Hydra 1, ..., 18

Hydra [Aistech]

Hydra is a costellation 6U CubeSat developed by Aistech to provide thermal images of the Earth and also help with maritime and aeronautical tracking.

For imaging a multispectral imaging system able to take pictures in thermal, infrared and visual spectrum, is on board, for uses in forest management, fire detection, gathering data for agriculture like identifying the health of the plant, analysing land for expansion. It can also detect energy consumption and loss of buildings.

The satellites provide aircraft tracking tracking via an ADS-B receiver. Also a bidirectional communication system is on board to send and receive automatic information from the vessel or remote asset worldwide.

The first four satellites were to be launched in 2020, but was eventually delayed to early 2026. Aistech plans a constellation of 30 such nanosatellites encircling the planet.