{"id":19285,"date":"2016-08-15T17:33:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T09:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/why-small-satellites-are-big-for-startups\/"},"modified":"2016-08-15T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T09:33:07","slug":"why-small-satellites-are-big-for-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/why-small-satellites-are-big-for-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Why small satellites are big for startups"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_267861\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267861\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-267861\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160815-arkyd-6-planetary-resources-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Planetary Resources' Arkyd 6 satellite\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160815-arkyd-6-planetary-resources-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160815-arkyd-6-planetary-resources-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160815-arkyd-6-planetary-resources.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-267861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 6 prototype Earth-observing satellite, which is due for its maiden launch this year. (Credit: Planetary Resources)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Small satellites, and the startups that make them, are becoming a big deal \u2013 and there\u2019s a fresh&nbsp;flurry of industry reports that explain why.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that new types of satellite data can give earthbound businesses an edge.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a hedge-fund manager can estimate how much revenue Walmart will report by counting the cars in the stores\u2019 parking lots. Farmers can use custom-delivered, hyperspectral imaging to monitor how their crops are doing. Petroleum companies can get a quick alert on potential pipeline leaks.<\/p>\n<p>Seattle-area companies like Planetary Resources and Spaceflight Industries are betting millions of dollars on the rapid growth of next-generation satellite services. And then there\u2019s the rush to deliver internet services via satellite: That\u2019s the focus of SpaceX\u2019s Seattle office.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Tour of Planetary Resources with CEO Chris Lewicki\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W89bwFbpcjM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Will at least some of those bets pay off? There\u2019s reason to think&nbsp;so. Here\u2019s a sampling of assessments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>VentureBeat<\/strong> is publishing a report from the Skolkovo Foundation\u2019s Valery Komissarov that mentions Planetary Resources and Spaceflight\u2019s Black Sky Global venture, among others. He counts 13 startups&nbsp;that are involved in the Earth observation market. \u201cWe can expect to see a lot of these companies fail,\u201d he says, but the ones who survive just might&nbsp;cash in on a sector that has the potential for exponential growth. \u201cIt\u2019s&nbsp;not just mapping and visual observation \u2014 it\u2019s quantitative analysis of the planet\u2019s surface,\u201d Komissarov quotes one business development director as saying.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Wall Street Journal<\/strong> focuses on a Silicon Valley partnership between a satellite startup called Planet Labs and a data-mining company called Orbital Insight. Orbital offers predictions on future stock market movements to its clients, which include several hedge funds. The key to its market strategy lies in alternative data sources, such as commercial satellite imagery. New Mexico-based Descartes Labs is aiming to provide similar types of inside information for corn and soybean yields. (WSJ subscription required.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aviation Week &amp; Space Technology<\/strong>&nbsp;is running&nbsp;a commentary from KPMG\u2019s Jono Anderson that\u2019s bullish on the prospects for direct satellite telecommunication. Anderson notes that Facebook, Google, Apple and Samsung are all making plans to link next-generation 5G wireless networks across terrestrial and space boundaries. They\u2019re teaming up with companies including&nbsp;OneWeb and&nbsp;SpaceX to take advantage of the low-Earth-orbit satellite telecom constellations that are yet to come. \u201cThe tech giants\u2019 desire to ensure that space is a big part of the 5G wireless ecosystem has the biggest potential in decades to disrupt traditional space,\u201d Anderson&nbsp;writes. (Aviation Week registration required.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Space Review<\/strong> and <strong>Space News<\/strong> carry reports&nbsp;from Jeff Foust about&nbsp;last week\u2019s Conference on Small Satellites, held in Logan, Utah. Attendance at the conference has grown by leaps and bounds, and it\u2019s clear that the demand for small satellites is on an upswing. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell gave a shout-out to Seattle-based Spaceflight, which has been&nbsp;aggregating secondary satellite payloads for SpaceX as part of a rideshare agreement.&nbsp;\u201cWe\u2019ve got a brand-new agreement with Spaceflight for four additional flights over the next four or five years,\u201d Foust quoted Shotwell as saying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The startups leading the small-satellite revolution tend to be headquartered in places such as Seattle and Silicon Valley rather than traditional space centers in Texas and Florida. And why is that? These reports suggest that victory in the small-satellite space race will be decided by software as well as hardware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 6 prototype Earth-observing satellite, which is due for its maiden launch this year. (Credit: Planetary Resources) Small satellites, and the startups that make them, are becoming a big deal \u2013 and there\u2019s a fresh&nbsp;flurry of industry reports that explain why. The bottom line is that new types of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4820,20,2340],"class_list":["post-19285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-planetary-resources","tag-satellite","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}