The commitment to cross-border cooperation and the strengthening of relations between Spain and Portugal is reflected in the respective Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plans of both countries, as demonstrated at the Spanish-Portuguese summit that took place on 28 October 2021 in Trujillo.
At this summit, both countries agreed on a framework for cooperation in space programmes and technologies of common interest initiated by a specific collaboration to develop a constellation of Earth observation satellites called Atlantic Constellation.
This initiative aims to provide Earth observation data with a high frequency of revisits over the territory of both countries, complementing systems already existing today, such as the Sentinel satellites of the European Copernicus programme.
Observing the Earth from space is one of the strategic lines of greatest interest since it not only generates highly qualified jobs in the development of space systems (ground segment, flight segment, launcher and operations), but it also provides essential data for the creation of additional applications and services that generate employment in value-added companies in different disciplines such as agriculture, cartography, environment, oceanography, disaster prevention or atmospheric sciences.
This action is aimed at defining, developing and purchasing satellites and the associated ground segment they will represent.
This system will operate through a combination of platforms called Atlantic Pole to Pole Observation System of Systems (APOSS) with space, air, ground, and floating components, among others. The system will monitor the necessary variables, and the space sector will combine data provided by existing international satellites such as: Copernicus - Sentinels, NOAA-NASA, etc., and in Spain: Paz, Deimos 1 and Deimos 2. These existing satellites will be complemented by the small satellite constellation, the Atlantic Constellation, to ensure an adequate revisit time.
The initial dimension of this constellation is 16 satellites, of which eight will be developed in Spain. These satellites will work together, although independently, interconnected and will be interoperable by a common ground operator.
Bilateral cooperation with Portugal will double the capacity of this action by creating a constellation of interoperable satellites through a common ground operator to also solve some of the cross-border problems affecting both nations, such as the early detection of fires, the fight against drought or aspects related to agricultural management. This is one of the actions that give this PERTE an international dimension.
Uses of the Atlantic Constellation
The Atlantic Constellation system will be a constellation of small satellites to monitor climate change and in particular: bays and estuaries, the effects of natural disasters in coastal areas, sustainable food production, management of marine and coastal resources, monitoring of the marine and coastal ecosystem.
The solutions generated by these companies also have a positive impact on the lives of citizens, since they help to mitigate the effect of climate change, mitigate the effect of natural disasters, optimise natural resources such as crops or aquaculture, and alert us to emergency climate situations. They also help to understand the phenomena that generate and govern climate change or the evolution of marine ecosystems in the oceans.
Execution and results
At the Council of Ministers meeting held on 18/07/2023, the Agreement was approved authorising the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) to sign the Agreement for assistance from the European Space Agency (ESA) to Spain regarding the Earth observation (Atlantic Constellation).
The ESA will assist the AEE to launch an invitation to tender that will be carried out in two phases, the first to which two competing consortiums will pass and whose results will serve to finish defining the requirements. The winning consortium will begin execution in 2024.