For the last half-century, customers would do research on how best to contract for satellite imagery, contact the company or organization they felt could best meet their imagery needs, wait for their satellite to orbit over the requested image coordinates to conduct the mission, and finally wait for the satellite to orbit over the same company or organizations ground stations.
There are many challenges to getting data down to earth in a timely manner and each year, the industry gets better about efficiently downlinking. Markets are adapting and beginning to understand how they can leverage space data.
A developer of next-generation EO data delivery infrastructure, Sfera Technologies will work with Copernic Space to identify and deploy groundbreaking EO data solutions on their
marketplace.
A Web3-based platform for space assets that enables space companies to tokenize and offer their assets such as payload or satellite data to the commercial market, Copernic Space stands as the economic infrastructure for space in the digital world.
The companies will work together on designing and developing new data offerings, maximizing the potential customer reach of the data, and opening new opportunities to acquire EO products by companies and organizations around the world using blockchain technology.
EO data can play a crucial role in the energy transformation of the global economy, environmental conservation, financial services, and urban planning. Available delivery channels are still limited by a number of factors, like data formats not suitable for consumption by smaller businesses with no GIS/data analysis capabilities or high prices of the data products. Sfera and Copernic seek to change this by designing new market mechanics and tools and deploying new data delivery solutions that not just increase commercial access and utility but affordability.
Zdravko Dimitrov, founder of Sfera Technologies, said:
"Our collaboration with Copernic Space is yet another step in bridging the space industry with the Web3 space and unlocking the power of blockchain-based solutions. It's also a great example of a shared vision in how space can be democratized - and by working together with the Copernic Space team, this amazing vision comes closer to reality. We're happy to embark on this journey with them." Grant Blaisdell, Co-Founder & CEO of Copernic Space, added:
"S
fera's great vision on tokenizing satellite data and Cudos' computation approach for this environment will create a new class of space assets for the commercial market on Copernic Space. Along with the features of our platform introducing true utilities attached to space assets along with a secondary market, assets created by Sfera will become discoverable and available to the commercial market like never before'. The companies will work towards creating a data delivery system that integrates Sfera's data infrastructure with Copernic's tokenized marketplace technology. This will enable users to acquire data faster and cheaper from multiple sources, secure a more versatile access approach, and customize data access and procurement requests. "
In many cases, customers may not even realize the technology they were using is a blockchain" - added
Grant Blaisdell, CEO of Copernic Space.
Cudo Compute, the decentralized cloud network partnering with Sfera and Copernic will provide distributed computing and enable additional agility. The results of this collaboration will set the standard for how these types of space assets are accessed, acquired, utilized, and even traded in the future.
Pete Hill, VP of Corporate Development at Cudo Compute, commented on the partnership, saying, "
The Cudos team is excited to work with Copernic and Sfera to help drive the commercialization of space and enable the inclusion of EO in the Web3 conversation."
So what will this marketplace look like?
- Allow secondary use or sale of contracted imagery through smart contracts, building on a data repository that becomes cheaper over time.
- Customers to experiment and refine their requirements in a cost-efficient way.
- Monetizing computing power when missions have excess ability.
- Allow companies with existing space assets to gain revenue in their downtime.
- Allow one-off use cases for those with a singular need without having to go through the vetting of countless space data providers.
EO data request basics. Customer must provide:
- Area of interest,
- Period of observation,
- Type of instrument and/or product type (multispectral, hyperspectral, panchromatic etc.).