Artist’s rendition of satellites orbiting the Earth – rottenman/123RF Stock Photo
Over the last week there have been some interesting news snippets about the Earth Observation (EO) and satellite industries.
We’ll start with NASA who issued its budget request for 2022 on the 28th May, asking for $24.801 billion to support new and existing missions, an increase of $1.5 billion from 2021.
From an Earth Observation (EO) standpoint there was good and bad news. The good news is that the budget includes an additional $250 million for Earth science programs, taking the annual budget $2.25 billion. This includes $137.8 million for the Earth System Observatory. The bad news is that Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which would have measured infrared-absorbing water vapour in the lower atmosphere, has been cancelled.
The Earth System Observatory will be a new set of EO missions complementing each other. The overall aim being to help develop a three-dimensional holistic view of the planet, from the bedrock to the atmosphere providing insights into climate change, agriculture, disaster mitigation, bushfires and other natural hazards; such as:
- How aerosols affect the global energy balance.
- Clouds, convection and precipitation.
- Drought assessment and forecasting, including water use in agriculture.
- Surface biology and geology, including fluxes of carbon, water, nutrients, and energy within and between ecosystems of the atmosphere, the ocean, and the terrestrial environments.
- Sea-level and landscape change driven by climate change, hazard forecasts and disaster assessments, including earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and glaciers.
NASA has already joined forces with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the Observatory’s pathfinder mission, NISAR (NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar). This will combine L-Band (NASA) and S-band (ISRO) radars on the same satellite and measures changes of less than one centimetre in the Earth’s surface, supporting the study of ice-sheet collapse and natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. It’s currently planned for a January 2023 launch.
Moving from one space powerhouse to another, an intriguing development in the satellite broadband market occurred at the end of April, when it was recently reported by Space News that China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) issued a press release regarding the establishment of the China Satellite Network Group Co. Ltd.
This new company will be responsible for the creation of a low Earth orbit broadband constellation of approximately 13,000 satellites. This is another large scale constellation like that being created by the American company SpaceX, and to a lesser extent OneWeb; plus those that are still in the planning stage. The time line for the constellation, and who will be building the satellites, is not known at the moment. In addition, on May 19th China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), also issued a notice regarding the development of small satellites which stated that space debris mitigation plans will be required with launch license applications. Despite the debris mitigation plans, this is another development to note for those concerned about the filling up of space.
On the subject of satellite broadband, a couple of weeks ago we highlighted that French satellite company Eutelsat had taken a 24% stake in OneWeb, the satellite company co-owned by the UK Government. Last week it was reported that Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner whose portfolio includes space, suggested that this may pose a conflict of interest with EU’s project from both a structural and governance viewpoint. Whilst OneWeb is currently focussed on satellite broadband, it’s a widely believed ambition of the UK Government to move towards using OneWeb to develop an alternative GPS to the EU Galileo project. The commissioner suggested that it was important to preserve the interests of the EU, and this could include reconsidering Eutelsat’s continued participation.
Finally, India’s ICICI Bank has announced that it will use satellite data imagery to help assess the creditworthiness of its farming customers. The land assessment will use a number of satellite products such as land use, irrigation, crop patterns, harvest timings, harvest forecasts and combines them with other data to make lending decisions. Driven by the Covid restrictions on travel, ICICI has being piloting this solution in over 500 villages in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over the last few months and now wants to scale up across the country as it supports decisions without anyone having to travel. This type of initiative is a good example of the benefit that EO can offer, and it will be fascinating to see how this develops.
