A girl holds a globe as she participates in a protest in Mumbai, India, Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. Simera Sense, a South African manufacturer of high-resolution optical payloads for smaller satellites, on Monday announced that it had signed an agreement with Sen Corporation to supply them with five xScape200 optical payloads over the next two years that will stream real-time video of Earth. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
JOHANNESBURG -  Simera Sense, a South African manufacturer of high-resolution optical payloads for smaller satellites, on Monday announced that it  had signed an agreement with Sen Corporation to supply them with five xScape200 optical payloads over the next two years that will stream real-time video of Earth. 

The satellites are part of Sen’s vision to democratize space using video to inform, educate, inspire and benefit all humanity, it said in a statement.

 Sen aimed to launch its first CubeSat, carrying the xScape200 imaging payload, by the end of 2020 .

"They will follow-up this mission with an additional four CubeSats as it deploys a constellation that will deliver real-time and timely video of environmental and humanitarian events on Earth. This will enable organisations and consumers to see unique perspectives of life on our ever-changing planet from environmental and socio-economic events to the monitoring of human movement," it said.

Simera Sense was selected by Sen to provide high-resolution optical payloads with the capability to deliver real-time videos from space at a ground spatial distance  of 1.8m from a 600km orbital height.

“At Simera Sense we are on a mission to increase the resolution that can be sensed with smaller earth observation satellites,” says Johann du Toit, the chief executive of Simera Sense. 

Du Toit said Sens mission aligns with Simera Sense's vision to "serial produce optical payloads for nanosatellites in a cost-effective manner to make earth observation data more accessible to every person on earth”.

In October the Royal Thai Air Force ordered a second Earth observation satellite from Innovative Solutions in Space (ISISpace) of the Netherlands. Simera Sense is one of  ISISpace's partners on the project.

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