Planet Labs' fleet of 28 tiny satellites will send back aerial shots for cheap

Planet Labs Reveals First Images from Space; Announces Plans to Launch Fleet of Satellites to Understand the Changing Planet

San Francisco,
CA, 26th June 2013
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Planet Labs, a space and analytics company, announced plans to launch the world's largest fleet of Earth imaging satellites to image the changing planet and provide open access to that information. Today, they revealed the first images from their first two satellites.

Planet Labs' goal is to provide universal access to information about the changing planet. The company plans to achieve this by launching a fleet of Earth imaging satellites, called 'Doves', that when acting together can provide a new image of the planet at an unprecedented combination of resolution and frequency. To best enable this mission, the company has selected a low orbit for its constellation and an optical resolution of three to five meters – a scale that allows measurement of a tree canopy, but does not compromise individual privacy. This will enable monitoring of deforestation, help improve agricultural yields, track natural disasters and many other applications.

"Planet Labs will create an entirely new data set, with both humanitarian and commercial value," said Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. "We've become used to having imagery of the entire Earth. What we haven't yet understood is how transformative it will be when that imagery is regularly and frequently updated." Everyone from ecologists to citizen journalists will be able to track frequent changes to any place on the planet -- a frequency and coverage greater than ever seen before.

"We're seeing unprecedented innovation in the space industry, starting with SpaceX lowering the cost of access, and now with Planet Labs revolutionizing the satellite segment," said Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and member of the company's Board of Directors. "As Planet Labs' first outside investor, we are delighted to help the company execute on their unique vision to make the big data landscape of the planet more accessible."

A selection of images from the company's first two demonstration satellites, "Dove 1" and "Dove 2," launched in April 2013, are available on www.planet-labs.com. These demonstration missions extended the company's lab into space, and successfully validated key technologies and operations to enable future systems. Data from the upcoming fleet of satellites are scheduled to be available early next year. The company is engaging with select partners and customers to ensure the data service can easily be utilized for both humanitarian and commercial purposes.

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New Aerial Images Show Boston Bombing Suspect In Boat

Alex Fitzpatrick2013-04-20 20:05:17 UTC

Massachusetts State Police released five images taken of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's hiding spot after he was discovered in a boat parked in a Watertown, Mass. backyard. The boat's owner was the first to find Tsnarnaev in the boat, calling police to report his discovery shortly thereafter.

The first three images were taken using thermal cameras, which are designed to pick up the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Such technology is often used by police to locate suspects and by the military to isolate targets, as human body heat is particularly recognizable when juxtaposed with objects that aren't giving off nearly the same amount of heat.

The images were taken by the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing, per the department's Twitter account:

Air Wing views from Watertown manhunt. 5 total pics released.No further info available tonight on pictures twitter.com/MassStatePolic…

— MASS STATE POLICE (@MassStatePolice) April 20, 2013

Police air support played a key role in Friday's operations, which resulted in Tsarnaev being taken into custody badly hurt, but alive.

"Our helicopter had actually detected the subject in the boat," Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said as quoted by NBC News. "We have what's called a FLIR — a forward-looking infrared device — on that helicopter. It picked up the heat signature of the individual, even though he was underneath what appeared to be the 'shrink wrap' or cover on the boat itself. There was movement from that point on. The helicopter was able to direct the tactical teams over to that area."

The latter images also seem to show the boat's tarp was removed with a tool attached to a specialized law enforcement vehicle, not a robot as police said earlier. Mashable has requested clarification on this point from the Boston Police Department.

Images courtesy Massachusetts State Police

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