence technologies, will allow to monitor the impact of climate change.

Based on the data provided by Menut, it is intended to implement use cases related to analysing crop and soil productivity; preventing and detecting forest fires; planning and monitoring urban and rural development; water management, and monitoring, controlling and protecting the environment and maritime activity.

All data collected by ‘Menut’ will be transmitted to the satellite ground station of the Montsec Observatory (OdM), located in Sant Esteve de la Sarga, Pallars Jussà, and developed and managed by the IEEC together with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech (UPC).

During its stay in space, ‘Menut’ will be part of the OpenConstellation created and managed by Open Cosmos, a shared infrastructure of Earth observation satellites provided by space agencies, countries, institutions and companies from around the world that will put the data and information collected by the satellites that integrate it into the service of the great global challenges related to the climate emergency, the energy crisis, and natural resources and disasters, among others.

The launch of this Earth observation nanosatellite represents the second satellite mission of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, designed to take advantage of and maximise the opportunities of this new economic area based on the use of small satellites orbiting at low altitude and on the exploitation of their data. Led by the Government of Catalonia, the strategy aims to project and connect the Catalan space ecosystem with other innovation poles around the world to place it on the international game board linked to this new emerging area.

Rafael Jordà Siquier, CEO of Open Cosmos; Gina Tost i Faus, secretary of Digital Policies; Roger Torrent i Ramió, Minister of Business and Labour of the Government of Catalonia; Ignasi Ribas Canudas, director of the IEEC; and Miriam Moysset, director of the ICGC. Credit: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Main Image
Caption: Minister Roger Torrent i Ramió observes the moment of the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which carried Menut inside.
Credit: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Links
– Menut
– Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia
– Generalitat de Catalunya
– NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia
– Open Cosmos
– Montsec Observatory
– Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech

More information
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of 25 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.  

IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. The IEEC is a CERCA (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya) center.

Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat