Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-06-29/the-tiny-satellites-ushering-in-the-new-space-revolution

by binoyxj • 9 years ago

174 49 9 years ago

PaulMest• 9 years ago

I 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.

terravion• 9 years ago

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.

rmason• 9 years ago

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.

kumarvvr• 9 years ago

That 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.

westmeal• 9 years ago

Global surveillance networks.

659087• 9 years ago

"Google/Facebook: Please step outside and look up for 10 seconds to verify your identity"

ant6n• 9 years ago

This does seem reminiscent of some Bond movie: some young company/genius supposedly wants to save the world via a fleet of satellites tracking all sorts of environmental issues, a company called Planet (a logo written in greenery in their office). Then it turns out there's actually a nefarious reason for all this, like total surveillance of everybody etc.

Shivetya• 9 years ago

Another way to track animal and eventually bird migrations when resolution is high enough. Better coverage of large scale disasters, think earthquake and your mentioned hurricanes, but also fires in remote areas and possibly detection of avalanches. Perhaps even revealing ancient civilizations that haven't been identified yet? There is a lot of area on this planet not of interest and not extensively photographed to where its generally available.

eeZah7Ux• 9 years ago

feet?

shawn-butler• 9 years ago

I'm not sure if this includes the Skylabs-TerraBella launches?

Skylabs had seven high-res SkySat satellites that Planet got via acquiring Skylabs/TerraBella complementing its existing fleet of medium res satellites.

Planet’s existing network could only get three to five meter resolution, while Skybox’s satellites could manage “sub-meter" accuracy.

80 million in funding seems low. The price of the Skybox/TerraBella acquisition from Google alone had to be in the hundreds of millions.

lorenzhs• 9 years ago

There was substantial uncertainty about the cost of TerraBella's acquisition, see https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/25/google-satellite-planet/ which says "We’ve not heard a firm price. Aside from the $300 million figure we heard, another described Terra Bella as essentially being “donated” to Planet."

As of April 2015, Planet had raised $183M according to https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/13/planet-labs-rockets-to-118...

jessriedel• 9 years ago

This article is in desperate need of a r/spacex-style bullet point summary.

sjcsjc• 9 years ago

Yes, a tl;dr would be very much appreciated if anyone were to have the time and inclination.

patall• 9 years ago

That 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 ...

jamesaross• 9 years ago

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.

kobeya5• 9 years ago

In the case of a Kessler syndrom event it remains a concern. Collisions will push some debris higher while causing other pieces to enter early. The result would be a debris cloud that persists for decades even in LEO.

InclinedPlane2• 9 years ago

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.

kobeya5• 9 years ago

Out of service satellites are still most likely to be able to execute a controlled re-entry

How? By a burn? That's a lot of fuel reserve to use up.

currydove2• 9 years ago

The other comments that are replying to you have it fairly accurate. It's not widely known but it isn't a secret either: the point of the doves is to be deployed en masse and with more capability with every subsequent build. A quick refresh in the constellation means there is fresh hardware in space every so often.

This means the intention is indeed for re-entry into the atmosphere after the operational lifespan of the dove has lapsed. (They physically stay in space only a few years depending on altitude, orbit, exposed atmospheric drag and a couple of other things)

The last two flocks alone have put close to 130 sats in space so the debris issue is something that is taken quite seriously at the company.

Source: I work at planet. I generally lurk on HN but I created an account just now to reply to this :)

EDIT: Relevant blog post from a couple years ago - https://www.planet.com/pulse/keeping-space-clean-responsible...

a_d• 9 years ago

Unrelated and probably a stupid question -- but I am curious. What would these satellites see if they looked the other way - i.e. Outwards towards space. Would they see just darkness? Some stars? Lots of stars? Would you know?

Nanite• 9 years ago

It seems Planet currently only relies on passive de-orbiting, how long are sats expected to stay in orbit? And are active de-orbiting options being considered?

kerkeslager3• 9 years ago

It sounds like you're relying on the satellites de-orbiting and burning up in the atmosphere.

Are there any steps taken to ensure the satellites de-orbit in a timely manner? Are there any estimates on how many of the satellites will de-orbit and when, absent such an intervention?

JoeDaDude• 9 years ago

Maybe this is a good time to bring up the European Space Agency film about space debris [1].

[1]. http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/content/view/embedjw/484820

nwrk• 9 years ago

https://spaceknow.com/

hi41• 9 years ago

Kindly can someone tell me how these snall satellites are able to remain in orbit. Don't we need jet propulsion to have them stay in orbit and not fall into earth? I don't much about satellites.

Ajedi32• 9 years ago

Not really. Once something is in orbit, it's just going to naturally stay in orbit unless acted on by an outside force. That's just basic inertia.

There is some amount of atmospheric drag in low earth orbit which will eventually cause satellites at that altitude to lose speed and fall back to earth, but that drag is small enough that the satellites should be able to remain in orbit for years without needing any additional thrust.

teddyh• 9 years ago

The moon doesn’t need any propulsion to stay in orbit around the Earth. A satellite is just a very small and very close moon. The fact that it’s closer than the moon just means that it will orbit faster than the moon does.

Kroniker• 9 years ago

The way it works is that the satellite has very high velocity tangent to the earth- so they are constantly falling to earth, but they are moving tangent at the same rate that they are falling- because the earth is a sphere, the ground "falls away" from underneath them. They're constantly "missing" the Earth.

aphextron• 9 years ago

What's the best way for someone to get involved in space hardware?

0xdead_beef• 9 years ago

Engineering degree; willingness to work in Defense (to cut your teeth)

currydove2• 9 years ago

Materials Science. Tinkering with off the shelf hardware (even start with RaspberryPis). Systems Integration (legit systems integration, not the shitty title Accenture/Deloitte/Generic Consulting Company gives you for working at an Enterprise client). FPGAs. Electrical Engineering. Thermal Engineering is huge. or the usual: Software Engineering. (because satellites need software too)

Any of the above to name a few

digikata• 9 years ago

This is a good Embedded.fm podcast episode interviewing one of the professors that was key in starting the trend of small satellites.

http://embedded.fm/episodes/195

Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution

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