4 ms·
This is more or less the business model of Planet [0], which is imaging the whole Earth every day with around 200 satellites. (No affiliation, but I previously
by redfern314 5y ago
This is more or less the business model of Planet [0], which is imaging the whole Earth every day with around 200 satellites. (No affiliation, but I previously worked for a different smallsat company.) It would be possible to get a higher visitation than that with more satellites, but it may not be cost-effective (e.g. someone might be willing to pay $X for a subscription to daily images, but not $(48*X) for half-hour images).
I also doubt you could just slap a camera on Starlink satellites. Even ignoring payload size/weight, power consumption, etc, you're typically fighting 3 different constraints when you decide which way to rotate your satellite (sun exposure for power, antenna direction for high-bandwidth network, payload direction if you have cameras or other directional sensors). They're not going to want to try to deal with that for the first iteration of their fleet.
[0] https://www.planet.com/products/planet-imagery/ https://www.planet.com/products/planet-imagery/
- iamacyborg 5y agoI can’t help but be excited by the possibilities of tech like Planet, so many interesting applications for their data.
- ComputerGuru 5y agoExcited? Maybe I’m just getting old but it terrifies me.
- klyrs 5y agoAgreed, and the terrifying use-cases aren't hypothetical, they're the raison d'etre. There are some good "plowshares" type projects out there, but I'm not sure those ends justify the original and ongoing ones