OroraTech
German aerospace company
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OroraTech is a German aerospace start-up company providing wildfire monitoring with a network of around 35 thermal imaging satellites.[1] It was founded in 2018 as a university spin-off at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The headquarters are in Munich, Germany.[2] In June 2023, OroraTech joined the Copernicus Programme of the European Space Agency.[3]
History
OroraTech's key idea had been developed during the MOVE-II CubeSat project and WARR at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).[4] Starting as a spin-off[5] in January 2017, the company was incorporated as Orbital Oracle Technologies GmbH (short: OroraTech) in September 2018.[6] Since OroraTech's technology is based on academic research at the TUM, TUM professors Ulrich Walter, a former astronaut, and Alexander W. Koch act as advisors to the company.[7]
Technology
Wildfire detection using infrared sensors in space had been proposed as a technology since the 1990s.[8][non-primary source needed][9][non-primary source needed] Technological advances, notably sunk space launch cost, enabled non-state actors to enter the market.[according to whom?] As such, OroraTech operates a software platform for the detection and monitoring of wildfires based on measuring thermal-infrared radiation from space.[citation needed] The company is using data from existing satellites and develops their own constellation of 3-U CubeSats with thermal-infrared cameras to further improve temporal and spatial resolution of fire detection.[citation needed]
Their Wildfire Solution software platform generates various overlays on base maps to visualize fire risk and fire detections. At the current stage, the platform uses data over twelve satellites in polar and geostationary orbits, including such by NASA, ESA, and EUMETSAT.[10] In early 2020, the platform had around 100 active users.[11][better source needed]
Field applications
The technology is used by Wildfire Services in British Columbia (Canada) and New South Wales (Australia) for wildfire detection and wildfire suppression.[12] International media used images from OroraTech's wildfire service for coverage of the 2020 wildfire season in California,[13] Oregon,[14] British Columbia,[15] and Siberia.[16]
Satellites
MOVE-II CubeSat
The satellite technology is based on research from the MOVE-II project at the Chair of Astronautics (LRT) at the TUM. During the project, a 1-Unit CubeSat was launched with SpaceX in December 2018.[17][18][19]
FOREST constellation
OroraTech's first nanosatellite FOREST-1,[20] based on the original CubeSat, was developed to reach 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm in size,[21] weighing around 1.2 kg,[2] and it was launched on 13 January 2022 as part of SpaceX's Transporter-3 rideshare mission.[22][23][24] The satellite features an uncooled thermal-infrared imager for space applications,[25] and GPU-accelerated on-orbit processing to reduce downlink latency and bandwidth for quicker wildfire alert dissemination, making it particularly efficient in tackling the issue of detecting wildfires in late afternoon images.[26][27][22] A second satellite FOREST-2, once again hosted on a Lemur-2 cubesat platform, was launched on 12 June 2023 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket as part of SpaceX Transporter-8 rideshare mission.[28][29]
FOREST-3
| Mission type | Earth observation satellite, Technology demonstration |
|---|---|
| Operator |  OroraTech German Aerospace Center European Space Agency |
| COSPAR ID | 2025-009CB |
| SATCAT no. | 62682 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | 8U CubeSat |
| Manufacturer | OroraTech |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 14 January 2025, 19:09 UTC |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Transporter-12 |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Space Force Base |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous |
| Altitude | 510 km |
FOREST-3 is an Earth observation satellite focused on wildfire detection, developed by OroraTech with support of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA).[30][31][32][33] The 8U CubeSat is designed to provide multispectral thermal-infrared imaging of Earth surface during afternoon hours, when many wildfires ignite, but which are insufficiently covered by other infrared imaging satellites.[34]
The development of FOREST-3 was funded by DLR via ESA's InCubed programme managed by the agency's ɸ-lab.[35] The satellite was launched on 14 January 2025 on the Falcon 9 flight Transporter-12.[36][37] FOREST-3 is OroraTech's first fully internally developed spacecraft[26] and a precursor for a larger constellation of wildfire-detecting satellites planned by OroraTech.[38]