Each satellite deployed by EarthNow will be equipped with “an unprecedented amount” of processing power, featuring more CPU cores than all other commercial satellites combined. The satellites will not only capture and broadcast live video, but will also do an onboard analysis of the live imagery using machine learning. While the company hasn’t revealed what exactly it’ll do with the data, it has listed down a number of potential uses for its network, including:
“Catching illegal fishing in the act, watching hurricanes and typhoons as they evolve, detecting forest fires the moment they start, watching volcanoes the instant they start to erupt, assisting the media in telling stories from around the world, tracking large whales as they migrate, helping “smart cities” become more efficient, providing on-demand data about crop health, and observing conflict zones around the world.”
I'm sure they really just want to make sure there are no forest fires, not track people...
The startup, which is the latest company to emerge from the Intellectual Ventures ISF Incubator, is being backed by AirBus, the SoftBank Group, Bill Gates, and satellite-industry veteran Greg Wyler in its first round of funding.
https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/bill-gates-bankrolls-1-billion-plan-blanket-earth-video-surveillance-satellites/
beece 1 points 3 weeks ago
Appears to have stalled out. Boeing isn't doing shit in space. Space X has cameras on their satellites, but they only are reportedly only there to oriant them to constllations so that they can be manaouvered to more accuratly send and recieve telemetry. Landsat is sending and recieving via landsat 7 and 9 for Earthnow. So NBD yet. Likely it's like self driving cars: Talked up, but not enabled yet.
The only company (other than the russian government WHICH WOULD BE OUT OF THE QUESTION) that is sending up rockets in any quantity is Space X, and they only lift off their own products or are rarely but publically paid to lift off others stuff (ie, us government stuff) and they don't have any connection.