France Relance mobilizes for space start-ups – NewSpace operator Prométhée Earth Intelligence’s JAPETUS nanosatellite constellation on the launch pad.

CNES, as the sole operator of the recovery plan for the support of the space sector, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty support the dual demonstrator of the JAPETUS constellation within the framework of the France Relance plan and by the European Union within the framework of NextGenerationEU.

Paris, August 2, 2022 – The decision to allocate 3.5 million euros to the JAPETUS demonstrator through the CNES-DGE space stimulus plan is a key milestone in the deployment of the full constellation scheduled for 2025.

This first European Earth observation constellation will offer exceptional performance in terms of revisit, hyperreactvity, onboard Artificial Intelligence and data aggregation, thus guaranteeing a geographical and temporal continuity never achieved before (global coverage and revisit frequency 10 times higher than what exists in Europe).

This innovative approach will make it possible to pass from a rather static observation to an intrinsically dynamic observation thus offering a better comprehension of the behaviors in the observed zones in complementarity of the patrimonial means developed by the large French satellitiers.

Environmental and climate protection, logistics, security and defense will directly benefit from these technological innovations: high frequency monitoring of critical infrastructures, automatic detection of changes on sites of interest, urgent programming or real-time alerts will be services accessible thanks to on-board AI technologies and an aggregative and secure digital ground platform ensuring an advanced level of data fusion.

Japetus will be equipped with high-resolution multispectral cameras developed by Safran Reosc, which will be the most compact of their generation; Leanspace will deploy a modular and agile ground infrastructure that will structure all operations. The LAAS-CNRS laboratory will develop the algorithms and software bricks to optimize and automate the operation of the future constellation.

Thanks to the development of inter-satellite connectivity with the Kineis constellation, Prométhée Earth Intelligence will enable its users to program its nanosatellites and receive priority and urgent alerts, from any point on the globe, whether in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or the Sahel, and at any time of day, without any heavy infrastructure: a simple ultraportable terminal will suffice.

In addition to the consortium, JAPETUS relies on several partners, subcontractors and leading suppliers: AzurIA, a startup providing embedded AI for real-time image processing; ECA Group, specialized in electronics, which will develop an IoT terminal to be embedded on nanosatellites; Euroconsult, will provide support on the analysis of targeted markets Geo4i will contribute to the development and implementation of applications and services for the valorization of strategic data and Hytech-imaging, specialist in the exploitation of spectral data and referent of maritime applications