Bremen/Freiburg, 13 December 2022. OHB System AG, a subsidiary of German space and technology group OHB SE, has been awarded a contract to realise the first two payloads for the constellation of water monitoring microsatellites currently being developed by Freiburg-based deep-tech start-up constellr. The constellation – which has been christened HiVE (High-Resolution Vegetation) – will be brought into orbit to monitor land surface temperature at a high spatial resolution. For this purpose, the satellite's payloads combine a four-band TIR (thermal infrared) instrument combined with a VNIR (visible and near-infrared) sensor. The data obtained can be used to determine water requirements and the general health of agricultural crops, thereby detecting symptoms of drought stress and nutrient deficiencies before they become visible to the naked eye. This will allow for a more targeted use of artificial irrigation and fertilisers, thereby helping to make agriculture more sustainable. The launch of the first microsatellite equipped with a payload developed by OHB is planned for 2024.
Water is getting scarce
Due to climate change, water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource – even in areas that have hardly been affected by droughts in the past. Combined with the ever-growing world population, this has a direct impact on global food security. Water is the most important factor for global agricultural yields, which means that in a future where it is no longer available in large quantities, water will become one of the biggest bottlenecks for the global food system. This implies that the available water must be used as sparingly and effectively as possible.
In order to achieve a more sustainable use of water, constellr has been working on a space-based monitoring system for several years. The team is planning to launch a constellation of microsatellites to constantly monitor water requirements and water availability for every field on Earth. The data will be made available via a cloud-based platform, advancing high-precision agriculture, temperature-derived crop health management, yield forecasting and sustainable resource management. The thermal-infrared payloads for the first two satellites will be supplied by OHB System AG in Oberpfaffenhofen.
"The partnership with constellr goes back a long way and we have been fully behind the mission from the start," says Stefan Föckersperger, Director Earth Observation at OHB. "We are delighted to now be able to use our expertise in the development of technologically demanding instruments for Earth observation to bring the first two satellites of the planned constellation into space as early as 2024."
Max Gulde, founder and CEO of constellr, agrees: "We are excited to further cement our long-standing cooperation with OHB and partner with such an experienced and established player in the market, supporting us in the technologically highly complex development of the core of our venture."
Martin Podehl, OHB Project Manager for the development of the payloads, is looking forward to the technical challenge: "We are determined to realise the optical payloads in time to support constellr's business case with high-quality data."
About constellr
constellr is a German deep tech start-up from Freiburg that operates at the interface of Earth Observation and agriculture. A spin-off of the Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest organisation for applied science, constellr is dedicated to supporting global food security in times of climate
change. Based on a proprietary space infrastructure with unique sensing capabilities, constellr offers precise and plot-level water monitoring for the agricultural sector worldwide. As a space data and services company, constellr is leading the way in delivering daily, global land surface temperature data for the agri-tech industry. constellr provides the fundamental global data for smart crop monitoring, identifying changes in crop health days to weeks before they become visible and enabling farmers to react early to and mitigate for potential
crop risks and losses. This advanced warning means the risk of crop failure or damage is significantly reduced, allowing more accurate crop yield forecasting and thus better stability and management across supply chains.
About OHB System AG
OHB System AG is one of Europe's leading space technology companies and the largest subsidiary of the listed high-tech group OHB SE, which employs a workforce of almost 3,000 throughout Europe. Headquartered in Bremen and with a second strong site in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, OHB System AG has more than 40 years of experience in the development of high-tech solutions for space missions and other fields of application. Its portfolio of products and services ranges from the realisation of satellite systems for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and reconnaissance to the design and implementation of missions for space exploration and the development of equipment for human space flight. We.Create.Space.
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