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OroraTech is a German aerospace start-up company aiming to improve wildfire monitoring by employing nanosatellites. It was was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from the MOVE-II CubeSat project at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The headquarter is in Munich, Germany.[1]

History

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OroraTech was founded by Thomas Grübler, Björn Stoffers, Florian Mauracher and Rupert Amann. After the idea had been born during the MOVE-II CubeSat project at the TUM, they worked on a spin-off since January 2017 before incorporating the company as Orbital Oracle Technologies GmbH (short: OroraTech) in September 2018.[2]

OroraTech’s technology is based on academic research at the TUM, with TUM professors Ulrich Walter, a former astronaut, and Alexander W. Koch acting as advisors to the company. The advisory board further includes Johann G. Goldammer, leader of the United Nations Joint ILO/ECE/FAO Expert Network, and Clemens Kaiser, former Director of Program Development at EUMETSAT, among others.[3]

OroraTech has raised a total of €1.377 from four business angels in a pre-seed (Dec 2018)[4] and seed investment round (Dec 2019)[5] and received further initial funding support by various programs (see #Programs and Achievements).

Product

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OroraTech operates a software platform for the detection and monitoring of wildfires based on measuring thermal-infrared radiation from space. 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.

Software Platform

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The platform is providing different base maps and overlays for vegetation, fire risk, and weather data. Fire detections are clustered and evaluated for false positive rejection using a learning algorithm. Data on wildfires is also accessible via application programming interface (API).[6] Users can receive customized notifications of fire detections for monitored areas and analyze the propagation of fires with historic data.[7] At the current stage, the platform uses data from twelve satellites in polar and geostationary orbits, including such by NASA, ESA, and EUMETSAT.[8] In early 2020, the platform had around 100 active users.[9]

Satellite Technology

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The satellite technology is based on research from the MOVE-II project at the Chair of Astronautics (LRT) at the TUM. During this project, a 1-Unit CubeSat developed by more than 120 students was launched with SpaceX in December 2018.[10]

Each of OroraTech’s satellites will be 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm in size, weigh around 1.2 kg,[11] and will be launched to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at a height of 600-700 km.[12] OroraTech’s nanosatellites are based on three key innovations: a patented new CubeSat bus which originates in the University research, a patent-pending uncooled thermal-infrared imager for space applications,[13] and a GPU-accelerated on-orbit processing to reduce the downlink latency and bandwidth, cutting down the delay of wildfire alert dissemination.[14]

Programs and Achievements

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OroraTech has taken part in several programs:

The company also achieved the 1st prize at the European Student Challenge 2018 of House of Mentors[21] and won the best pitch at the StartUp Night! of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).[22]

References

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  1. ^ Gläsemann, Andrea (2019-06-27). "Aus dem Weltall Feuer löschen" [Quenching Fire from Space]. Forbes (in German). Wien. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  2. ^ Höpner, Axel (2019-08-12). "Wie die Ororatech-Gründer mit Nano-Satelliten Waldbrände früher entdecken wollen" [How the Founders of OroraTech Want to Detect Wildfires Earlier]. Handelsblatt (in German). Düsseldorf. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  3. ^ Grübler, Thomas (2020-05-06). "Munich NewSpace Start-Up OroraTech Closes Seed Financing Round". OroraTech (press release). Munich. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  4. ^ "OroraTech (profile)". crunchbase.com. crunchbase. 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  5. ^ Ben-Hutta, Shefi (2020-05-15). "OroraTech announces Seed round". Coverager. New York. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  6. ^ "Wildfire Service". ororatech.com. OroraTech. 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  7. ^ Gläsemann, Andrea (2019-06-27). "Aus dem Weltall Feuer löschen" [Quenching Fire from Space]. Forbes (in German). Wien. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  8. ^ Nikolic, Momcilo (2020-07-21). "Waldbrände: OroraTech mit globalem Frühwarnsystem aus dem All" [Forest Fires: OroraTech with Global Earyl-Warning System from Space]. derbrutkasten (in German). Wien. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  9. ^ Pieper, Konstantin (2020-02-18). "OroraTech revolutioniert die globale Waldbranderkennung" [OroraTech is Revolutionising Global Forest Fire Detection] (PDF). Raumfahrt Concret, Issue 111 (in German). Neubrandenburg: Iniplu 2000. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  10. ^ "MOVE-II CubeSat: Student Technology in Space". move2space.de. Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik (TUM). 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  11. ^ Gläsemann, Andrea (2019-06-27). "Aus dem Weltall Feuer löschen" [Quenching Fire from Space]. Forbes (in German). Wien. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  12. ^ "Orbital Oracle Technologies (orora.tech): Advanced CubeSat Constellation for Global near real-time Weather Forecasting". www.esa.int. European Space Agency. 2018-09-27. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  13. ^ "Orora Technologies". www.nanosats.eu. Nanosats Database. 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  14. ^ "Technology". ororatech.com. OroraTech. 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  15. ^ Röder, Marie-Sophie (2020-04-10). "2 Startups aus Deutschland sind im Google-Förderprogramm für nachhaltige Entwicklung dabei" [2 Startups from Germany are Part of the Google Accelerator for Sustainable Development]. Business Insider. Berlin. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  16. ^ "Meet Our Companies". www.germanaccelerator.com. German Entrepreneurship GmbH. 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  17. ^ "Orbital Oracle Technologies (orora.tech): Advanced CubeSat Constellation for Global near real-time Weather Forecasting". www.esa.int. European Space Agency. 2018-09-27. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  18. ^ "ororatech (overview)". www.exist.de. BMWi. 2018-09-01. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  19. ^ "Plug and Play Accepts 21 Startups for its first Batch in Brazil". www.plugandplaytechcenter.com. Plug and Play Tech Center. 2020-04-22. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  20. ^ "The first commercial CubeSat Constellation for early detection and real time monitoring of wildfires across the entire globe". cordis.europa.eu. European Commission. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  21. ^ "INTERVIEW MIT THOMAS, BJÖRN, RUPERT UND FLORIAN VON TEAM „ORORA.TECH"". thesophomore.de. The Sophomore. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  22. ^ Fresenius, Tobias (2019-10-10). "Dritte StartUp Night! Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie im BMWi" [Third StartUp Night! Aerospace Industry at BMWi]. BMWi (press release). Berlin. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
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