Planet’s Deven Desai explains how Planet uses satellite imagery to uncover data for the oil and gas industry, as well as for road detection, at the 2019 Esri User Conference in San Diego.
Tag: Planet
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An overview of the latest PNT satellite launches
Satellites NTS-1, 2 and 3. (Illustration: Lt. Jacob Lutz, AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate) Just last month we celebrated the kickoff of the GPS III campaign, reporting on the launch of the first space vehicle of that generation in the closing days of 2018. A new era had begun, heralded by a rocket’s blazing path, bearing aloft a new “lighthouse in the sky serving all humankind.”
Turn around and — whoa! Where did all these other new PNT satellites come from?
We attempt to chronicle them all in this issue, though I’m not sure we haven’t still missed some.
For years we’ve been talking about the Iridium constellation, a low-Earth orbit telecommunication network that can also deliver timing services to improve accuracy, and signal acquisition in urban environments. Were it not for the fact that 10 more of its satellites just launched in January, bringing the total of its second-generation NEXT constellation to 75, this would practically qualify as old news.
But let’s move on to the real new news. NTS-3 is the new kid on the block most closely related to the GPS family. In fact, integrally a part of it. This third Navigation Technology Satellite will go even beyond GPS III — whose capabilities, mark you, are not yet online — to investigate new experimental antennas, flexible and secure signals, increased automation and use of commercial ground assets.
Learn about 72 nanosatellites of the Spire constellation piggybacking on Galileo signals to offer GNSS radio occultation products for the weather community. This may not be exactly direct-to-user PNT, but it’s a derivative.
Finally, absorb the latest on Hawkeye 360 formation-flying Pathfinders, designed to detect and geolocate radio frequency (RF) signals, and use the data in search-and-rescue as well as commercial maritime operations.
Don’t stop there! Read about Planet, the breadloaf satellites, current population 300 with more coming, beaming down 1.2 million high-resolution Earthly images per day, useful for agriculture, defense, mapping and GIS, and a few other industries.
If a group of satellites is a constellation, what do you call a group of constellations? If we are to follow astronomy’s lead, I’ve just learned that the proper technical term is an asterism. However, I think galaxy will be easier to handle.
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Planet’s breadloaf-sized satellites capture Earth surface
Planet (formerly Planet Labs) has put about 300 satellites into space, in charge of photographing the entire land mass of the Earth every day.
The satellites weigh 5 kg (12 pounds) and measure 20 x 20 x 44 centimeters, about the size of a loaf of bread. They are packed with commercial-off-the-shelf electronics and are built in downtown San Francisco. Mission control consists of a single engineer for dozens of satellites.
Aptly named “doves,” the satellites circle the Earth in 90 minutes, their cameras continuously rolling. “It gives you a perspective of the planet as a dynamic and evolving thing that we need to take care of,” said company co-founder Will Marshall.
Each day, the satellites transmit 1.2 million images at a spatial resolution of 3–5 meters, far more than enough to fully occupy all the analysts at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), one of Planet’s more than 200 customers.
Historically, the NGA has relied on three or four very large, very expensive — and to global adversaries, very predictable — spy satellites. The agency has found Planet’s approach intriguing and challenging.
Planet has devised computer algorithms to look for new features day to day, such as roads or buildings th
at may signal activity of a significant or nefarious sort. Other customer uses are more mundane, such as agricultural companies monitoring crop health.
Boundless. In December 2018, Planet entered into an agreement to acquire Boundless Spatial Inc., a St. Louis-based geospatial software solutions company, to further support its commercial business with the U.S. government and agricultural clients.
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Airbus and Planet bring new geospatial products to market
(From left) Francois Lombard and Dirk Hoke, Airbus, sign agreement with Will Marshall, Planet. Airbus and Planet have entered into a partnership to facilitate access to each other’s data and the co-development of new geospatial solutions.
The companies are establishing a framework agreement to explore opportunities for joint cooperation in new and existing markets, product offerings, sales and marketing efforts.
Both companies aim to provide a comprehensive suite of global satellite data at multiple temporal and spatial resolutions, and develop new analytic products for a wide range of applications to benefit their customers.
Benefitting from both companies’ constellations, customers will have access to the entire Earth’s landmass every day at 3m resolution with PlanetScope satellites, as well as to intra-daily sub-meter resolution imagery with Pléiades and SkySat constellations.
In addition, they will also have the capability to order images with resolutions of 1.5m (SPOT 6/7), 5m (Rapideye) and 22m (DMC Constellation).
Lastly, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X and PAZ radar satellites will allow the acquisition of images regardless of weather and daylight conditions, ensuring access to any place on Earth independent of cloud coverage.
“By combining our strengths, we will provide a key capability to address all market needs, both in terms of data and value-added products, and to best serve our clients, whatever their industry and their requirements,” said François Lombard, director of the Intelligence Business at Airbus Defence and Space.
“Airbus and Planet are truly complementary partners. Airbus brings long-standing success in serving reliable, high resolution remote sensing, and Planet brings its unique global coverage and temporal cadence, as well as agile aerospace iteration to get sensors quickly to space,” said Will Marshall, CEO and co-founder of Planet. “Together we will be able to deliver sophisticated offerings to fit customer needs across international markets.”
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High-resolution Earth observation satellites ready for launch
Space Systems Loral (SSL), a provider of satellites and spacecraft systems, built the six high-resolution small satellites for Planet for its SkySat Earth observation constellation — a fleet Planet gained through the acquisition of the Terra Bella business from Google in April 2017.
Six SSL-built small satellites for Planet’s Earth observation constellation have arrived at Vandenberg AFB for launch. (Photo: SSL) The satellites will double Planet’s high-resolution imaging capabilities and help provide information about the physical world.
The satellites, called SkySat 8 through 13, are each about 60 x 60 x 95 centimeters, weigh about 100 kilograms, and capture sub-meter color imagery and up to 90-second clips of HD video with 30 frames per second.
“Small satellites and Earth observation satellites are a growing focus for SSL,” said Dario Zamarian, group president of SSL. “SSL is known for working very collaboratively with our customers and it has been a great pleasure for our team to work together with Planet. For these satellites we have taken a fresh approach to manufacturing, learning from our GEO experience but also looking for new and more efficient processes that in turn also inform our large satellite manufacturing.”
Working together with the seven SkySats already on orbit, the new satellites will dramatically increase Planet’s high-resolution imaging capabilities, enabling multiple imaging passes in a single day. These capabilities, combined with Planet’s more than 170 Dove satellites and their advanced software analytics platform, make it possible to derive timely insights from any location in the world.
The Planet constellation provides a broad range of data, tools, and analytical services that help leaders in business and humanitarian sectors solve complex problems.
“These SkySats double the amount of high-resolution data that we can capture and serve to users, and will power insights, inform smart decisions, and most importantly, help make the world a better and safer place,” said Will Marshall, co-founder and chief executive Sofficer of Planet. “The highly experienced team at SSL has been helpful and responsive as we work together to get the satellites prepared for launch.”
SSL has deep experience in building and integrating some of the world’s most powerful and comprehensive solutions for services such as communications, Earth observation, in-orbit servicing, space robotics, and exploration.
Four SkySats built by SSL were launched in September 2016, and SSL is currently building an additional eight LEOs for Planet in its SmallSat manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California, where the company takes an innovative approach to satellite design, assembly and test.
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Boundless partners with Planet to expand image access
Boundless, an open GIS company, has announced a strategic partnership with Planet, the integrated aerospace and data-analytics company that operates history’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites. The partnership enables Boundless customers to access the massive library of high-quality Planet imagery and fast-loading imagery basemaps within Boundless Connect.
Starting today, Boundless Desktop users can access this content through the Boundless Connect plugin. Planet content is also accessible through Boundless Suite and Exchange subscriptions.
“This partnership significantly advances the content available through Boundless Connect, and expands our ability to provide high-quality imagery to Boundless users,” said Anthony Calamito, vice president of product for Boundless. “This represents a major step forward in providing our growing user base with valuable insights through Planet’s content. We are excited about this partnership and all the capabilities that will be delivered to our users, now and in the future.”
A Planet image of Bingham Canyon Mine, Salt Lake County, Utah, taken March 10, 2013. The partnership with Planet will provide access to:
- Basemaps – Automated basemaps optimized for clear seasonal coverage, completeness and visual quality, perfect for map backdrops. In addition, quarterly or monthly timelapse basemaps gives users access to the latest imagery.
- Image Tiles from PlanetScope – 4-band (RGB and NIR) imagery for visual or analytic use.
- Image Tiles from RapidEye – 5-band (RGB, NIR, and Red Edge) imagery for visual and analytic use.
“This partnership is a huge step forward in delivering the most extensive and up-to-date satellite imagery catalog and basemaps to the broader geospatial community,” said Alex Bakir, vice president of product marketing for Planet. “Boundless’ open, flexible platform pairs perfectly with Planet’s data and platform services, and gives Boundless users the tools and content needed to integrate seamlessly into their workflows. We are very excited to be working with Boundless and look forward to what is to come.”
Boundless offers an open GIS ecosystem through a combination of technology, products and experts that gives enterprises deeper intelligence and insights using location-based data.
The Boundless platform is built upon open source technology and open APIs that generate actionable location intelligence across third-party apps, content services and plugins for enterprise applications.
In November 2016, the company extended its proven GIS platform with Boundless Connect, a subscription service to the most comprehensive repository of GIS resources, and Boundless Desktop, a full-featured, professional desktop GIS, bringing a powerful ecosystem of geospatial knowledge, tools and resources to the enterprise.
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NGA contracts with Planet for small satellite imagery
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has signed a $20 million introductory contract with Planet that will provide small satellite collection and coverage of most of the Earth’s landmass.
The agreement is a step toward harnessing the potential, capabilities and services of the small sat and commercial imagery environment.
The NGA will have access to a global imagery refresh every 15 days of most of Earth’s landmass through the new contract. Planet is a commercial imagery provider operating the largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites.Its feed, known as the Planet Feed, will be used across the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) and select members of the civil federal community. The NSG is the operating framework supported by producers, consumers or influencers of geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT.
“Improving our profession means further committing to the use of innovative capabilities being developed and deployed by commercial data providers and analytic companies for mission accomplishment,” said NGA Director Robert Cardillo at the May 2016 GEOINT Symposium in Washington, D.C. “Our commercial space partners will provide meaningful, higher revisit capabilities this year and we look forward to turning their exciting potential into our mission reality.”
The introductory contract includes a seven-month period of performance, beginning Sept. 15 and valued at $20 million.
The Planet Feed includes multispectral imagery from constellations at 3-5 meter and 6.7 meter resolutions. The imagery products will include unrectified and orthorectified images and orthomosaic single-pass tiles. The global scope of coverage and high temporal frequency of collection from Planet provides NGA with new data sources to support the agency’s many missions including foundation GEOINT, humanitarian assistance, disaster response and intelligence.
“Planet’s mission to provide timely, global imagery to empower informed, deliberate and meaningful stewardship of the planet is directly in line with our mission,” said John Charles, NGA commercial imagery lead. “We’re no longer simply admiring the potential of small satellites and their persistent capabilities, we’re harnessing that potential.”
Autumn in New Hampshire on Oct. 17. (Photo: Planet) Planet designs, builds, and operates a constellation of Earth imaging nano-satellites. The global scope of coverage and high temporal frequency of collection from Planet will provide NGA with new data sources to use for geospatial intelligence analysis.
Commercial GEOINT Activity. Earlier this year, NGA, together with the National Reconnaissance Office, also launched a new office to synchronize activities for collection and analytic capabilities that can benefit both agencies.
Commercial GEOINT Activity (CGA) allows both agencies to assess current capabilities and develop strategies to ensure the timely and successful integration of commercial innovations that will benefit NGA and NRO.
This activity serves as a voice for NGA and NRO to the commercial GEOINT enterprise. The CGA conducts joint assessments, recommends investment decisions, and engages user communities. It advises NGA and NRO on synchronizing joint acquisition activities for vendors who can provide both collection and analytic capabilities to benefit the agencies. The CGA also develops strategies to access, acquire and integrate commercial GEOINT capabilities.
The CGA began operations on Sept. 30.
