In the Trajectory Magazine article entitled “Dark Skies, Bright Future” written by Matt Alderton, the idea of hundreds of satellites orbiting the Earth imaging every inch of the planet every day is discussed and explored. In just the past few years the pace and quality of SmallSats has improved is such a way that commercial remote sensing isn’t something that we are looking towards – it is here.
Rob Zitz, co-chair of USGIF’s Small Satellite Working Group and senior vice president and chief systems architect for the national security sector at Leidos said, “We’re right at the cusp of having geospatial information become a commodity; we’re going to be awash in pixels and geospatial data collection. The questions are: How do you combine that data with other data sources? How do you derive meaning from it? And how do you automate processes around it? GEOINT is the glue that will hold all these loose ends together for decision-making and action-taking.”
The issue going forward will be how to automate and integrate all of the geospatial information that we are acquiring from these satellites and be able to use, search and share this information in a way that benefits us all.
To read the entire article please click here.
Related: GEOINT 2015 Sets Record for Largest Number of Attendees and Exhibitors for the Symposium’s 11th Year, Cardillo and NGA to Leverage Booming Imaging Satellite Industry