Micro-satellites

Micro-Satellites, low-cost earth imaging

Geoscience-#Geo360: Eyes in the Sky, Monitoring the Earth by Satellite http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Micro-satellites

June 2014 (updated)

Earth Imaging 'startups' -- Micro-satellites [1] nextgen #earthscience in an era of #climatechange and #globalsecurity threat

“Five years from now, there might be 200 or more up there..." [2]

Geoscience Satellites

BlackBridge [3], Dauria [4], DigitalGlobe [5],

GeoOptics [6], NovaWurks [7], OmniEarth [8]

OrbitLogic [9], PlanetiQ [10], Planet Lab [11] [12]

RapidEye [13], Skybox [14] [15] [16]

Teledyne [17], Tyvak Nano-Sat [18], Urthecast [19]

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

24/7 high-definition video of Earth <Urthecast-ISS> [20] Live from the International Space Station [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]

Feb 2014 – Planet Labs

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 price and move from military/defense functions to earth systems 'defense', sustainability and eco-nomics.

<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 that has yet to be addressed. New telescope design enables low-cost satellite with that purpose.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4161433&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D4161433

Jan 2013 - "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/

CubeSats

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”

<more> http://www.sstl.co.uk/ - [note connection to SpaceX - Elon Musk] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey_Satellite_Technology

June 2013

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