Satellogic Aims To Launch A Constellation Of Small Imaging Satellites Around Earth
Satellogic is an Argentinian startup that says it just had its third successful satellite launch.
The company was founded by CEO Emiliano Kargieman, who previously founded Core Security Technologies and came up with the vision for Satellogic while attending Singularity University in 2010. Describing existing satellite technology as archaic, Kargieman said he wants to launch a network of hundreds of satellites in Low Earth orbit that will allow customers to get an image of any place on Earth in high resolution and in real time.
Thats an ambitious vision, and Satellogic certainly has quite a bit to do before then. This satellite, dubbed Tita, is the first one that the company has launched with high resolution imaging capabilities, Kargieman said. However, the plan is to freeze the design of the satellites soon and get more ambitious about launching them, with 10 to 15 launches on the timeline for 2015.
Kargieman added that with existing satellites, it takes usually about three days to get two consecutive photos of the same spot on Earth, while with Satellogic satellites (which are built with newer electronics technology and are the size of a desktop computer hard drive) customers will supposedly be able to get an image in five minutes.
Asked about the privacy implications, Kargieman said the satellites will, for example, be able to photograph cars but not individual license plates, so it shouldnt be too intrusive.
So what will the satellites actually be monitoring? Kargieman said theyll give customers a window on many of the processes related to what he described as the biggest challenges that were going to face in the next 10 or 20 years food production and security, energy production and distribution, and natural resource production.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/20/satellogic-launch/