Now there are research and technologies that enable space travel. Then the private entrepreneurs have joined in such as SpaceX. Another example is a U.S. company that will launch mini-satellites in outer space to observe Earth.
Diagrams shows how a proposed fleet of 12 mini-satellites could help improve weather forecasts.
Planet Labs, a space and analytics company based out of San Francisco, California plans to launch 28 nano-satellites which will relay snapshots at frequent periodic intervals— they will be assets for environmental screening and monitoring.
The start-up was founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists, Robbie Schingler, William Marshall and Chris Boshuizen and aims to launch the largest conglomerate of imaging satellites that will scan and map Earth with the end objective of being able to comprehend the planet and its entire ecosystem.
The company builds the satellites in SFO, tests in the same lab, on mountains, from airplanes and in space and was successful in its pilot project in April 2013 wherein they launched two imaging satellites into space.
The project comprises of launch of a constellation of Earth-scanning satellites, each comprising of one or more mini-satellites called CubeSat which will orbit the Earth.
The CubeSats are component boxes of about 10 square centimeters joined together in the form of an assembly or can be used individually. These CubeSats have the necessary equipment and instrumentation and, being physically small in size, are comparatively cheaper and cost-effective. The satellites, which will have no propulsion system of its own, will stay in the orbit for around 3 to 5 years and will broadcast the images captured to three ground stations in the U.S. and UK wherein the data will be available on near real-time basis.
The satellites that are currently orbiting Earth are for defense, government, meteorological, scientific or commercial applications and they relay back information that includes images and data of various regions and geographies. This data can be high-resolution depending upon the application for which the satellite is launched.
Planet Labs’ satellites intend to relay images of medium resolution however with the 28 satellite flock, the company will be able to propagate images at more regular periodicity thereby increasing the coverage.
The nano-satellites are programmed to provide Earth imagery at a resolution of 3 to 5 meters. The constellation, Flock-1 is expected to be put into orbit in early 2014 and is expected to gather Earth images which will cover most portions of the worlds’ population and is expected to be the largest congregation of “Earth-observing” satellites. Planet Labs, which was formerly known as Cosmogia, announced a $13 million capital funding from OATV, Founders Fund Angel, First Round Capital, Capricorn, Innovation Endeavors, Data Collective and DFJ.
