International. Space company Open Cosmos partnered with the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Zero and Super Sharp Space Systems to study how to measure the energy efficiency of buildings from space using an innovative thermal infrared camera.
This is the first phase of a project that has received the support of the National Space Innovation Program of the British Space Agency (UKSA) and that is in line with the objective of Open Cosmos to become an ally against climate change, seeking to solve from space the great challenges that arise on Earth.
Thus, the University of Cambridge aims to develop a powerful thermal infrared camera that allows monitoring which buildings lose heat from space to ensure that governments, companies and individuals contribute to meet emissions targets that mark a reduction of at least 40% by 2030. Cambridge Zero, the University's climate initiative, will develop the use cases, while Super-Sharp Space Systema will take care of the technological prototype and its commercialization strategy.
Open Cosmos will also study the satellite mission that will make it possible, providing an analysis of its technical feasibility, as well as the possible commercialization of this technology and the use of data. Likewise, the company will support the development of the project by making available to the University of Cambridge its OpenKit platform simulator, which allows the development of technologies compatible with nanosatellite platforms to perform all kinds of tests.
The final objective of this research will be the deployment of a constellation of nanosatellites that offers the Earth high-resolution images (7 meters) and real-time data on the energy consumption of buildings thanks to the frequent revisit rates that the different satellites will guarantee.
It is not the first time that Open Cosmos has worked on a mission committed to the environment, as the company developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) the Mantis Earth observation satellite, a mission framed in the Incubed program whose objective is to provide high-resolution images of the Earth.
Likewise, it also leads together with ESA a space mission with Artificial Intelligence for Earth observation that will allow collecting, analyzing and distributing data on the planet, making its applications accessible to all types of industries and companies.
According to Rafel Jordá, founder and CEO of Open Cosmos, "this project is an example of how Open Cosmos facilitates the development of new technologies and missions that make space an accessible and useful place for new applications like this, which contributes to limiting an important problem and that concerns us all such as climate change".
