Open Cosmos on board on IEEC’s Photsat mission

Space tech company Open Cosmos will design and build the platform of PhotSat, a space mission coordinated by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) that involves the development and construction of Catalonia’s first-ever owned satellite dedicated to tracking the 10 million brightest stars and other astrophysical objects. It was announced today during the celebration of the International Astronautical Congress, which is held from 14 to 18 October in Milan, Italy.

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 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.