Simera Sense to offer larger cameras and enhanced autonomy

SAN FRANCISCO – After attracting cubesat customers, Belgium-based Simera Sense is developing higher-resolution optical payloads for larger satellites.

To date, Simera Sense customers have sent more than 50 xScape100 and xScape200 cameras into orbit. Most have flown on cubesats ranging in size from 6u to 16u.

For larger satellites, Simera Sense is developing standardized optical payloads to provide imagery with a ground sample distance of less than one meter. The first deliveries of the new payloads are expected in 2028.

“Demand for sub one-meter imagery is growing,” Thys Cronje, Simera Sense chief commercial officer, told SpaceNews at the SmallSat Symposium. “People want to see more detail on the ground.”

Simera Sense develops imager electronics in Scotland and manufactures optical payloads for Earth-observation satellites in South Africa. Credit: Simera Sense

Hyperspectral Data

At the SmallSat Symposium, Simera Sense also announced a memorandum of understanding with Florida-based Sidus Space. Sidus Space will integrate its FeatherEdge hardware and Cielo AI software with Simera Sense hyperspectral payloads.

Through software, customers of Simera Sense’s hyperspectral instrument can configure the payload to collect data in 32 out of 400 possible bands.

“You can change that on the fly,” Cronje said.

As the satellite travels over Africa, for example, a customer can configure the detector to monitor deserts before reconfiguring it for agricultural monitoring. If the satellite travels over Ukraine on the next orbit, it will need to change spectral bands again.

“We are working with edge-computing companies like Sidus Space to autonomously reconfigure the camera for different applications and for different needs or different targets on the ground,” Cronje said. “The camera must be able to decide by itself what kind of spectral bands are needed to analyze the scene on the ground.”

Standardized Products

Simera Sense, established in 2018, offers standardized, off-the-shelf products.

“We can modify a little bit for multispectral, hyperspectral and video options,” Cronje said. “But it’s all software changes. We update the firmware and software.”

In 2014, Simera Sense raised $15 million to expand payload production to meet growing demand from customers including AAC Clyde Space, Loft Orbital, OHB Systems, Open Cosmos and Prométhée Earth Intelligence. The company currently manufactures about 12 cameras per month in South Africa “and we have a big backlog,” Cronje said.

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