JWASS, enjoyed the humor, as always. I believe you're right regarding good things if a big name in agriculture were to partner with ESSI.
To me it seems like an obvious next step. If the technology is there, as university studies seem to indicate, then who from ADM would not want to go for a ride in one of these Boeings to do a crop flyover?
Folks, I'm ignorant re. many of the capabilities of this equipment, so I must ask:
What are the benefits of ESSI's technology where agriculture is concerned? Let's talk about that. We repeatedly hear the term "vegetal signatures." In my ADM/Boeing flyover scenario -- could Larry and crew fly over a corn field and retrieve a real-time analysis of the vegetation and soil to allow an ADM scientist to evaluate and adjust various soil nutrients and compounds? Can corn, for example, be sweeter, more disease resistant, with constant and precise monitoring and application of target minerals and nutrients?
I'm not addressing the above with anticipation of great time lags for the interpretation of data, etc. I mean fast, right then and there. Do we have that technology in Prospectre and Probe1? I haven't seen it yet where we haven't been told that data interpretation is taking a long time, etc. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know I've read about near-realtime capabilities.
More rambling includes the following: IF agriculture can be a producer for us, it seems ideal for a number of reasons. Here are just three: 1) The application I described suggests the need for constant monitoring. The south 40 may need a spray application of this and the north a different application of something else based on today's flyover. Next week another flyover of the same land, etc.
2) My concerns regarding TerraNet reducing the likelihood of additional Probe sales are diminished with the agriculture scenario. That is, for mining it seems TerraNet data would be fine -- for many applications the stuff's either in the ground, and has been there, or it isn't. For agriculture, you can't just fly that field once for the purposes I mentioned -- you've got to buy that Probe and get it out there frequently to monitor dynamically changing conditions.
3) Enter purchases by the big Ag types, entrepreneurial types who buy Boeing/ESSI combos to service farming communities, etc. Software upgrade revenue, tech support. Hardware maintenance contracts, contracts with Dow or Chevron Chemical and reciprocal scientific support, etc. I see lots of company growth through activity like this. But what the heck are we doing if we're waiting around testing and testing, flying this environmental thing or that. With NASA's knowledge, Integrated Spectronics' knowledge, university results, inter alia, shouldn't we know enough by now to get these things out there in volume?
Okay, enough rambling. I'd appreciate it if someone more familiar with the capabilities related to agriculture would provide some input.
Thanks,
Tom |
