First Earth observation images of ‘Menut’ only a month after launch

Promoted by the Government of Catalonia and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and developed by Open Cosmos, ‘Menut’ is an Earth observation nanosatellite whose mission is to contribute to the challenges related to the climate emergency
 
Just over a month after take-off, 'Menut', the second nanosatellite placed in orbit by the Catalan Government in the frame of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, has provided its first Earth images obtained from space: an infrared (grayscale) image of a swampy area located near New Orleans, USA, and a colour image (RGB – red-green-blue-) of clouds in Europe.

Although 'Menut' still has to pass a stage of calibration testing and commissioning of all its subsystems before entry into service, it is a remarkable milestone because it demonstrates the smooth in-orbit operation of the next-generation camera the satellite is equipped with and validates that it can produce colour images with good definition.

Thus, the colour image of clouds over Europe, where the Earth’s surface is also glimpsed, is composed of the three basic RGB colour bands. With this image it is proven that ‘Menut’ will be able to take photographs in ‘real’ colour, as when the three basic colours are combined we get what our eyes see.
 

European area covered by clouds, where part of the Earth's surface can be glimpsed.
This image highlights ‘Menut’'s ability to obtain true-colour photographs based on its
multispectrality, in which the 3 basic colour bands (RGB – red-green-blue) are visible,
which when combined provide an image as it would be seen by the human eye. 
Credit: Open Cosmos

On the other hand, the grayscale image of an area near New Orleans, where many terrain features can be seen, shows that ‘Menut’ can take high-resolution and high-definition pictures, for which a stable platform must be available while capturing the image to avoid blurring.
 

Atchafalaya Delta marsh area in New Orleans (United States). The one on the left is the image captured by 'Menut' in grey tones (only one band was used). The sharpness and the ability of the nanosatellite to obtain images with excellent resolution stand out. On the right is a reference image of the same area captured with the Sentinel 2 satellite. Credit: Open Cosmos

"We are very satisfied with this first response from 'Menut', which is passing with flying colours all the commissioning tests to be ready to enter into service and fulfil its mission,” said Secretary for Digital Policy, Gina Tost i Faus. “This milestone encourages us as Government to deepen the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia to continue to promote the Catalan space ecosystem. We must place it on the international game board of a sector that will have exponential growth in the world and in which Catalonia has a role to play,” she stressed.

Jordi Castellví Esturi, Open Cosmos Senior Mission Manager, states that "we are very happy about how ‘Menut’ is working; only a month after the launch we have already managed to have these first images. The high-definition camera we placed will allow us to have colour images like these and of very good quality. However, we continue to work every day to further improve the quality of the images and the data that we will receive, and this will help us to make further progress in recognising all the effects that climate change is having in our territory."

In the same sense, the Director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya – IEEC), Ignasi Ribas Canudas, has highlighted that “with ‘Menut’, use cases such as crop and soil productivity analysis, forest fire prevention and detection, water management, monitoring, control and protection of the environment and maritime activity, among others, will be implemented.” He added that “this mission is a new step towards consolidating and growing the sector, driven by public-private collaboration.” 

Preparing to enter into service

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

Its takeoff aboard a Falcon 9 launch rocket by the American company SpaceX took place on January 3 at 15:56 from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida, USA. 62 minutes later, the launch rocket ejected the Catalan nanosatellite into its destination orbit, 538 km above the Earth, and a few hours later, ‘Menut’ was contacted for the first time.

Two weeks after entering into orbit, 'Menut' successfully closed the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase), which consists of checking the state and good communication with each of the satellite's subsystems at each pass, the satellite is stable in orbit and in a safe energy mode.

Once this first phase is passed, 'Menut’ is now in the commissioning phase, where the aim is to test and validate all the functionality of the different elements and systems that integrate it.

One of these elements is the camera that must allow 'Menut' to record images from space with a 5-metre resolution, and multispectral (i.e. to separate the different colours or bands from a photograph in different files). After being analysed and treated with the latest image processing technologies, these images will enable monitoring the impact of climate change.
During the commissioning phase, which is expected to be completed in mid-March, each subsystem is tested individually to ensure that its standard functionality is operational and then end-to-end functionality is tested. A number of calibration activities are also carried out to improve the quality of the images.

Links
– Menut
– Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
– NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia
– Open Cosmos

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 centres, 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) centre.

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