An artist’s depiction of the Tanager satellite in orbit.
Planet
PARIS – Planet is adding another type of imaging satellite to its product line, the latest expansion in the company’s data collection operations.
The company named the new satellites Tanager – named after a family of birds, like the existing lines of Dove and Pelican satellites it makes. But unlike those satellites, whose cameras and sensors capture images in the same range as the human eye, the Tanager satellite will take “superglass” images, dividing the light spectrum into hundreds of light bands.
Planet’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, Robbie Schingler, speaking to CNBC at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress, said the company will initially use supergiant satellites to detect gas output. methane, calling it the “lowest hanging fruit” and having implications for businesses such as oil and gas, dairy farms and waste landfills.
The Tanager satellite will collect 420 spectral bands, Schingler said, noting that detecting methane only needs to detect four bands.
“We decided to build a full-range imaging spectrometer, with applications beyond methane for the market such as ‘defence information, like seeing the earth disturbed -‘ Schingler said. things like burying something or digging a tunnel”.
Planet then aims to reach customers in areas like agriculture, mining and intelligence with the Tanager line, with Schingler saying that “superglass data from space is limited” because of “sensors the best super-glass transformers are classified as super-high or they’re in the plane.”
The company is building the Tanager satellites with the same bus of the spacecraft – which is the main body of the satellite – as its Pelican line, to take advantage of Planet’s vertical manufacturing method. Tanager’s first two demonstration satellites will be launched in 2023.
