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ICEYE is a small firm — based in 2014 and with solely about $100 million in income final yr, nevertheless it owns a community of greater than 30 small surveillance satellites — every weighing lower than 100 kilograms.
The satellites are outfitted with artificial aperture radar (SAR) sensors that scatter microwaves after which measure the indicators that bounce again. That makes them usable at evening and in dangerous climate, in contrast to optical sensors. With a lift of computational energy, the satellites can course of pictures correct to round 50 centimeters.
Any new orbital spy community would come with SAR satellites, in addition to primary optical sensors and programs able to choosing up electromagnetic indicators, comparable to from a cell phone.
Those programs mixed give the potential to cowl nearly each inch of the world — one thing that is in rising demand by militaries and governments, particularly because of the deteriorating safety atmosphere attributable to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China.
“Being in a position to see one thing each hour lets you take this to a different degree,” Modrzewski mentioned of the advantages of high-intensity Earth commentary. “It’s not the spy businesses that could possibly be utilizing it, it could be the squadron leaders and medics too.”
Space startup
The concept for ICEYE got here out of a challenge dubbed Aalto-1, a part of a three way partnership launched a decade in the past between Aalto Business School on the outskirts of Helsinki and Stanford University which was designed to make use of SAR know-how to observe ice — therefore the title.
