- Title: Infrared satellite aims to take Earth's temperature
- Date: 26th March 2026
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (MARCH 04, 2026) (Reuters) VARIOUS OF HIBISCUS ON SHOW AT SPACECOMM EXPO VARIOUS OF SUPERSHARP INCOMING CEO ELIZABETH SEWARD AND CTO PROFESSOR IAN PARRY, LOOKING AT HIBISCUS HIBISCUS ON SHOW (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELIZABETH SEWARD, SUPERSHARP INCOMING CEO, SAYING: “SuperSharp is a spin out from Cambridge University, where we have taken technologies that
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Elizabeth Seward Professor Ian Parry Super-Sharp Space Systems University of Cambridge space domain awareness thermal infrared Earth observation
- Location: LONDON & WATERBEACH, ENGLAND, UK / IN SPACE / UNKNOWN LOCATION / ANIMATION / COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGE / CHOLILA, CHUBUT PROVINCE, ARGENTINA
- City: LONDON & WATERBEACH, ENGLAND, UK / IN SPACE / UNKNOWN LOCATION / ANIMATION / COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGE / CHOLILA, CHUBUT PROVINCE, ARGENTINA
- Country: UK
- Topics: Europe,Science,Space Exploration
- Reuters ID: LVA002665823032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Cambridge spin-off hopes to take the temperature of the planet with its infrared satellite camera technology to produce detailed heat maps of the Earth.
SuperSharp Space Systems wants to disrupt the Earth Observation industry offering the climate monitoring, agriculture, maritime and security sectors access to detailed thermal images of the ground that were previously the exclusive preserve of military spy satellites.
“We have taken technologies that have been built for astronomy but turned them upside down,” the incoming CEO of SuperSharp, Elizabeth Seward, told Reuters.
The company, a University of Cambridge spinout, says its technology uses unfolding self-aligning optics to fit a large telescope into a smaller satellite platform, with the aim of lowering manufacturing and launch costs while increasing imaging frequency.
SuperSharp says the system is intended to deliver high-resolution thermal imagery at any time of day or night.
“The security applications really focus on activity. By taking a thermal infrared picture you can defer changes in time from a single snapshot. You can see changes in the ground temperature where something has been or where something has moved,” she said.
“We can see where there's activity where maybe you weren't expecting it and so it can really add to that intelligence picture of an area of interest.”
Thermal infrared imaging measures heat rather than visible light. SuperSharp says that allows users to map temperature patterns linked to climate change, energy use, crop stress and natural disasters like wildfires.
“Taking the temperature of the planet you can learn similar things as taking the temperature of a person. We can monitor health, we can monitor energy usage, we can monitor activity. And this is useful across a whole range of sectors. It supports the agricultural industry looking at crop health and how plants are doing. It supports the building industry looking at urban heat islands, how efficient buildings are, where we've got heat loss, where we don't have good insulation,” she said.
Turning their own business model on its head, SuperSharp is also developing thermal infrared technology for space domain awareness, including tracking satellites and debris through their heat signatures and monitoring satellite health, from the ground.
The company says they are currently building flight models of all three of their products. Casper, the smallest, will be the first to launch in February 2027. Hibiscus, the largest, will launch by the summer of 2027 and Spirit will be ready to launch in 2028 after high altitude balloon tests later this year.
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