When the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) created a record by blasting 104 satellites into space on Wednesday it was not the only one entering the record books.With its remarkable feat ISRO helped a pioneering US-based startup, Planet, put 88 satellites in orbit- the largest satellite constellation ever, which would enable the company to image the entire planet daily.
ISRO's achievement was so remarkable that it went largely unnoticed that Planet now has the capability to image every piece of land, every day. The satellites launched are small and lightweight, but the combined strength is much more than what your conventional military satellites can achieve.
Planet's journey started in 2011 when it set the bold mission of imaging the entire Earth land area every day. Their internal calculation said it would take between 100-150 satellites to achieve this and it set about building it.
The extraordinary effort involved miniaturizing the satellites, learning to produce them at scale, reducing cost to a fraction, building the world's second largest private network of ground stations; customizing an automated mission control system, creating the systems to process the vast amount of image that would be generated and developing a software that would allow its customers to make sense of the images. Today, Planet operates 144 satellites in orbit.
"We were convinced that armed with such data, humanity would be able to have a significant positive impact on many of the world's greatest challenges," said Planet, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Robbie Schingler in a statement. Schingler says next up is getting this data to its customers and to those who need it the most.
Who needs the data?
It has been an eventful 2017 for Planet. On February 3, the company announced it is acquiring Google's satellite arm Terra Bella, which included the SkySat constellation of satellites. On closing the deal, Google will enter into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet. Google has acquired Terra Bella about two years ago for as much as $500 million.
We are in the midst of resurgence in the commercial space arena and companies like Google depend on satellites to power everything from its Maps to cloud services. Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Michelin, the list of corporate that depend on satellite imagery is long.
From Mapping & Planning, Media, Energy & Exploration, Security, Defense & Intelligence, Insurance, Engineering & Construction, Civil Government, Forestry, Maritime and Agriculture sector, satellite imagery is vital and Planet has positioned itself in a unique position where it can image every part of earth's land mass. The nature of information that Planet can now provide is mindboggling.
Planet calls its satellites 'Dove' and Schingler says, "It's taken a minor Apollo project to get here." For now Planet has the herculean task of processing terabytes of data every day.
Here are some additional facts and figures regarding this launch:
1. The 88 Dove satellites (collectively known as "Flock 3p") rode aboard a PSLV rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
2. This leads to two world records: a record for the most satellites ever launched on a single rocket; and a record for the largest private satellite constellation in history, totaling 149 satellites in all.
3. This is our 15th launch of Dove satellites and second aboard India's PSLV. The launch of Flock 3p comes off the successful launch of Flock 2p on the PSLV in June 2016.
4. After deployment, all 88 satellites will be autonomously commissioned in batches. We expect Flock 3p to enter normal imaging operations in about three months.
5. Each of the Flock 3p satellites-our 13th build-sports a 200 mbps downlink speed and is capable of collecting over 2 million km per day.
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