SPACEBEL Contributing to MINEYE, a European Project for Resilient Mine Life Cycle Monitoring

The kick-off of the European R&D innovation action MINEYE is a fact.

This new project, which was granted a funding of almost 6 million Euros under Horizon Europe, is meant to improve the mining value chain at all levels in order to increase Europe’s access to valuable and strategic minerals or metals. The objective is also to limit the environmental impact of mining activities in general.

SPACEBEL is part of the MINEYE consortium gathering a total of 13 partners form nine European countries under the leadership of NGI (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute).

Thanks to a combination of cutting-edge Earth observation techniques integrating in situ observations and digital solutions, MINEYE will offer competitive and sustainable cloud-based technologies in order to optimise the entire mine life cycle ranging from exploration, sustainable exploitation over operations to closure and post-closing phase.

Given the complexity of the current geopolitical and economic context, raw materials have become extremely vital for Europe’s industrial competitiveness and the evolution towards a greener future.

Scheduled for completion by 2028, the MINEYE approach will bring adequate solutions to the financial, environmental and social challenges at stake in the field of mineral exploitation in Europe.

SPACEBEL is bringing our expertise related to Earth observation applications and Space data access management to the MINEYE project covering the following activities:

• EO database preparation;
• environmental footprints monitoring to detect possible pollution;
• ground surface monitoring to assess the mine stability;
• integration of various products and monitoring solutions into a comprehensive platform adapted to optimise mining operations and assist decision making.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HaDEA. Neither the European Union nor HaDEA can be held responsible for them.

ForEOSt – An Innovative SPACEBEL Solution to Improve Forest Management

The final review of our ForEOSt (Forest Earth Observation Services) project in the presence of ESA and BELSPO representatives proved very successful.

Initiated in May 2022, ForEOSt is an ESA demonstration initiative focussing on enhanced and sustainable forest management and developed by SPACEBEL as prime contractor in cooperation with Timbtrack and DNF as end-users.

Against the backdrop of global warming and biodiversity loss, forest ecosystems play a major role, hence the importance of forest management at local, regional, and national levels.

ForEOSt is a fine example of our expertise in remote sensing data processing using advanced technology such as Artificial Intelligence.            
Based upon satellite and airborne data in combination with in-situ information, ForEOSt involves the monitoring of 200.000 ha of forest ranging from large areas to small parcels in Europe, South America and Africa in order to study species inventories at various levels and forest change detection due to logging, disease outbreaks, storms etc. The pilot cases carried out with our international partners, have allowed us to analyse and interpret a variety of datasets, which have led to an array of diverse services.

All ForEOSt services are accessible through the FedEO Catalogue of servers and open-source STACBrowser set up by our Remote Sensing Data Management colleagues.

The new digital solution is of great interest to all stakeholders who are closely or remotely connected with forestry whether authorities, industries, associations or private owners.

More information on ForEOSt is available on the dedicated website: ForEOSt | ESA Space Solutions

SPACEBEL Among OHB System Partners to Strengthen Europe’s Security and Defence Strategy Thanks to Odin’s Eye

Named after the Norse mythological supreme god, who sacrified an eye in return for ultimate wisdom and insight, Odin’s Eye (multinatiOnal Development INitiative for a Space-based missilE earlY-warning architecture) is a Space-based defence system initiated by the European Commission in the frame of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme related to Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and early warning capabilities.

SPACEBEL is one of the 40 companies selected from a dozen of European member states to take part in the industrial consortium led by OHB System AG (Germany), which was granted 90 million Euros EU funding.

Our contribution includes design activities of the on-board data processing and of the space system performance module.

Odin’s Eye covers the multilateral setup of a stand-alone Space-based early-warning infrastructure against ballistic and hypersonic missile threats ranging from initial detection over tracking to handover to radars on the ground. This autonomous defence initiative for all Member States will be compliant, complementary and interoperable with NATO systems, thus enforcing the EU contribution to NATO.

Following our participation in the CSO and Yoda patrol missions, Odin’s Eye is another challenging Space intelligence project to which we are bringing our advanced software engineering know-how.