Electronics Weekly
The mission is conceived to provide supporting data to numerous ongoing international programmes. More specifically, these observations will be relevant to searching for exoplanets, characterising stars and observing bright transient phenomena such as supernovae and kilonovae.
“This marks the first time we are developing an 
astrophysical satellite, which will generate valuable experience around NewSpace technologies and will contribute to enhancing public-private collaboration,” says Rafel Jordà Siquier, CEO and Founder of Open Cosmos.
This 12U CubeSat will feature an astronomy payload designed and built by the IEEC. Equipped with two telescopes, it will scan and photometrically track the entire available sky every two days in the visible and ultraviolet spectral bands through an ingenious system of rotating mirrors.
Expected to launch by the end of 2025, the satellite will orbit the Earth in a Sun synchronous low orbit at a minimum altitude of 500 km.
This new partnership between Open Cosmos and the IEEC follows previous collaborations such as the successful launch of MENUT, the second satellite mission of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia promoted by the Government of Catalonia. Open Cosmos will design and build the satellite platform, including designing a pointing system with enough precision to enable the satellite to obtain images of the most distant stars.
The company will also provide the infrastructure to operate the satellite and transfer all the generated data to the Instrument Operations and Science Data Centre of the IEEC.
PhotSat represents a significant milestone for Open Cosmos, demonstrating its expanding platforms and capabilities as one of Europe’s leading space tech companies.
It also underscores the IEEC’s capacity to lead the full development and exploitation of scientific space missions and commitment to establishing a new space innovation hub in the region, driving economic growth and enhancing research infrastructures in space to benefit the research and talent ecosystem.
The mission will also enable the development of the academic and industrial infrastructure to carry out future end-to-end missions and projects using smallsat technology in-house in a short development time.
This capability is crucial for Open Cosmos as it enables new actors to benefit from their own space data. This is all part of Open Cosmos’s mission to democratise space, through affordable delivery of space missions and opening up access to critical space data.
