Category: AWS Ground Station

Space exploration has advanced significantly over the past 40 years. With missions like the space shuttle, NASA has led the way, demonstrating for the world their ability to push the boundaries of technological innovation to explore space, collect data, and enable scientific knowledge to make the world a better place. We are now in an exciting and daring new age as more organizations around the world are looking to explore space and achieve a sustainable operating presence. And fulfilling space-based missions demands innovation. Learn how AWS is supporting customers globally to push the boundaries of space exploration.

Capella Space, a provider of on-demand Earth observation data via synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is going all-in on AWS. Capella runs its entire IT infrastructure on AWS to automate and scale its operations. AWS Ground Station makes it simple and cost effective for Capella to command and control its constellation and receive its satellite data directly into AWS using a fully managed network of antenna systems located around the world.

The breadth of challenges that can be addressed by overhead imagery is broad and continues to grow as new and improved sensors are deployed. To make the best use of this data, you need to have high-quality training data—data that you know is true (often called ground truth data) so that your algorithms can learn from it. A lack of this high-quality labeled training data continues to impede progress in many areas of remote sensing analytics, including machine learning. Two of the SpaceNet collaborators, Capella Space and AWS, are providing access to a unique dataset to help foster innovation in geospatial-based artificial intelligence. Learn more about Earth observation data, the SpaceNet 6 Challenge, and available datasets.

Far above the clouds, one of the fastest growing missions for the public sector is taking place. Technological advances and open data initiatives provide new paths to explore space, impacting our lives here on Earth. From satellites to rovers, cloud computing and cloud-enabled technologies help us find answers to our biggest questions.

Over the past decade, a crop of new companies focused on Earth observation (EO) have made valuable EO data more accessible to a broad audience than before. As a result, we are seeing a dramatic increase in EO science. The value of EO data is the ability to monitor change. Recently, new instrumentation aboard satellites such as radar now allow us to “see” through clouds, allowing observation of any part of the Earth. The reliable, repeatable, and accurate data now flowing from satellites is opening up the reality of operational services powered by satellite imagery. Learn how to get started with EO data using AWS Ground Station.

A picture of our entire Earth’s surface is taken every day. Such a possibility—or even the concept—would have seemed unfeasible and unaffordable just ten years ago. With continued technology improvements, we are witnessing a rapid increase in the number of miniature satellites capturing Earth observation (EO) data. This data is now accepted by many industries including agriculture, insurance, utilities, and urban planning to deliver actionable insights.