First photo from Planet Labs’ Dove satellite…
So beautiful and appropriate for our blue marble perched in space.
Planet Labs came out of stealth mode this morning. They were formerly called Cosmogia, hence the writing and logo on this cool memento.
They are taking a radically different approach to Earth imaging satellites to boost the frequency and universality of coverage to new levels. Their blanket of big data will be open for developers of cloud services… from above the clouds!
The founders have a passion for humanitarian applications: instead of lamenting illegal fishing or deforestation in the Amazon months after the fact, imagine being able to catch them in the moment. When a natural disaster occurs somewhere on the planet, it often is in an area that was not an imaging hot spot and so it can be difficult to get timely before and after imagery surrounding the event. Imagine every farmer in the developing world having access to crop health and over-watering data, like the rich farmers do today. Existing imaging markets want better frequency and coverage, and if you push it far enough, entirely new markets will arise. The sky is not the limit. =)
Stepping back a bit, we are seeing unprecedented innovation in the space industry, triggered by SpaceX lowering the cost of access, and now with companies like Planet Labs revolutionizing how a satellite company should operate in this new space market.
I first met them while launching rockets in the Black Rock Desert with my son, where these NASA scientists came to test fly a Google Android phone as a satellite.
Planet’s site went live today: http://planet-labs.com
And I posted a photo essay on the company’s early days while still in stealth mode: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/9142951631/
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