Micro-Satellites, low-cost earth imaging

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#Earth360: Eyes in the Sky, Earth Science by Satellite

Space X Continues to Push Toward New Space Horizons

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/05/15/spacex-gets-certified-to-launch-nasa-science-missions/

May 2015 -- NASA has formally certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch all but the space agency’s most costly robotic science missions, beginning with a a U.S.-French oceanography satellite set for liftoff from California in July.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, which manages the agency’s rocket procurements for research missions, concluded the multi-year certification effort Tuesday, according to George Diller, a NASA spokesperson.

The milestone clears the Falcon 9 rocket to launch NASA’s “medium-risk” science missions, a classification which includes most of the agency’s Earth observation satellites...

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Planet Labs Sets New Records

About Planet Labs Documentation Intro

February 2015 - Private Spending on Space Is Headed for a New Record - Space Race 2.0 #NewSpace

Planet Labs has raised more than $160 million and launched 73 global imaging satellites. The growth was hard to imagine three years ago, when co-founder Will Marshall built the first of the miniature satellites nicknamed “doves” in a Silicon Valley garage.

“A lot of people were very skeptical, and what we were trying to do seemed ludicrous,” said Marshall, a former engineer at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. “But we have assets in orbit, and customers who are very interested in the data. Every time we take a picture, we can see how the world is changing.” -- Bloomberg

Planet Labs, flying Doves unprecedented, observing Planet Earth with 'rapid cadence' imaging opening possibilities never before offered

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2014

#PlanetCitizen

Building an API for the Planet: Will Marshall/PlanetLabs [1]

Mission: Democratising Access to Information About the Changing Planet

Time for Planet Labs 'Doves' to fly

Planet Labs "flock" / New Scientist [2] Flock 1

NanoRacks deployment into space [3] [4][5] [6]

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Earth Imaging -- Micro-satellites [7]

"NewSpace" [8] [9]

Nextgen #earthscience in era of #climatechange and #globalsecurity threat

“Five years from now, there might be 200 or more up there..." [10]

Geoscience Satellites -- Start-up companies

BlackBridge [11], Dauria [12], DigitalGlobe [13] [14] [15] GeoEye [16],

Firefly Space Systems [17] [18], GeoOptics [19], NanoRacks [20], [21] [22]

NovaWurks [23], OmniEarth [24] [25] [26] [27], OrbitLogic [28], PlanetiQ [29]

Planet Labs [30] Pulse [31] [32] [33], RapidEye [34], Skybox [35] [36] [37]

Teledyne [38], Tyvak Nano-Sat [39], Urthecast [40]

OpenNEX, NASA asks public to join in with space data monitoring earth [41]

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On the launch of Planet Labs 'Dove' nanosatellites -- applications yet-to-be developed #OpenData #PlanetCitizens

Robbie Schingler, co-founder of Planet Labs: “We are motivated to make information about the changing planet available to all people, especially the people who need it the most..."

"The imagery could be used by anyone who cares about changes in land use over time.” [42]

"Rapid cadence imagery, like Planet Labs is developing, helps us become better, more sustainable stewards of Earth." [43]

Will Marshall, co-founder of Planet Labs talks of democratization of space: videos [44] [45]

Planet Labs largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites.

The data is expansive and of added value over time:

- humanitarian applications, earth resource monitoring, sustainability and eco-nomics

- extreme event and disaster relief

- food systems, water distribution, improving agriculture

- business intelligence (BI) metrics/performance

- research, science

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June 2014 Google Buys Skybox [46] [47] [48] [49]

[Background] June 18, 2013 Inside a Startup’s Plan to Turn a Swarm of DIY Satellites Into an All-Seeing Eye [50]

June 16, 2014 - Wall Street Journal / by Christopher Mims [51]

By 2016 or so, Skybox will be able to take full images of the Earth twice a day, at a resolution that until last week was illegal to sell commercially — all with just a half-dozen satellites.

By the time its entire fleet of 24 satellites has launched in 2018, Skybox will be imaging the entire Earth at a resolution sufficient to capture, for example, real-time video of cars driving down the highway. And it will be doing it three times a day.

You might think, thanks to weather maps and the satellite view on Google Maps, that such imagery already is readily available. But because satellites were, until recently, so expensive to build and launch, that isn't the case. There are only nine satellites in orbit now that capture high resolution images for the commercial market, and their capabilities are regularly commandeered for national-security purposes by the U.S. government. That means most of the pictures of the Earth that you've seen are of poor quality and years out of date.

At Google, the business of Skybox isn't data, but knowledge. "We think we are going to fundamentally change humanity's understanding of the economic landscape on a daily basis," says Skybox co-founder Dan Berkenstock...

Skybox's images will inevitably lead to apps and services no one can envision — with unknowable disruptive potential. Skybox executives tell me they hope to offer their data to outside developers... In the short term, Google has said it would use Skybox's images to improve the search company's maps.

A patent revealed in May indicates that Google builds its superaccurate maps directly from satellite imagery, and the company has long had a deal with Skybox competitor DigitalGlobe, whose satellites cost 10 times as much as Skybox's and are 10 times heavier, leading to much higher launch costs. DigitalGlobe's stock dipped 4% on news of the Skybox deal...

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May 2014 Skybox and Planet Labs / re Google's purchase of Skybox, Google has a business division called “Earth Enterprise” that provides mapping data for large organizations, institutions and businesses. “Google Earth Enterprise allows you to store and process terabytes of imagery, terrain and vector data on your own server infrastructure, and publish maps securely for your users to view using Google Earth desktop or mobile apps, or through your own application using the Google Maps API..." [52]

Feb 2014 Planet Labs versus Skybox / The next step is something more like a Google for Earth: a search engine where people can find satellite photos taken in real or near-real time that answer questions like “How many ships are in the Port of Houston today?” or “How much corn is currently growing in Iowa?” [53]

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“With all these start-ups, the things you’ll be able to do with satellite images will grow exponentially..." IEEE, May 2014

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June 2014

U.S. Department of Commerce lifts ban on satellite images showing features smaller than 20 inches - DigitalGlobe [54] [55] [56] [57]
"Companies had not been allowed to make use of images where features smaller than 50cm were visible"
Satellites Are Cleared to Take Photos at Mailbox-Level Detail per DigitalGlobe petition
Worldview-3 satellite is set to launch in August. Digital Globe [58] [59] says it will now be able to sell images that show features as small as 31cm [60]
Sites like Google and Bing Maps will be able to use higher-quality satellite images in near real-time [61] [62]... eventually real-time

GP360: Earth-monitoring, data-sharing, open source, is in the wings...

Citizen-networking/schools-education space-earth projects -- education looks at #earthscience from space... [63] [64]

24/7 high-definition video of Earth <Urthecast-ISS> [65] Urthecast APIs

Live from the International Space Station [66] [67] [68] [69]

Earth sciences/NASA-JPL and gov contractors 'Eyes on the Earth'

Feb 2014

Until recently, since the launch of the original Landsat program in 1972, generating images of Earth from space has been the near-exclusive domain of enormous, multi-million dollar satellites sponsored by nations and major defense corporations.

New micro-satellites, including those launched from the ISS, aim to make real-time imaging available for a fraction of the past decades price and move us from military-defense-communication operations to economic/entrepreneurial functions, 'earth systems-monitoring' and biosphere sustainability, space 'tourism' and low earth orbit travel...

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Earth systems-monitoring - http://www.earthzine.org/geo-and-geoss-the-group-on-earth-observations-and-the-global-earth-observations-system-of-systems/

<more> http://gizmodo.com/meet-the-flockers-iss-launches-low-cost-earth-imaging-1517232660

Earth Imaging - background – 2007 - Acquiring large data sets of Earth imagery in a simple, low-cost way, represents a new market opportunity beginning to be addressed. New telescope designs enable low-cost satellites with that purpose. [70]

Jan 2014 - "Flocking" "Doves" "Nanosatellites" - http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flock-of-nano-satellites-to-capture-high-res-views-of-whole-earth/

Google goes mapping - http://gizmodo.com/how-swarms-of-tiny-satellites-are-creating-a-real-time-1497890594

Swarms of small satellites set to deliver close to real-time imagery - http://www.nature.com/news/many-eyes-on-earth-1.14475

Dec 2013

"How Planet Labs Is Saving the Earth with 'Homemade' Satellites. It took less than six months to build twenty-eight of them"...

<more> http://www.businessinsider.com/planet-labs-fleet-of-homemade-satellites-2013-12?op=1

http://www.space.com/23739-tiny-earth-satellite-fleet-launching-december.html

Nov 2013

Flock of Mini- and Micro-sats delivered to space with international Dnepr co-venture - http://www.space.com/23738-dnepr-rocket-launches-32-satellites.html

'Minotaur 1 delivers 29 mini's/CubeSats including first-ever design/build satellite project of a US high school'

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/

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CubeSats - CubeSat specifications accomplish several high-level goals. Simplification of the satellite's infrastructure makes it possible to design and produce workable satellites at low cost.... Encapsulation of the launcher–payload interface takes away the prohibitive amount of managerial work... Unification among payloads and launchers enables quick exchanges of payloads and utilization of launch opportunities...

CubeSat 'nano-satellites' aim to adhere to the standards described in the CubeSat design specification -- CubeSats initiatives were conceived from educational institutions... In 2004, with their relatively small size, first-gen CubeSats could each be made and launched to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) for an estimated $65,000–$80,000. Acc to Wikipedia, 'recent' launch prices have been $100,000-$125,000, plus approximately $10,000 to construct a CubeSat. This price tag, far lower than most satellite launches, has made CubeSat a viable option for schools and universities across the world.

CubeSats List of CubeSats

LightSail with CubeSats, Planetary Society - Launch date April 2016 [71] Video/July 2014 Explore Planets/TW

Sept 2013

Sensors and Systems - “Every year the technology improves, with better computers and storage and payloads. The technological evolution improves, price points continue to come down, and now with a small 150 to 300 kg spacecraft for $10 to $20 million you can do what you were doing with a 1,000 kg spacecraft five to 10 years ago for $500 million.” Surrey Satellite Technology-RapidEye satellite imagery “Changing the Economics of Space” ... co-ventures/joint ventures/'ride-alongs'/shared platforms/accessible data

<more> http://www.sstl.co.uk/ - note connection to SpaceX - Elon Musk - note Elon Muck opening up the Tesla platform on June 12, 2014 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey_Satellite_Technology - http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

June 2013

Citizens in Space - http://www.citizensinspace.org/2013/06/planet-labs-to-launch-flock-1/

Opening up to understanding and interacting with our eco-operating systems

Share-able earth science data enabling earth biosphere systems monitoring/preservation policy advocacy by #globalcitizen orgs

#PlanetCitizen

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Earth systems, monitoring over time - http://www.earthzine.org/geo-and-geoss-the-group-on-earth-observations-and-the-global-earth-observations-system-of-systems/

GEO - Group on Earth Observations - http://www.earthobservations.org/about_geo.shtml

GEOSS - Global Earth Observation System of Systems - http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml

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