The world’s first full-colour, full-motion video satellite is scheduled for early January launch …
15 December 2017 - British ‘New Space’ pioneer Earth-i today announced that images and video from its new prototype satellite due for launch early January 2018 will be managed, catalogued and geometrically corrected using software from Swedish photogrammetry and imagery specialist, Spacemetric.
Earth-i is building the first commercial constellation in the world to provide full-colour video; and the first European-owned constellation able to provide both video and still images.Footage recorded by Earth-i’s fleet of satellites will be available for analysis within minutes of acquisition.
Spacemetric’s Keystone software will be installed at Earth-i’s Data Processing Centre in Guildford, UK and will perform two vital processes:
— Pin-pointing the precise location of each pixel of every image and video frame
— Correcting for distortions owing to the motion of the satellite, the shape and rotation of the Earth and effects due to the Earth’s terrain.
Spacemetric CEO Mikael Stern said “Earth-i is an exciting and innovative New Space company with unique requirements served well by our technology and expertise. We are proud to be part of their constellation which is raising the bar in the EO industry and flying the flag for the European space industry.”
Earth-i is at the forefront of an era known as New Space which is being driven by commercial and governmental organisations that want to use high-quality, timely images and video from space to improve investment and trading decisions, monitor and track their assets more cost-effectively, track changes or activities in critical locations - and predict future events with more certainty.
Earth-i has already ordered the first five satellites for its constellation from SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) – and chosen Norway’s KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services) to provide ground network services.
Richard Blain, CEO of Earth-i, said: “We are making good progress as we await the imminent launch of our next prototype satellite. Spacemetric joins our roster of partners and suppliers who represent the space industry’s most innovative and dynamic companies.”
Earth-i’s constellation will be a major leap forward for the Earth Observation industry providing a number of innovative capabilities including:
· Rapid tasking of satellites to take images or video, and fast data download within minutes of acquisition.
About Spacemetric
Established in Sweden in 1999, Spacemetric is a software company providing solutions that tame the flood of geospatial imagery from satellite and airborne senors. Spacemetric’s systems apply digital photogrammetry and deep knowledge of sensor technologies to enable customers and partners to rapidly transform raw data into imagery products ready for analytics.
Spacemetric solutions are used by civilian and defence organisations to manage, process and give effective access to still imagery and video data. These include tailored data ground systems for imaging satellite and airborne senors, and multi-source data hubs for commercial and institutional customers. Spacemetric’s proven track record in operational solutions for rapid data access is a key differentiator.
About EARTH-i
Earth-i currently provides satellite imagery and various analytical services from the DMC3/TripleSat constellation of three very high-resolution optical satellites in conjunction with Twenty First Aerospace Technology (21AT), and the KOMPSAT series of satellites with SI Imaging Services offering both optical and SAR data.
It already has a wide range of big budget customers including National and Local Governments and a multitude of specialist geospatial companies and other commercial organisations.
The launch of its own constellation is a natural evolution of Earth-i’s existing and well-regarded image and EO analytics business and will enable it to meet the rapidly growing demand for high-resolution EO data, high-frame rate image acquisition, ultra-high-definition full-colour video, and very high frequency revisits.
Earth-i is also developing a cutting-edge service to enable easy acquisition and analysis of imagery, and use advanced algorithms to extract further value from the data gathered from its constellation.
Earth-i is headquartered in Surrey, UK on Europe’s largest academic space campus near to many other UK space-related companies including SSTL.