The D2 / Atlacom-1 nanosatellite scheduled to launch on the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission will include the SkyWatch TerraStream data management solution which will be used to support the Mexican agriculture sector.
NanoAvionics US is a small satellite bus manufacturer and the supplier of the nanosatellite. The D2 / Atlacom-1 is a “shared 6U satellite mission dedicated to an in-orbit demonstration of new satellite technologies as well as several novel satellite applications. They include the world’s first 1U-sized hyperspectral imager to be ever flown, a new 1U tiled ionic liquid electrospray (TILE) propulsion system, a new high-gain X-band antenna and an upgraded X-Band downlink transmitter. The mission comprises ‘HyperActive’, an international consortium and its partners, and an electric propulsion demonstration by Accion Systems.”
The consortium includes Dragonfly Aerospace from South Africa, Space JLTZ from Mexico and NanoAvionics US and also includes mission contributions from Polytechnical University of Atlacomulco (Mexico), and CUBECOM (South Africa).
SkyWatch’s TerraStream is being integrated on the satellite for Puebla, Mexico based Space JLTZ who will use the data acquired from the 1U-sized Dragonfly Mantis hyperspectral imager to support the Mexican agricultural industry.
José Luis Terreros Corrales, CEO at Space JLTZ said “We believe that enabling small-scale farmers with Earth observation data to practice precision agriculture and increase crop yields will improve the economic and social situations for many people in Mexico. Commercial agri-business has been wonderful for the country as a whole, and has strengthened our economy and our export relationship with the U.S. and other consumers of Mexican agriculture exports. However, it has also increased income disparity between workers in the agricultural sector, and we believe that our technology can help level the playing field.”
The launch on the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission was scheduled for this Friday, but SpaceX Tweeted this morning that they their “Team is taking additional time for pre-launch check outs ahead of the Transporter-2 mission; will announce new target launch date once confirmed.” Shortly after the Tweet, Gildas Seimbille of Astrocast, who have five satellites on this mission, Tweeted that the launch was being rescheduled to Monday.
SkyWatch is also waiting on the Virgin Orbit launch which will include two STORK satellites from SatRevolution that include the TerraStream payload. SatRevolution is planning on launching a constellation of 14 satellites to start, all of which will include TerraStream. The Virgin Orbit launch is now scheduled for no earlier than June 30th.