HotSat-1 Overview
Mission Background
Satellite-Vu (SatVu) is a London-based company founded in 2016 focused on developing a constellation of seven satellites equipped with infrared sensors for monitoring Earth’s heat signature. The collected data is aimed to help ensure that any structure on the planet is energy efficient and thus supporting the reduction of businesses’ carbon footprint. Furthermore, the data can offer insights into economic activity allowing businesses to make decisions to become more environmentally friendly. The acquired data will also provide invaluable insights into “greenwashing” – the process of companies supplying misleading information to customers about how their products are environmentally sound
With a high-resolution MWIR (Mid Wave InfraRed) thermal imaging sensor on board each satellite, the constellation will have the ability to measure the heat signature of any building anywhere on Earth multiple times a day, enabling real time insights into building emissions, energy use and insulation. This near real time monitoring will eliminate the expensive and long process of assessing buildings manually, and provide information and insights quickly to aid in economical decarbonisation.
Satellite Design
In December 2021, the companies SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) and SatVu signed a contract for the development of the first HotSat satellite. This satellite HotSat-1 was launched in June 2023 and acted as the agency’s pathfinder mission for their constellation. The mission collected thermal data regarding Earth’s natural and built environment.
HotSat-1 was based on SSTL’s DarkCarb satellite bus, a 100 kg microsatellite platform from SSTL’s Carbonite series designed with a 3.5 m resolution MWIR imager with video capability. The MWIR imager aboard HotSat-1 provided 3.5 m spatial resolution imagery as well as video capability. The imager was designed and supplied by the Italian company Leonardo, and has an array of pixels on an 8 μm pitch – the smallest thermal MWIR pixels commercially available at time of construction. Funding for SatVu’s MWIR imager was provided by the UK’s Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation.
Mission Operations
HotSat-1 was launched in June 2023 on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and successfully served customers in a wide range of industries. In December 2023, the satellite suffered an anomaly that ended services in December. Follow up missions, HotSat-2 and HotSat-3 are planned for launch in next year.
Related Links
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