Shaheer Ahmed
A new British satellite has been sent into space to map the heat signatures of buildings. The goal is to bring attention to homes that waste energy and could use better shielding.
Satellite Vu, a start-up company located in London, will be in charge of the operation of the very modest spacecraft, which has been given the apt name HotSat-1.
Its infrared sensor was built with funding from the European Space Agency as well as the United Kingdom’s Space Agency.
A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket took off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at about 14:35 PDT (22:35 BST), which was a little later than planned.
If it is flying 500 km (311 miles) above the ground, it will be able to see individual roofs and houses. Most of the homes in the UK were built before 1970, making them some of the least efficient in Europe.
It has already put the camera to the test by flying it over the London Borough of Ealing in an aircraft. Since an aircraft is much closer to the ground than a satellite, the data had to be “de-resolved” to get a better idea of how the information from space will look.
If any of these homes can be updated, it would not only save homeowners money on fuel costs, but it would also help the country reach its goal of being climate-neutral by 2050.
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“There is grant money to improve insulation, but it’s hard for councils and utilities to figure out how to use it best,” said Satellite Vu CEO Anthony Baker.
“With info from the whole city, we can quickly show you the worst 20% of buildings. And once the changes are done, we can make sure they were done right.”
The data will also help the business and insurance industries, as well as the military, understand how temperatures change over time in a scene. For example, a factory’s heat profile can give you an idea of how much it makes and what it makes.
Monitoring for pollution should be another use. If the water temperature in a river changes quickly, it could be a sign that something is wrong.
