EarthNow is a new company that, according to its founders, will be able to capture from orbit anywhere in the world and provide video with a second delay, that is, in fact, you can see what is happening anywhere in the world literally in real time. And they will also be able to look at you.
EarthNow announced Wednesday that it is moving into existence as a full-fledged commercial company. Its investors include AirBus, SoftBank Group, satellite veteran Greg Wyler, and Bill Gates.
The initial investment was not disclosed, but the statement said the funds were "primarily aimed at improving the overall system design to provide an innovative and unique service for real-time Earth observation." It is also interesting to note that Wyler's OneWeb company has already launched advanced satellites with extremely low latency in signal transmission into space, and its goal is to create an entire network of satellites broadcasting in broadband format by 2020.
EarthNow will use an improved version of the technology provided by OneWeb. “Each satellite will be equipped with an unprecedented amount of processing power and will have more processor cores than all commercial satellites combined,” the statement said. The satellites will also conduct on-board analysis of live images using machine learning, but what they will analyze and why signal processing needs to be done on board, the company is silent.
According to experts, the total cost of the final system will be in the region of one billion dollars. Since SoftBank has invested 1.5 billion only in OneWeb, there will be no problems with financing.
The company's goal is to make money by providing its services to governments and entertainment companies, which, of course, cannot but inspire some rather serious concerns.
The company also lists other features of its systems. With its help, it will be possible to “catch poachers in the sea, fixing them at the time of illegal fishing; detect forest fires at the moment when they just start; observe volcanoes from the very beginning of eruptions; help media resources tell stories from around the world; track whale migrations, help smart cities be even more effective; on request, provide data on the status of crops and monitor conflict zones around the planet."
The slogan of the company: "Our Earth in real time, constantly."
Promotional video: