The rise of Space for earth services
We recently spoke about the rise of the New Space Economy, with newer commercial pursuits in both “Space for Earth” and “Space for Space” leading to increased activity and investments in the sector.
But what exactly are these services? Here is a closer look at “Space for Earth” activities today.
Satellites can be placed in orbits around Earth, which can broadly be divided into 3 classes:
1. Lower Earth Orbit (LEO)
2. Medium Earth Orbit
3. High Earth Orbits
By using different sensors and the orbital location of the satellite, various services and earth observation-based business models can be created. Broadly, the largest applications of these technologies can be grouped into 2 buckets:
- Telecommunication: Telecommunication has been one of the biggest adopters of satellite-based transmission, with television and telephone services being transmitted using satellites. With space launches and satellites becoming cheaper, companies are looking to deploy a cluster of satellites (called constellations) in different orbits to provide telecommunication, high-speed broadband, and higher accuracy communication services for maritime and aviation industries.
- Remote sensing: Sensors on satellites measure the energy reflected by different objects on Earth to create a profile which can be used to map regions, resources and collect data that can be used across sectors. Remote sensing data is currently finding application across industries such as mapping, agriculture, metrology, insurance, resource and asset tracking and disaster management.
Various companies are working on different orbit location and sensor technology combinations to gather and provide different datasets with varying resolution that can be used for different use cases across industries.
In 2019 alone, satellite-based services accounted for $123B in global revenues. As space becomes cheaper and more accessible, more use cases will emerge, driving the growth of the “Space for Earth” economy.
