Thomas VanMatre, VP of Global Business Development at Satellogic, a geospatial analytics company, joins the conversation to discuss the potential uses of satellite imagery and data for developing insights into our planet and ecosystems to end climate change. The company has launched 26 low-earth-orbiting satellites to date and will expand to more than 200 by 2025 in order to democratize access to high-resolution images and analytics. They developed microsatellites that are less than two feet wide and just under three feet wide, to reduce manufacturing and launch costs. Satellogic offers climate data and imagery that can be used to analyze climate change as it happens, monitor land use and invasive species, and identify illegal activities, as well as track wildfires, extreme weather, and other climate-related threats. Because they can refresh images of a location up to five times a day, Satellogic’s imaging can track events in real-time.
A few decades ago, satellite imagery was available only to a few governments on the planet. As of September 2021, 7,941 mostly privately operated satellites were in orbit around the Earth, and thousands are being launched each year. Just as computing has accelerated scientific discoveries about how our world works, the flood of information from satellites will increase our understanding of the planet, its environment, and its ecosystems. Thomas discusses the emerging satellite data industry, job categories that will grow, and how Satellogic is planning to reduce its environmental footprint and prevent contributing to the growing problem of space junk. You can learn about Satellogic at satellogic.com.
