Interesting reading scooped off the net tonight:
Commercial remote sensing emerges
Congress established the legal framework for licensing and regulating a private satellite industry in 1984, but no industry emerged until 1993, when WorldView Inc. became the first U.S. company licensed to operate a commercial land observation satellite. Since then, 12 more U.S. companies have been licensed, and U.S. investors have put an estimated $1.2 billion into commercial remote sensing.
This explosion of capitalist interest reflects political and technological changes. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union removed barriers that stifled private initiatives. Throughout the Cold War, U.S. commercial interests were constantly subordinated to containment of the Soviet threat. Investors were deterred from developing technologies that might be subjected to government scrutiny and regulation.
Second, a newfound faith that the market for remote-sensing data will grow exponentially has spurred expansion of the U.S. private satellite industry. Despite enormous discrepancies among various estimates of the future volume of the remote-sensing market, which range from $2 billion to $20 billion by 2000, most investors believe that if they build the systems, users will come. Potential consumers of remote-sensing data include farmers, city planners, map makers, environmentalists, emergency response teams, news organizations, surveyors, geologists, mining and oil companies, timber harvesters, and domestic as well as foreign military planners and intelligence organizations. Many of these groups already use imagery from French, Russian, and Indian satellites in addition to Landsat, but none of these match the capabilities of the new U.S. commercial systems.
Third, advances in panchromatic, multispectral, and even hyperspectral data acquisition, storage, and processing, along with the ability to quickly and efficiently transfer the data, have further supported industry growth. In the 1980s, information technology could not yet provide a robust infrastructure for data. Now, powerful personal computers capable of handling large data files, geographic information system software designed to manipulate spatial data, and new data distribution mechanisms such as CD-ROMs and the Internet have all facilitated the marketing and sale of satellite imagery.
Fourth, after Landsat commercialization failed, the
U.S. government took steps to promote an independent commercial satellite industry. Concerned that foreign competitors such as France, Russia, and India might dominate the market, President Clinton in 1994 loosened
restrictions on the sale of high-resolution imagery to
foreigners. The government has also tried to promote the industry through direct subsidies to companies and guaranteed data purchases. Earth Watch, Space Imaging, and OrbImage, for example, have been awarded up to $4 million to upgrade ground systems that will facilitate transfer of data from their satellites to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). In addition, the Air Force has agreed to give OrbImage up to $30 million to develop and deploy the WarFighter sensor, which is capable of acquiring eight-meter hyperspectral images of Earth. Although access to most of WarFighter's imagery will be restricted to government agencies, OrbImage will be permitted to sell 24-meter hyperspectral images to nongovernment sources. The Office of Naval Research has agreed to give Space Technology Development Corporation approximately $60 million to develop and deploy the NEMO satellite, with 30-meter hyperspectral and 5-meter panchromatic sensors. The U.S. intelligence community has also agreed to purchase high-resolution satellite imagery. Since fiscal 1998, for example, NIMA has reportedly spent about $5 million annually on commercial imagery, and Secretary of Defense William Cohen says he expects this figure to increase almost 800 percent over the next five years. |
