Today, I am speaking with Chiara Solimini, Space Downstream Market Officer at EUSPA, the agency that manages the space programme of the European Union.

In this episode, we discuss what EUSPA is and its activities, the role of EUSPA in promoting the use of data from the Copernicus programme, the European Green Deal and how Copernicus enables its implementation, how EUSPA encourages research and entrepreneurship and more.

If you don't know much about EUSPA and want to learn more about how it can support your company or research project, then this episode is for you.

And now, I bring you, Chiara Solimini.

• EUSPA - Website
• EU Space for Green Transition - Report
• EU Space for Sustainable Development - Report

---

01:06: Intro
02:09: Overview of EUSPA and its role in promoting the uptake of Copernicus data
10:40: What is the EU Green Deal and how Copernicus enables its implementation
15:53: EU Space for Sustainable Development
18:51: What is coming up for EU Space and how EUSPA supports research and entrepreneurship?
23:52: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Rhiannan Price, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at DevGlobal.

DevGlobal is a consultancy that works in the development sector on impact projects with the world’s leading non-profits, companies, philanthropies, multilateral agencies, and government agencies. 

Rhiannan has been working in Earth observation for a while, especially on the impact side of things. Prior to her role at DevGlobal, she led the Sustainable Development portfolio at Maxar, where she helped found their Open Data Program, among other initiatives. 

In this conversation, Rhiannan and I talk about the use of Earth observation in the development sector, the journey of imagery from space to impact on the ground, the challenges of using Earth observation data, its potential in creating impact and more.

• Rhiannan Price - LinkedIn
• DevGlobal - Website
• DevGlobal's project with the Gates Foundation

---

Thanks to Development Seed for being one of the contributors to the podcast.

• Development Seed - Website

---

01:45: Intro

06:31: DevGlobal - Overview

09:30: What is the development sector?

13:59: What is the use of EO in the development sector?

18:15: The journey from imagery to impact

24:48: What does Rhiannan wish was easier with EO?

28:26: What does the best-case scenario look like for the use of EO for impact?

37:54: The state of adoption of EO in development

42:30: SatSummit conference

47:52: The evolution of EO and what to look forward to

50:29: Pricing and licensing challenges in EO

54:58: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Thijs van Leeuwen, Director of Product at Planet. Most of you should be aware of Planet, the company that operates the largest fleet of earth imaging satellites. A couple of years ago, Planet acquired VanderSat, a Dutch startup offering data products like soil moisture derived from various sources of satellite data.

Today, VanderSat's capabilities are integrated into Planet and the fruit of that collaboration is what Planet calls Planetary Variables (PVs), a set of products that are directly usable by end-users without the need to process satellite imagery. As an advocate of making EO mainstream, I have been quite excited about PVs ever since the announcement. So, I decided to have a chat with Thijs, who was the CEO of VanderSat before the acquisition, on the podcast. 

In this episode, we discuss VanderSat's journey, what are Planetary Variables, what data sources they use, the black-box problem, Planet's vision for Planetary Variables and more.

• Planet acquires VanderSat
• Planetary Variables

---

01:17: Thijs' Intro and Overview of Planet

06:53: VanderSat: Founding journey

13:07: Acquisition by Planet

15:23: What are Planetary Variables (PVs)?

18:57: Examples of PVs and what data they use

22:44: Are PVs data-agnostic or do they use only Planet data?

23:59: How do PVs fit into Planet's vision and existing set of customers? 

29:11: How do you come up with a PV?

30:48: The black-box problem: What is the methodology to derive a PV?

35:26: The future of PVs after the acquisition of Sinergise

38:34: The state of EO and why EO is not mainstream yet

43:07: Wrap-up questions

Today, we are zooming out from Earth observation a little bit and going to focus on a subject that I think is very important for the future of EO: space sustainability.

We are launching more Earth observation satellites than ever before, and the progress in space tech has meant that any individual, organisation or country can put up an instrument in space to collect data for scientific, commercial, environmental or strategic purposes. But how sustainable is that? 

To discuss this I had Krystal Azelton, Director of Application Programs at the Secure World Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to develop and promote ideas and actions to achieve the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of outer space benefiting Earth.

In this episode, Krystal and I discuss the state of the space environment, the threats and worst-case scenarios, what regulations exist and how effective they are, the similarities with climate policies, why every stakeholder in the Earth observation sector should care about this topic and more.

• Secure World Foundation - Website
• Summit for Space Sustainability

---

01:23: Intro

02:59: An overview of the Secure World Foundation

06:35: The state of the space environment today

09:56: Status quo of regulations and similarities with climate policies

16:38: The worst-case scenario

19:41: What are the solutions?

22:19: Why this matters for the EO sector

33:43: Are there risks to the adoption of EO because of the state of the space environment?

37:54: How can we balance spreading awareness in the world of alarmist headlines?

41:28: State of EO and why EO is not mainstream yet

49:14: What don't we talk about enough in EO?

52:11: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Dr Claire Burke, who is the Director of Science at Climate X, a UK-based startup that is building a global climate risk analytics platform to support organisations in their climate adaptation efforts.

In this episode, we talk about what Climate X does, their tech stack and how they use satellite data, how they convert scientific results into climate risk analytics, the "black-box problem" challenges in educating end-users and more. 

This was a thought-provoking conversation with Claire especially as we head into a world where many climate-related policy and strategic decisions could be powered by satellite-driven insights. 

• Climate X

---

01:04: Intro

04:18: Climate X: Overview 

07:24: Converting scientific results into quantified financial risks

09:51: Tech stack and what type of satellite data is used

15:46: The "black-box" problem and challenges in educating end-users

23:00: Data gaps and state of EO

27:56: What can the EO industry do better

33:27: How does Claire keep herself climate-optimistic?

---

Today, I have two guests from Asterra, the Israeli startup offering a satellite-based solution for monitoring all kinds of infrastructure, whether it is for monitoring roads, rails, dams, water utilities and even for mining. While Asterra uses analytics derived from synthetic aperture radar (or SAR) imagery in their products, they use a specific type of SAR data in the L-band spectrum. 

Note: I have had the CEO of Asterra on the podcast before. Check out episode #60 to learn more about the company. This episode is especially about how they use L-band SAR

L-Band SAR is unique in its own way, in terms of its availability, usability and potential. So, to discuss this further I had two guests from Asterra on the podcast. Jasmin Inbar, who is the VP of Corporate Development and Yuval Lorig, the VP of Research and Development. 

In this episode, we discuss Asterra's strategy, the advantages of L-band SAR, its availability and applications, polarimetric SAR and its use, how Asterra is using SAR for mining applications and more. If you are curious to learn more about the applications of SAR, specifically L-band SAR, this episode might be a good intro. 

• Asterra's Solutions
• Asterra's Mining Application

[Thanks to Asterra for  sponsoring this episode]

---

01:22: Intros

03:58: Overview of Asterra

06:50: Asterra's customers and product portfolio

11:18: L-Band SAR: What, Why and How?

15:20: Usability of L-Band SAR and how Asterra uses it

17:21: Polarimetric SAR and its applications

23:02: Use cases in the mining sector

26:35: Is L-Band SAR going to become mainstream soon?

30:41: State of adoption of EO for infrastructure monitoring

33:24: Worries about the state of EO

35:20: Wrap-up

Today, I am excited to bring you an episode on a topic that I have been researching for a while - satellite imagery in 3D. The guest I am speaking with is Josh Winer who is a Senior Director for Global Sales at Maxar Technologies.

Maxar probably needs no introduction as a company, I think most of you know what Maxar does both within the Earth observation domain and outside that. But, if you had paid attention to the company over the past few years, going private aside, Maxar has been heavily investing in its 3D market strategy - whether it is the initial partnership and later acquisition of Vricon, the acquisition of AI and software development company Wovenware or the recent partnership with blackshark.ai on digital twins.

So, I wanted to ask Josh about what Maxar's thinking is and how it sees the potential of 3D satellite imagery to be. In this episode, we discuss Maxar's strategy, use cases for 3D imagery in industries such as telecom, automotive and gaming, complementary/substitute sensors, the differences and similarities of going to market with 3D vs 2D and more.

And now I bring you, Josh Winer.

• Maxar's partnership with blackshark.ai
• Maxar's acquisition of Wovenware
• Maxar's acquisition of Vricon

---

01:28: Intro

04:08: Maxar: Overview

06:31: Maxar's strategy for 3D satellite imagery 

17:25: Use cases for 3D imagery

25:06: Complementary and substitute sensors

32:21: What is a digital twin and what is the partnership with blackshark.ai all about?

37:08: Go-to-market similarities and differences of 3D vs 2D imagery

42:41: Is 3D the next big thing? Will Maxar build a consumer device?

49:10: Wrap-up

Today, I have two guests: Dan Pilone, co-founder of Element84 and Robert Cheetham, founder of Azavea, which Element84 recently acquired.

Both Element84 and Azavea are essentially service companies that focus on building solutions to solve important problems in the realm of processing, visualization, and analysis of geospatial data, with open-source software at their core. I will let you listen to Dan and Robert introduce their companies and what they do, but I think they are solving some very important but boring problems.

If you have listened to this podcast before or read my blogs, you know what I mean by boring problems - those that are underrated and underappreciated, but unless we find a way to solve them, there is very less likelihood for Earth observation to go mainstream. Think about creating a standard approach to ingest, process and search for geospatial data or a standard format to use for placing satellite imagery orders from different providers.

In this episode, we talk about the two companies and how they came to be, the difference between a project and when it turns into a product, the importance of open source and its financial sustainability and more.

• Azavea Website
• Element84 Website
• Element84 Acquires Azavea
• STAC Standard

---

01:38: Intros

04:01: Element84 and Azavea - Overview

16:21: Differentiating between a project and a product 

24:56: The importance of open source - why?

31:13: The financial sustainability of open source

39:40: What is STAC and why is it important?

49:20: What more should we be doing in EO to make it mainstream?

55:35: Wrap-up