Going To Space Is Getting Easier

The earth will soon be able to take a daily selfie. So you might wanna get out of your PJs.

An Arlington startup is launching an 18-satellite constellation in two years to snap daily images of our planet. The plan is to sell analytics from those pics and other datasets to corporations and governments so they can track the effect of environmental changes. OmniEarth co-founder Lars Dyrud says agriculture and packaged food customers can predict yields and mange farms, insurance firms can compare pre-loss views, and banks and real estate firms can track changes in construction activity anywhere. 

OmniEarth’s satellites launch in 2016, so the one-year-old company hopes to acquire a geospatial analytics firm to build its information infrastructure; that'll get it ready to sell subscription services. OmniEarth is also marketing its predictive analytics and geospatial tools. To cut the launch price tag, the 12-person company is “ridesharing" with Spaceflight, a Seattle company that launches small satellites. (Think Uber for satellites.) Launching 18 would have cost billions years ago, but OmniEarth predicts its constellation will cost $250M.

This is one of the satellites OmniEarth will launch. Lars says there’s been a grassroots movement to create standards for building smaller satellites with lower cost components. Current satellite imagery only covers 1% of the globe in one day, and getting an image involves calling brokers and satellite providers. OmniEarth's service will be more timely, says Lars.