MANTIS, which stands for Mission Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services, will be the first satellite launched as part of ESA InCubed, the co-funding programme run by the ESA Φ-lab which focuses on commercial development activities across the entire Earth observation (EO) value chain, including satellites, ground applications, downstream applications and new EO business models. As a participating member state, the UK Space Agency has contributed £2.2m of funding to this initiative in order to support the advancement of space-related innovation within the UK.
The satellite will host an innovative multispectral, high-resolution optical payload for EO and a secondary payload, a high-performance and reconfigurable processing unit aimed at exploiting the power of Artificial Intelligence to derive insights onboard.
It will also further sustainability by addressing the challenges of accessibility and periodicity in the energy and mining sector. Approximately 60% of the resources required within these supply chains can be found in remote and inaccessible locations necessitating ground stations with high costs to climate and biodiversity. EO data from MANTIS will reduce this requirement and create an efficient solution over a widespread area.
Outside of this sector, the data from MANTIS can be applied to further applications that will contribute to addressing environmental challenges and promoting sustainable development, such as climate change monitoring, deforestation and land use monitoring, water resource management, biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture.
Open Cosmos will oversee the end-to-end space mission service which includes satellite design, integration of the payloads, build, launch, operations and dissemination of the data through the DataCosmos platform. Once operational, MANTIS will join the OpenConstellation, our global, shared Earth Observation satellite infrastructure.
Key Features
Satellite: 12U
Partners: Terrabotics, Satlantis
Payload 1: Integrated Standard Imager for Microsatellites (iSIM-90)
Payload 2: Reconfigurable AI processing unit
Mass: 14.5kg
