The French IT company is expected to develop the mission centre in an optimised cloud environment and integrate it into the on-the-ground segment and qualify the whole system
Prométhée selects Capgemini to develop the mission centre for its first European constellation Japetus. (Credit: Jakub Hałun/Wikimedia Commons)
Capgemini announced that it has been selected by Prométhée to develop the mission centre for Japetus, the first European constellation of the latter.
Prométhée is a French NewSpace operator of a constellation of earth observation nanosatellites.
Japetus seeks to deliver earth observation data to those engaged in the environment and battle against climate change space along with security and defence.
The constellation is supported by the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and the European Union (EU).
With 20 nanosatellites in the planned constellation, the areas to be protected will be observed every 45 minutes under the European latitudes. This is said to be an improvement of nearly 10 times the revisit rate compared to conventional space systems.
Capgemini is expected to develop the mission centre in an optimised cloud environment and integrate it into the on-the-ground segment and qualify the whole system.
The ground segment is the set of on-the-ground resources and tools needed to execute a space mission.
Capgemini said that the mission centre, which is a crucial part of the Japetus ground segment, will supervise real-time imaging requests.
Besides, it will streamline the planning of the missions to be carried out in the future constellation.
Prométhée president and co-founder Olivier Piepsz said: “Prométhée chose Capgemini for its recognised expertise in the implementation of this type of system with major industrial and government space organizations, which perfectly meets Prométhée’s requirements.”
The Capgemini solution will go into operation once the first satellites are put into service. It is intended to be scalable and industrial, enabling agile integration of new requirements and improvement of the operational efficiency of operators.
The ProtoMéthée-1 prototype’s initial launch into orbit is planned for October 2023, and the 20 satellites of the future Japetus constellation will be deployed by 2025.
Capgemini France space industry head Denis Dallez said: “We are very pleased to collaborate with one of the most promising emerging players in the NewSpace market segment, and to share our space expertise to contribute to the success of an earth observation nanosatellite constellation that is unique in terms of performance and capabilities.”