A satellite with 100% Catalan technology will carry out experiments in space.
The device, manufactured by Open Cosmos, will be launched into space next October.
BarcelonaIn recent years, gaining greater technological sovereignty has been one of Europe's major concerns. To this end, a satellite built with 100% Catalan technology will be launched into space next October. It was built by the company Open Cosmos in nine months, "a record time," as CEO Rafael Jordà points out. It will become the first European open research laboratory in low orbit to investigate 6G, with a focus on conducting experiments from space for sectors such as telemedicine, distance education, autonomous mobility, and the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.
The nanosatellite is part of a project led by the i2CAT research center, which awarded the design, manufacturing, and launch contract to Open Cosmos for €1.65 million. The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Vilafranca del Penedès-based startup Microwave Sensors and Electronics also participated. "It's important for the country's space industry. We're in a complex moment in which we must gain technological sovereignty, and Catalonia has all the capabilities to be a leader," argued Albert Dalmau, Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) and President of the i2CAT Board of Trustees, during a visit to the facilities where the device was built. "Now it's about manufacturing many more," adds Jordà.
If the 5G network represents a leap forward in being able to connect many devices simultaneously, 6G takes a step forward and aims to guarantee connection to any location, be it a city or a rural area. For Joan Adrià Ruiz de Azua, researcher at the i2CAT research center, this new technology will mean being able to continue communicating when terrestrial connections fail, as happened during the blackout. "We'll need many satellites to make this possible, and this one will allow us to begin testing it," he points out.
Following the trail of the Enxaneta
The project follows the trail of the other two already launched by the Catalan government, named Enxaneta and Menut, also manufactured by Open Cosmos. The third, with a more conventional name—6GStarLab—has carried out the complete manufacturing and validation process in Catalonia for the first time. It was carried out at the Open Cosmos facilities in Barcelona, inaugurated a year ago by GPA Innova. The company was founded in 2015 in the United Kingdom, where Jordà found it easier to launch a space project. He eventually returned home, first settling in Castelldefels and then in the Catalan capital.
The nanosatellite will be complemented by a ground station, using technology from the Singaporean company Transcelestial. It will be located in Móra la Nova, where the Spanish government wants it to be located. a European artificial intelligence gigafactory. This station will be the location from which the 6GStarLab experiments will be controlled, open to other companies interested in testing new solutions. It will use space-based optical communications, precursors to the quantum communications of the future, which are expected to revolutionize computing as we know it today.