August 8, 2024
Consortium partners Marble Imaging and Scanway with ESA in Wroclaw, Poland
Bremen, Germany and Wroclaw, Poland
“Here at the Φ-lab Invest Office we are committed to support the European industry, and to continuously enable technical and commercial advancement of Earth Observation projects. We are excited about the SEMOViS project, and its ambition to develop a VHR payload and data,” says Pejman Nejadi, the ESA Technical Officer responsible for the activity. “The successful outcome would align with the agency’s wider objectives, namely the utilisation of space for a green future and rapid and resilient crisis response to name a few.”
“We are delighted that ESA supports our endeavour in developing our European VHR satellites and we look forward to developing this payload with Scanway in the frame of the InCubed programme”, says Marble CEO and co-founder Robert Hook.
With the successful deployment of the first demonstrator satellite, Marble Imaging plans to expand the Marble constellation with Scanway, as the key partner providing the VHR optical payloads. Marble Imaging is developing Europe's first commercial constellation of up to 200 small satellites for very-high-resolution (VHR) Earth Observation (EO), offering daily global coverage and enabling applications previously deemed challenging. From precision agriculture to urban planning, infrastructure development to climate monitoring, Marble Imaging's constellation is set to be a game-changer.
The demonstration satellite will be equipped with two optical instruments providing a ground sample distance (GSD) of 80 cm in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) bands, and 10 m in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands. The entire satellite mass of approximately 110 kg will ensure compatibility with a wide range of European micro launchers. The associated data-processing chain, up to Level 2 products, will be developed by Marble Imaging. The resulting Marble data and analyses will deliver valuable insights for many customers in the EU and worldwide. This collaboration will further strengthen the European EO industry.
About ESA InCubed Programme:
InCubed – Investing in Industrial Innovation – is an ESA Earth Observation Programme (EOP) co-funding programme managed by the ESA Φ-lab Invest Office. Supported by its signatory Member States, InCubed funds a wide scope of initiatives that exploit or enhance the value of EO imaging and data. These initiatives range from satellites to ground and downstream applications. InCubed focuses on developing innovative and commercially viable products and services that generate or exploit the value of Earth Observation imagery and datasets.
About Marble Imaging:
Marble Imaging is a big-data EO company based in Germany, building its constellation of VHR satellites to provide daily EO analytics and insights of our planet. The data and derived EO-based analytics will be vital in supporting rapid decision-making with regard to food security, green and sustainable energy transitions, climate change, infrastructure and mobility, global security and much more. Marble already offers advanced data analysis services, including deforestation monitoring, water health assessment, and coastline monitoring.
With their flagship product, Precious Marble, they are developing a product suite dedicated to identifying and analysing the drivers contributing to the vulnerability of the Earth’s ecosystem. By seamlessly integrating data on risk, exposure, and sensitivity, Precious Marble highlights regions at risk, providing timely and actionable insights into the changing vulnerability status.
Marble Imaging is supported by the European Space Agency's Northern Germany Business Incubator and the winner of the “Small Satellite Initiative” competition by the German Space Agency (DLR).
About Scanway:
Scanway is a Polish company operating in the field of observation technology and machine vision. The company develops and commercialises two business lines: products for the space sector (optical instruments for EO and satellite self-diagnostics) and for the manufacturing industry (machine vision systems).
Scanway is the only entity in Poland and one of a dozen companies worldwide to have developed complete technology for EO and self-diagnostics of satellites and space vehicles. The company offers complete systems based on its dedicated algorithms for image processing and analysis. In 2023, the STAR VIBE mission included the launch of a satellite containing a vision system and an optical telescope developed and manufactured in the company's laboratories. Thus, Scanway achieved flight heritage and is providing the best space imagery yet obtained by Polish satellite instruments. The company is also a key consortium member in Poland's largest space projects, including EagleEye and PIAST.
The Company also aims to use space solutions in the manufacturing industry. Scanway provides technology solutions tailored to the needs of medium and large manufacturing plants, mainly in the area of quality control. In October 2023, Scanway made its debut on the NewConnect market.
For more information: https://scanway.space/
May 13, 2024
Winners of the DLR’s ‘Kleinsatelliten Nutzlastwettbewerb’ from left to right: Marble’s Alexander Epp (CMO), Dr. Gopika Suresh (CSO), Robert Hook (CEO), Reflex Aerospace’s Walter Ballheimer (CEO), and Dr. Daniel Kliche, SVP Innovations Center at IABG
13/05/2024
Bremen, Berlin, and Munich, Germany – Marble Imaging, with the support of strategic partner Reflex Aerospace, is set to make the first step towards revolutionizing the Earth Observation (EO) industry.
With a planned constellation of up to 200 small satellites, Marble Imaging aims to be the leading European EO company capturing images of the entire planet every day in very-high resolution (VHR). To achieve this goal, they have partnered with Germany-based satellite manufacturer Reflex Aerospace. Reflex Aerospace is one of the few NewSpace companies capable of developing satellite platforms that outperform similar systems in terms of stability and pointing accuracy, enabling very high-resolution satellite imagery.
“Our planet is facing significant challenges due to human activities impacting Earth,” says Robert Hook, CEO of Marble Imaging. “It’s crucial to understand these effects for a sustainable future. To do this, we need a big data approach to monitor these changes and develop solutions. But currently, there’s a gap in providing the necessary very high-resolution images essential for such applications.”
The derived EO data, analytics, and insights will cater to the needs of real-world applications and people. These include government organizations as well as commercial companies involved in, for example, environmental monitoring, implementation of sustainability and climate adaptation policies, ensuring food security, or providing humanitarian aid.
The initial satellite will be built for Marble Imaging by Reflex Aerospace with the funding coming via the German Space Agency at DLR in the form of an award to Marble Imaging who have won the Agency’s small satellite payload competition (‘Kleinsatelliten Nutzlastwettbewerb’). Marble Imaging’s payload will be hosted on the same platform as IABG Innovation Center’s RAISE (Resilient AI in Space and the Edge), an onboard AI computing cluster customized for robust and safe autonomous space applications – another competition winner.
“The ability to apply machine learning methods directly at the sensor and the edge in a robust and safe way is key to handling big data and enabling autonomous functions in the challenging and complex space environment,” says Dr. Daniel Kliche, SVP Innovations Center at IABG.
By developing Europe’s first EO VHR satellite constellation in partnership with Reflex, Marble challenges an overwhelmingly US-dominated market to strengthen European independence in the supply of VHR EO data. Celebrating the news, Walter Ballheimer, CEO of Reflex, explains: “At Reflex, we believe that the future of our planet depends on lightning-fast innovation in space, which is what drew us to Marble Imaging’s mission. Through this partnership, we will deploy emerging technology on tailor-made satellites to develop very high-resolution images that empower informed decision-making, positioning ourselves among the top-tier of EO platform manufacturers.”
Siegfried Monser, Space Coordinator of the State of Bremen, congratulated Marble Imaging, calling it: “A good day for the Space Community in Bremen and many other regions in Germany.”
Dr. Fabian Mehring, State Minister for Digital Affairs, commented: “I congratulate the team at Reflex Aerospace for its impressive success. I am proud that the architects of progress once again come from Bavaria. Our Free State demonstrates itself once again as Europe's high-tech stronghold and ideal home for future technologies, on the fertile grounds on which the global champions of tomorrow can grow.”
Prof. Dr. Rudolf F. Schwarz, CEO of IABG added: “We congratulate Marble Imaging and Reflex on this significant step. We are proud to contribute to the success of the important first mission by providing our expertise and solutions for robust and safe AI.”
To achieve Marble Imaging’s goals, partnering with Reflex Aerospace was a logical step based on their ability to rapidly deliver the required customized high-performance technological solutions. Reflex Aerospace’s dual-use approach harnesses modern manufacturing advancements and streamlined design processes to deliver enhanced reliability, the highest-performing core avionics in class, and accelerated delivery times.
The instruments for the first satellite are currently being co-developed with Marble Imaging’s key partner, the Polish company Scanway, which delivers advanced optical instruments for space applications. Scanway’s tools will be able to provide global data of the Earth’s surface at a targeted resolution of 0.8-meter Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) in the Visual and Near Infrared (NIR) spectrum and will include a panchromatic band. Satellites of the future constellation will be equipped with the same instruments and will also image with Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) bands. The envisioned dual-instrument solution also aims to maximize synergies with the European Copernicus program.
Marble Imaging AG
Marble Imaging, founded in August 2023 in Bremen, the heart of Germany's aerospace industry, aims to disrupt the EO market. With a shared background covering the entire spectrum of Earth Observation from mission design and management, data processing, and extensive EO data usage, the company deeply comprehends the value of global data for real-world applications and the shortcomings in the existing market.
Marble Imaging AG - Press Contact
Alexander Epp
Reflex Aerospace GmbH
Based in Munich and Berlin, Reflex Aerospace enables lightning-fast innovation in space by designing and manufacturing 100 to 500 kg payload-specific, dual-use satellite platforms within 12 months. Reflex is redefining satellite development by blending verticalized in-house design and manufacturing, end-to-end support, secure-by-design modules, hardware-accelerated encryption, and the highest-performing core avionics in its class.
Reflex Aerospace GmbH - Press contact
Lauro Gabriel Hining
Lgdesouzahining@b2p-communications.com
+49 1520 2453 567
May 6, 2024
The growing Marble-Team in April 2024
The Bremen based NewSpace company Marble Imaging has completed its transition to a public limited company (AG) and welcomes its first investors.
Marble Imaging AG transition finalized, Supervisory Board appointed
Pre-Seed funding round of 650,000 Euros successfully completed
06/05/2024
Bremen, Germany – Marble Imaging is advancing rapidly. The company has transitioned from a GmbH to a public limited company (AG) and appointed Dr. Ana Fernandez del Rio, a leading data scientist at Causal Foundry, and Dr. Rüdiger Schönfeld, Director of Earth Observation at OHB, a prominent aerospace and technology company, to its supervisory board. As a distinguished economist who has previously held board positions at various major corporations and numerous supervisory boards, Peter Biewald will serve as the chairman.
Peter Biewald: ”I am really proud to get the opportunity to support this excellent team on its way to the stars. I am confident, together we will become the leading European player in our market.”
Additionally, Marble welcomes its Pre-Seed investors led by Thomas Künzle, who have invested 650,000 Euros in the NewSpace company. The funds are designated for company expansion, the development of data analytic products, and the design of the first satellite prototype in collaboration with the Polish payload manufacturer Scanway.
Thomas Künzle, Partner and CEO of Belesta AG: ”We believe in Marble‘s team and vision and we see passion, determination and knowledge. Good work combined with patience will pay off.“
Marble Imaging has made a significant stride toward its goal of developing the first commercial European small satellite constellation for daily very-high resolution Earth Observation to strengthen Europe's independence in the EO sector. Over the next decade, the company aims to put up to 200 small satellites into space, mapping the planet daily with a very high resolution of 80 centimeter ground sampling distance. Future satellites are set to capture data across eight channels in total, three of those are planned to be in the short-wave infrared range with a resolution higher than 10 meters, aiming for compatibility with Sentinel-2 data from the European Copernicus Mission.
Simultaneously, the company currently offers advanced analytical products derived from already existing satellite data, which it continues to refine and plans to make accessible via a user-friendly web portal which is also in development. These analyses focus on quantifying environmental vulnerability by identifying and monitoring contributing factors in various areas including marine ecosystems, agriculture, infrastructure, land and forests, and coasts, among others.
Fig. 1: Water Quality Analysis by Marble Imaging
”We are proud to have reached this point so quickly and are grateful for the trust placed in us by the German Aerospace Center DLR and ESA, as well as by our investors,” says Robert Hook, CEO of Marble Imaging.
”The integration of Earth Observation data into scalable analytical products is the future”, Dr. Gopika Suresh, Marble’s Chief Strategy Officer adds. ”We have many ideas on how to make complex data understandable and accessible to a wide range of users, and we are working tirelessly to continue advancing in this direction.”
November 23, 2023
From left to right: Scanway – Jędrzej Kowalewski (CEO) and Mikołaj Podgórski (COO), Marble Imaging – Dr. Gopika Suresh (CSO), Alexander Epp (CMO) and Robert Hook (CEO)
Bremen, Germany and Wroclaw, Poland – Marble Imaging, a German company that develops Earth Observation (EO) services powered by a constellation of VHR-Satellites, and the Polish NewSpace company Scanway, which delivers advanced optical instruments for space, have announced a strategic partnership today.
The subject of the cooperation will be the joint development of the multispectral payload for a constellation of small satellites for Earth Observation owned by Marble Imaging. The targeted constellation will include up to 200 satellites weighing around 100 kg each, planned to be launched in several stages within the next decade, providing repeated global imaging in the very high-resolution sector.
“Our strategic partnership will strengthen European cooperation in the Earth Observation domain”, says Robert Hook, CEO and Co-Founder of Marble. “We’re looking forward to jointly developing cutting edge optical and multispectral payloads with Scanway for our constellation.”
The cooperation has barely begun and has already resulted in winning the prestigious German “Kleinsatelliten Nutzlastwettbewerb” competition by DLR, which will enable the development and launch of the demonstrator satellite for the future constellation. Winning the award includes free provision of the satellite platform and transport into space. Scanway will be responsible for developing and supplying hardware – that is, Earth Observation telescopes that will work on board the satellites to provide the best quality data. The company's team has more than seven years of experience in the development of optical payloads.
“An exciting task for Scanway in the project will be to deliver a telescope allowing a very high-resolution of less than one meter (targeted 0.7 meter). The company's long-term goal is to create solutions for constellations, which involves scaling up the production process”, says Mikołaj Podgórski, COO and Co-Founder of Scanway. “We are aware of this challenge, that’s why, starting January, we will have laboratory and workshop spaces nearly four times larger than before thanks to Scanway's new headquarters, and in the next few years we will implement further production scaling processes.”
The satellites will provide global data of the Earth’s surface at a targeted resolution of 0.7-meter Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) in the Visual and Near Infrared (NIR) spectrum and will include a panchromatic band. Future satellites will also be able to image with Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) bands. The data and derived analytics will offer valuable insights for a diverse range of clients in the EU and around the world. The cooperation between capable European companies targets to strengthen the Europe based EO industry.
“Developing our own European constellation is a big step towards breaking the dependency on the big non-European players, that are currently dominating the market”, says Alexander Epp, Co-Founder of Marble Imaging and Head of Marketing and Sales. Marble’s role will be to process, analyze and transform the obtained EO data into added value products and services. “Our goal is to create a future where rapid and informed decision-making using up-to-date, uninterrupted, accessible and detailed EO data is seamless”, says Dr. Gopika Suresh, Co-Founder and Marble’s Chief Strategy Officer.
With more than a decade worth of experience in this field, the team behind Marble has aligned themselves with the core themes of sustainability and capacity building and aims to cater their analytics and insights to the needs of real-world applications and people. These include governmental organizations or commercial companies involved in environmental monitoring, implementation of sustainability and climate adaptation regulations, ensuring food security, as well as security, stability, and humanitarian aid purposes.
About Marble Imaging
Marble Imaging GmbH was founded in August 2023 in Bremen, a center of Germany's aerospace innovation. Covering the entire spectrum of Earth Observation from mission design and management to data processing and analytics, Marble strives to set the benchmark for streamlined EO services for commercial and government customers. Marble's founders have more than 10 years of experience in space systems and satellite data processing, and CEO Robert Hook has been responsible for managing major space missions, including the Copernicus CO2M mission.
For more information visit www.marble-imaging.de
About Scanway
Scanway is a high-tech company based in Wrocław, Poland. The team specializes in the field of vision systems and optical systems for different applications in space and on Earth. The company is divided into two fields: Scanway Space (advanced optical instruments for the space industry) and Scanway Industry (vision systems for quality control). The company has more than seven years of experience in the space industry and TRL 9 for its solutions. Scanway offers two types of products: optical telescopes for Earth Observation and camera systems for space applications, and it also conducts R&D activities in the field of optoelectronics. Since 2023, Scanway is a public company with 50+ employees on board.
For more information visit https://scanway.space/
Marble Imaging AG
Register Court: Amtsgericht Bremen HRB 40178 HB
