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OroraTech is a Germanaerospace start-up company providingwildfire monitoring by employingnanosatellites.[not verified in body] It was founded in 2018 as auniversity spin-off at theTechnical University of Munich (TUM). The headquarters are inMunich, Germany.[1] In June 2023, OroraTech joined theCopernicus Programme of theEuropean Space Agency.[2][full citation needed]
OroraTech's key idea had been developed during the MOVE-IICubeSat project andWARR at theTechnical University of Munich (TUM).[3] Starting as a spin-off[4] in January 2017, the company was incorporated asOrbital Oracle Technologies GmbH (short:OroraTech) in September 2018.[5] Since OroraTech's technology is based on academic research at the TUM, TUM professorsUlrich Walter, a formerastronaut, and Alexander W. Koch act as advisors to the company.[6]
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Wildfire detection using infrared sensors in space had been proposed as a technology since the 1990s.[7][non-primary source needed][8][non-primary source needed] Technological advances, notablysunk space launch cost, enablednon-state actors to enter the market.[according to whom?] As such, OroraTech operates a software platform for the detection and monitoring of wildfires based on measuring thermal-infrared radiation from space.[citation needed] The company is using data from existing satellites and develops their own constellation of 3-U CubeSats with thermal-infrared cameras to further improve temporal and spatial resolution of fire detection.[citation needed]
The software platform generates various overlays on base maps to visualize fire risk and fire detections. At the current stage, the platform uses data from twelve satellites in polar and geostationary orbits, including such byNASA,ESA, andEUMETSAT.[9] In early 2020, the platform had around 100 active users.[10][better source needed]
The technology is used by Wildfire Services inBritish Columbia (Canada) andNew South Wales (Australia) for wildfire detection andwildfire suppression.[11] International media used images from OroraTech's wildfire service for coverage of the2020 wildfire season in California,[12] Oregon,[13] British Columbia,[14] and Siberia.[15]
The satellite technology is based on research from the MOVE-II project at the Chair of Astronautics (LRT) at theTUM. During the project, a 1-UnitCubeSat was launched withSpaceX in December 2018.[16][17][18]
OroraTech's first nanosatelliteFOREST-1[19], based on the original CubeSat, was developed to reach 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm in size,[20] weighing around 1.2 kg,[1] and it was launched on 13 January 2022 as part ofSpaceX'sTransporter-3 rideshare mission.[21][22][23] The satellite features an uncooled thermal-infrared imager for space applications,[24] andGPU-accelerated on-orbit processing to reduce downlink latency and bandwidth for quicker wildfire alert dissemination, making it particularly efficient in tackling the issue of detecting wildfires in late afternoon images.[25][26][21] A second satelliteFOREST-2, once again hosted on aLemur-2 cubesat platform, was launched on 12 June 2023 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket as part of SpaceX Transporter-8 rideshare mission.[27][28]
| Mission type | Earth observation satellite,Technology demonstration |
|---|---|
| Operator |  OroraTechGerman Aerospace Center European Space Agency |
| COSPAR ID | 2025-009CB |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | 8UCubeSat |
| Manufacturer | OroraTech |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 14 January 2025, 19:09 UTC |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Transporter-12 |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Space Force Base |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous |
| Altitude | 510 km |
← HiVE | |
FOREST-3 is anEarth observation satellite focused onwildfire detection, developed by OroraTech with support of theGerman Aerospace Center (DLR) and theEuropean Space Agency (ESA).[29][30][31][32] The 8UCubeSat is designed to providemultispectralthermal-infrared imaging of Earth surface during afternoon hours, when many wildfires ignite, but which are insufficiently covered by other infrared imaging satellites.[33]
The development ofFOREST-3 was funded byDLR viaESA'sInCubed programme managed by the agency'sɸ-lab.[34] The satellite was launched on 14 January 2025 on theFalcon 9 flight Transporter-12.[35][36]FOREST-3 is OroraTech's first fully internally developed spacecraft[25] and a precursor for a largerconstellation of wildfire-detecting satellites planned by OroraTech.[37]
