Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
bloomberg.com
Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
1–10 of 55 posts
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#2I took a tour of their SF office last year. It's a pretty impressive operation. The satellites are indeed quite small; I always compare them to a loaf of bread with some wings. The people that work there are pretty sharp and seem to be very excited about what they do.
I was one of the first people to consume their v0 and v1 APIs to get their analytic imagery dataset. It was more challenging than it should have been to transfer ~100TB into our compute cluster. I haven't touched their API in about 7 or 8 months, but from my last meeting with them they said they have eliminated my top pain point. Looking forward to seeing more great things from them.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#3That is a pretty cool engineering feet. Never knew a shoe box sized telescope can give such detailed pictures.
They have sent about 200 satellites, cost "six figures" each, so an estimate of 200,000 a piece, they have spent about 40 million dollars, excluding the price of launches.
The data collected is definitely worth the price IMO. Imagine the ability to monitor storms and hurricanes, analyze their data and update our climate models.
They have about 80 million in funding alone, which is incredible.
I wonder what else is possible with so many eyes in the sky.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#4This article is in desperate need of a r/spacex-style bullet point summary.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#5I took a tour of their SF office last year. It's a pretty impressive operation. The satellites are indeed quite small; I always compare them to a loaf of bread with some wings. The people that work there are pretty sharp and seem to be very excited about what they do. I was one of the first people to consume their v0 and v1 APIs to get their analytic imagery dataset. It was more challenging than it should have been t…
There's a lot more to do in remote sensing, but I think your comment that there's an API for looking at the world is perhaps the more accurate way to describe the power of this moment in technology history. It is a great feat Planet has accomplished.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#6That is a pretty cool engineering feet. Never knew a shoe box sized telescope can give such detailed pictures. They have sent about 200 satellites, cost "six figures" each, so an estimate of 200,000 a piece, they have spent about 40 million dollars, excluding the price of launches. The data collected is definitely worth the price IMO. Imagine the ability to monitor storms and hurricanes, analyze their data and update…
Global surveillance networks.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#7That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#8That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
You don't have to worry too much about the low Earth orbit (LEO) sateillites as they will deorbit soon enough. My understanding is that there is also ongoing research into methods to deorbit them at end of life.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#9That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...
This is simply ignorant of the plans. Firstly, there are levels of functionality, being able to provide service being the highest one. Out of service satellites are still most likely to be able to execute a controlled re-entry. Secondly, these satellites will be in low Earth orbit. If they become completely inoperable they have an orbital lifetime of only a few years before they re-enter. Only with routine station keeping maneuvers can they stay in orbit for even their sub-decade planned lifetimes. So there's very little risk of a Kessler syndrome type situation developing. At any given time the number of derelict satellites in orbit would be quite small if not zero.
Re: Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution
#10I took a tour of their SF office last year. It's a pretty impressive operation. The satellites are indeed quite small; I always compare them to a loaf of bread with some wings. The people that work there are pretty sharp and seem to be very excited about what they do. I was one of the first people to consume their v0 and v1 APIs to get their analytic imagery dataset. It was more challenging than it should have been t…
There's a lot more to do in remote sensing, but I think your comment that there's an API for looking at the world is perhaps the more accurate way to describe the power of this moment in technology history. It is a great feat Planet has accomplished.
Agree a lot more is possible with remote sensing. I worked with it in ag in 80's and 90's, the biggest problems were:
1. Price was to high for the value we could offer
2. 40% chance we wouldn't get a usable image of the field due to cloud cover
3. Its one data point, you can see a problem but can't always figure out what's wrong.
I'm really hopeful for drones that can operate below the cloud cover and AI that can take bare soil images, tile maps, soil tests and provide a more intelligent answer for fixing the problems.
What the farmer wants is a prescription with a shot at a decent ROI.