
Planet Launches Satellite Constellation to Image the Whole Planet Daily - petethomas
https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet-launches-satellite-constellation-to-image-the-whole-planet-daily/
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piercebot
Competitor BlackSky[0] says their objective is "90km^2 in 90 minutes for $90",
and they'll be able to do it at 1m resolution instead of Planet's 3-5m
resolution.

Not only that, but BlackSky's platform lets you order imagery (both tasking
and archive) from many different vendors[1]. So you could set up a recurring
job to capture, say, a major port, and the resolution will be good enough to
count individual cargo containers (and not just large boats). Then, you could
order archived imagery to compare it with.

[0] [https://www.blacksky.com/](https://www.blacksky.com/)

[1] [https://www.blacksky.com/2016/12/14/spaceflight-
industries-u...](https://www.blacksky.com/2016/12/14/spaceflight-industries-
unveils-its-blacksky-platform-for-observing-the-planet/)

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Roritharr
I wonder how many people trade on this information already.

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patrickk
If you Google "hedge fund satellite data", you'll get loads of results, e.g:

> Every five minutes a satellite captures images of China’s biggest cities
> from space. Thousands of miles away in California, a computer looks at the
> shadows of the buildings in the images and draws a conclusion: China’s real
> estate boom is slowing.

> Traders at BlackRock, the money management giant, then use the data to help
> choose whether to buy or sell the stocks of Chinese developers.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-
nex...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-next-
generation-of-hedge-fund-stars-data-crunching-computers.html?_r=0)

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zeristor
With this in mind have people been gaming the system?

A building on its own is a liability, its only worth something if it has
occupants (or property prices are rising)

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BrailleHunting
Privacy implications are non-tinfoil, rationally-numerous: which homes are
abandoned/rarely visited, who's cheating on whom, which homes throw the most
parties, parking lot monitoring and so on. Eventually (say a century, if we
make it that far), it'll be impossible to go to Antarctica or even wash up on
some atoll without literally watched, profiled, surveyed and advertised to.

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flippyhead
Actually the search and rescue potential is interesting. Maybe there could be
an international symbol anyone stranded can make out of rocks or in the sand
or whatever that the eyes in the sky automatically alert the authorities to.

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BrailleHunting
PLBs/ELTs are much more scalable, at present. Someday, maybe AI will "watch"
every m^3.

Just don't voice any "treasonous" opinions verbally, in the future, because
Palantir Panopticon Next will bring SWATings, tax audits and extra pat-downs
to whomever is labelled a foe. Gosh, there might even be a viable, non-
tinfoil, future business model for rental of soundproof/TEMPEST meeting rooms
in large cities (LOL, I hope not.) Total, real-time monitoring would be a
massively-sharp, double-edged sword that has the potential to invade privacy
like never before... and I fear people won't fight or even question it.

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lucb1e
Are there anymore details known, like the resolution of the cameras or what
size objects will be visible? With each dove covering 2 million km² per day
(it says at the bottom) and capable of 200mbps downlink, one might get an
upper bound of what resolution is feasible (with different compression
techniques) but I am guessing the limiting factor is the camera.

And does each dove cover the _same_ surface daily, or do they rotate around
and get a different patch of the earth every day? Because in the former case,
with diffs you could get amazing compression ratios, and I bet you can already
get very far with very simple and fast algorithms.

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JorgeGT
Planet allows free CC-BY-SA access to California region imaginery, so you can
see / play / or even develop those algorithms by yourself:
[https://www.planet.com/products/open-
california/](https://www.planet.com/products/open-california/)

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wmblaettler
For anyone like me that was initially picturing 88 "large" satellites
requiring multiple launch vehicles - this was 88 micro satellites: 10cm x 10cm
x 30cm from a single launch vehicle.

On one hand it's fascinating to see the miniaturization of satellite
technology, while on the other, one has to think about the amount of "junk"
floating around our planet, some of it not much larger than a soda can.

Flock:
[http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/flock-1.htm](http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/flock-1.htm)
CubeSat:
[http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/cubesat.htm](http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sat/cubesat.htm)

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alexnewman
Planet is very careful about space junk. One of the founders even did work for
NASA, v.v. space junk. All the doves will burn up after use

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alexnewman
Well burnup or re-enter

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alexnewman
But of course re-enterring with these materials is a burn

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jamesphillips
Interesting. The data will surely prove to be useful and will also help to
show a better understanding of how our planet is changing . Hopefully raw data
is released to the public with all the imaging details.

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happy-go-lucky
Doves in space

[https://twitter.com/dovesinspace](https://twitter.com/dovesinspace)

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siscia
It sound amazing!

Are there any info about the price of those images?

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jumbosuno
was this among the 104 satellites launched by ISRO (India) yesterday?

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Ftuuky
Yes.

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titzer
One step closer to Kessler syndrome.

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panzagl
You have no idea what you're talking about.

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titzer
Given that now a new kind of space race between private entities seems to be
on, and the trend toward micro satellites is continuing, we are going to end
up with lots and lots more objects in LEO (and AFAICT these satellites are
indeed in LEO), which just increases the potential for cascading failure as
Kessler predicted. Or were you assuming that none of these satellites would
malfunction?

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panzagl
88 small commanded satellites in a high drag LEO circular orbit contribute to
Kessler syndrome in the same way that your production of CO2 contributes to
global climate change. Your attitude is just as anti-science as that of people
who think Jesus rode a dinosaur.

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titzer
I appreciate your very constructive comments on my belief system.

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oh_sigh
But the person you're responding to isn't wrong. These satellites contribute
absolutely 0 to space junk.

