RESEARCH PAPER: Planet: Next Generation Satellite Imaging Using Artificial Intelligence And Agile Aerospace

By Paul Smith-Goodson, Patrick Moorhead - November 18, 2021

In 1959, a United States satellite photographed the first image of a small patch of Earth from space. It took almost an hour for the satellite to transmit a blurry photo of Pacific Ocean clouds to a ground station in Hawaii.

Today, Planet, the satellite imagery and geospatial company, routinely images 300 million square kilometers of the Earth’s landmass every 24 hours. However, Planet’s product isn’t images, it is the data collected as it continually scans the globe, monitoring changes in landmass, from crops and forests to population activities like buildings and roads for customers across a variety of vertical markets.

You can download the paper by clicking on the logo below:

Executive Summary
A Singular Product To Solve Complex Problems
Competitive Landscape
Planet's Unique Vision
How Well Does Agile Aerospace Work?
Don't Call Planet A Satellite Imaging Company
The Satellites
Spectral Bands
Fusion - Integration Of Data Sets
Carbon Mapper
Planet Strengths
The Future Of Planet The Company
The Future Of Planet And The World
Figure 1: A Decade Of Progress
Figure 2: Agile Space Missions
Figure 3: Planet Agile Software Development
Figure 4: Planet Components
Figure 5: Spacecraft Infrastructure
Figure 6: Solar Spectral Reflections Detected By Satellites
Figure 7: Planet's Business Model

Companies Cited

Airbus
Google
Maxar
Planet

Paul Smith-Goodson

+ posts

Paul Smith-Goodson is the Moor Insights & Strategy Vice President and Principal Analyst for quantum computing and artificial intelligence. His early interest in quantum began while working on a joint AT&T and Bell Labs project and, during 360 overviews of Murray Hill advanced projects, Peter Shor provided an overview of his ground-breaking research in quantum error correction.

Patrick Moorhead

+ posts

Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.