‘Menut’ (small), this will be the name of the second nanosatellite of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia.
Today, 13 June, at Cosmocaixa (Barcelona), the winning name of the contest issued through the children’s and youth TV3 programme "InfoK" was announced, the aim of which was to baptise this new nanosatellite, dedicated to Earth observation to help control and combat the effects of the climate crisis.
During the first two weeks of last May, viewers sent to the TV3 programme a total of 256 videos with their proposals, a record number compared to the previous edition. From among all of them, a jury made up of the InfoK team and that one responsible for launching the nanosatellite chose the 10 finalist names: borinot (bumblebee), carquinyoli, espiadimonis, espurna (spark), esquitx (splash), estel (star), galet, menut (small), minairó and tafaner (curious). More than 20,000 votes received through the InfoK website have chosen the winning name.
The event was chaired by Jordi Puigneró, Vice President of the Catalan Government and Minister of Digital and Territorial Policies, who gave the prize to the two girls who proposed the winning name: a balloon ride. The event, which was attended by the 24 boys and girls responsible for the 10 finalist proposals, accompanied by their families, was opened by the journalist Núria Vilanova, director and InfoK presenter, and also featured the director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), Ignasi Ribas.
The purpose of the contest, which is the result of the collaboration between the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital and Territorial Policies, the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA) and the IEEC, has been to bet again on the talent and ingenuity of children to baptise the new nanosatellite of the NewSpace Strategy for Catalonia, as it encourages scientific-technological vocations and the interest of children and young people in the new economy of space.
On this occasion, and unlike the last edition of the contest, the proposals had to be individual, and the participants had to appear alone in the videos. Participation was very broad, with proposals from all over Catalonia and Andorra, and even from places as far away as Canada.
Enxaneta was the name chosen by the nearly 10,000 boys and girls who participated in the contest to baptise the first nanosatellite put into orbit within the framework of the Catalan NewSpace Strategy, which was launched into space in March 2021 from Kazakhstan. Menut is scheduled to take off during the second half of 2022.