French Startup Unseenlabs announced today that the launch of the BRO-2 and BRO-31 nano-satellites will take place at the Rocket Lab launch complex on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand in mid-November.
This event will follow a successful launch of the first satellite, BRO-1 in August 2019, which has been technically and commercially operational since then. The launch of BRO-2 and BRO-3 will mark the start of the deployment of the Unseenlabs constellation which will have between 20 and 25 nanosatellites by 2025.
Given the increase in commercial traffic, issues related to the protection of the oceans, or even the fight against illegal fishing, knowing precisely and in real time the activities at sea, becomes more and more necessary.
Thanks to its proprietary on-board technology based on the identification of electromagnetic waves emitted by ships, Unseenlabs is able to geolocate from space, any vessel at sea, in near real time, to the nearest kilometer. According to the company, Unseenlabs technology is the only one today that allows a boat to be geotagged with such accuracy and in such little time from a single nano-satellite.
With the launch of BRO-2 and BRO-3, the Unseenlabs constellation will then have three satellites. Each satellite will be a different measurement point, thus making it possible to monitor 3 different areas of interest simultaneously. The objective within 5 years is to constitute a constellation of 20 to 25 nanosatellites, which will increase the responsiveness of the system and therefore the speed of vessel monitoring.
Launched in January 2020, the Unseenlabs service gains in identification accuracy with each satellite launch.
