PARIS — Lynred in Palaiseau, France, will provide infrared detection technology for future Earth observation satellites from Constellr. The partnership will support a new generation of space-based infrared sensing systems.
Constellr plans to begin deploying the satellites in 2028 as part of a broader roadmap that calls for several dozen infrared spacecraft over the coming years. The company uses multiple European suppliers and selects payload and sensor configurations based on individual missions and customer requirements.
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Companies plan new infrared technologies
Lynred and Constellr’s work will focus on improving spatial resolution, swath and revisit frequency while keeping the resulting systems practical for deployment across large commercial constellations.
Those performance goals come with tradeoffs for satellite designers. Higher-resolution imagery can provide more detail on the ground, while a wider swath allows an instrument to observe a larger area during a pass. Revisit frequency determines how often a satellite or constellation can observe the same location.
Constellation-scale deployment adds cost, size, power consumption and manufacturing requirements to those performance goals. The companies plan to address those constraints through new detector and infrared architectures.
Constellr plans several dozen infrared satellites
Constellr designs and operates thermal-infrared Earth observation satellites. The company will use its future constellation for commercial and institutional applications including defense and security, critical infrastructure, urban resilience and environmental monitoring.
Lynred develops infrared detectors for aerospace, defense and other applications. Constellr's roadmap could allow Lynred to expand production of its infrared technology for the commercial space market as the satellite constellation grows.
“Building a European champion in infrared Earth observation means combining Europe’s best critical technologies with the ability to deploy them at commercial scale,” Constellr CEO Max Gulde said.
The companies did not identify the specific Lynred detector products that will fly on the satellites or disclose financial terms of the agreement.
