Author: Scanway
Publication date:
Scanway, a leading company in the space observation technology sector, has signed a contract worth 1.7 million EUR with Nara Space Technology of South Korea. Scanway’s task is to develop and deliver an observation payload for a demonstration satellite as part of the NarSha project—South Korea’s first constellation of microsatellites for methane monitoring. The signing of the contract follows a cooperation agreement announced earlier this year. The NarSha project is funded by, among others, the Korea Development Bank, and the launch of the first demonstration satellite is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026. Following the success of the demonstration mission, Scanway and Nara Space Technology intend to continue their cooperation to build a constellation of 6–12 microsatellites. Based on the approved schedule, the Company expects revenues of approximately EUR 0.7 million in 2024, approximately EUR 0.75 million in 2025, and approximately EUR 0.25 million in 2026. The telescope developed by Scanway will be capable, among other things, of observing in the short-wave infrared spectrum, for which the Company identifies a growing market demand.
The NarSha project is being carried out by a consortium consisting of Nara Space Technology (lead), Scanway (observation payload provider), the Climate Technology Center of Seoul National University, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
– We are consistently expanding Scanway’s reach and are pleased to announce our entry into another market that is important to us. The agreement signed with Nara Space Technology of South Korea, valued at 1.7 million EUR, is the result of a cooperation agreement reached earlier this year and a relationship we have been systematically building. In March of this year, we hosted company representatives at our new headquarters, where we held a series of business and technical discussions and had the opportunity to showcase our laboratory and workshop facilities, including a fully functional and operational cleanroom. The NarSha project, in which we are involved as a supplier of payloads in the form of two telescopes, represents the first phase of building a future methane monitoring constellation based on the K3M (Korea Methane Monitoring Microsatellite) demonstration satellite, which has been optimized for mass production. Following the success of the demonstration mission and the launch of the satellite in the fourth quarter of 2026, we look forward to continuing our participation in the development of Korea’s first methane-monitoring microsatellite constellation, consisting of as many as a dozen or so satellites – comments Jędrzej Kowalewski, Chairman of the Management Board of Scanway S.A.
The NarSha project, under which the K3M demonstration microsatellite will be developed, aims to build a constellation of at least a dozen or so satellites for a global infrastructure to monitor point sources of methane in near real time and with local-level spatial resolution. This is the first Korean project to monitor methane using a satellite. Scanway expects the revenue from the contract—covering the development and delivery of telescopes for the demonstration satellite—to amount to approximately 0.7 million EUR in 2024, approximately 0.75 million EUR in 2025, and approximately 0.25 million EUR by the end of 2026.
The K3M microsatellite will be equipped with an optical instrument for detecting methane plumes in the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), and short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands. The spectral resolution of the imaging instrument is expected to be less than 1 nanometer, and the minimum ground sample distance (GSD) at an altitude of 500 km is 30 meters. The satellite will also be equipped with an onboard computer from the Australian company AICRAFT, with which Scanway signed a cooperation agreement in 2023. The satellite will weigh at least 32 kg and have a size of 16U, meaning it will consist of 16 modules measuring 10 cm x 10 cm x 11.35 cm.
– The NarSha project represents not only the opening of a new and promising market for us, but also a major engineering challenge, offering the opportunity to expand our portfolio with a product—a short-wave infrared (SWIR) telescope—that is of interest to many global entities. We are seeing an increasing number of inquiries in this area, which is primarily due to the very good visibility of elements such as methane and CO2 in the SWIR spectrum, which, among other things, enables better management of climate policy and is sought after by clients interested in environmental Earth observation, including emissions monitoring. This is a growing trend not only in Europe, which is why we want to position ourselves appropriately to handle these types of projects at any latitude. Participating in the first Korean project of its kind will serve as an excellent reference for us – says Mikołaj Podgórski, COO and co-founder of Scanway.
Nara Space Technology is an innovative company operating in the space technology industry, founded in 2015. It specializes in the production of nanosatellites, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence. The company’s key areas of activity include the design and construction of small satellites, the development of communication systems for space missions, and the creation of solutions in the field of remote sensing and Earth observation. The company’s activities are aimed not only at advancing the space sector but also at contributing to progress in various areas of life through the use of space technologies for research, communication, and observation purposes.
Scanway develops and commercializes two business lines: products for the space sector (optical instruments for Earth observation and satellite self-diagnostics) and for industry (vision systems). Thanks to the STAR VIBE mission and the launch in early 2023 of a satellite equipped with a vision system and an optical telescope developed and manufactured in the company’s laboratories, Scanway has achieved what is known as Flight Heritage – has proven the reliability and functionality of its solutions in space. The Polish satellite regularly captures new images of Earth, and the Company receives the best space images ever obtained by Polish research instruments.