Ireland’s Ubotica claims Earth observation first

Space technology firm Ubotica says its CogniSAT-6 satellite has performed onboard identification of terrestrial objects, providing real-time Earth observation for the first time.  

Launched in March 2024 in partnership with Open Cosmos, the CogniSAT-6 mission is powered by Ubotica’s ‘SPACE:AI’ platform, enabling the satellite itself to process the images it captures rather than simply gathering data to downlink back to Earth. According to Ubotica, these real-time insights – labelled ‘Live Earth Intelligence’ – have the potential to enhance economic growth, climate monitoring, and global security.

“This is a paradigm shift for Earth Observation,” said Fintan Buckley, CEO of Dublin-based Ubotica. 

“The industry has long sought a model of live Earth intelligence, where insights are generated onboard satellite and instantly relayed to ground. The CogniSAT-6 mission is the first to achieve Live Earth Intelligence, revolutionising the capabilities and cost-efficiency of Earth Observation.”

CogniSAT-6 recently captured an image over Khor Fakkan in the UAE. Ubotica says that SPACE:AI was able to identify 142 ships outside the port within minutes, processing 21.3 km² of image data per second. Rather than existing methods that must wait until a satellite passes over a downlink ground station to transmit images, CogniSAT-6 uses a real-time inter-satellite communications network to immediately relay insights to ground.

Ubotica says that SPACE:AI not only identifies vessels but also extracts valuable metadata, including location, size, and orientation. This metadata can then be combined with AIS (Automatic Identification System) data to detect potentially “dark” ships engaged in illegal or suspicious activities.

While ship detection is a key use of the technology, Ubotica says its platform supports ‘hundreds or even thousands’ of different applications, with developers able to train, test, and deploy various models for their specific use cases. In marine environments, SPACE:AI could detect illegal bilge or oil discharges from ships or assess the health of marine habitats, such as early detection of algal blooms that can impact marine ecosystems.