The Earth Data Revolution

In this conversation Will Marshall, Founder & CEO of satellite imaging company Planet Labs, and Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of the Economist, highlight how technology is speeding up the news cycle with real-time data, and how it’s also enabling a new era of transparency, in media and society.

“We have seen an explosion in the number of satellites”, Marshall observes – partly due to SpaceX’s reusable rockets and other factors that brought launch costs down by a factor of four compared with five to ten years ago.

However, the bigger story is the miniaturization of satellites which have become smaller and more portable, Marshall says. “They’ve gone from the size of a double decker bus to the size of a fridge or even something you can put in your hand, the size of a loaf of bread.”

This has enabled capabilities that were previously unattainable, such as monitoring the entire planet from space.

“The upshot of this is not the satellites or the rockets – it’s about data”, Marshall emphasizes. “Earth imaging data, which is what we do a Planet, is producing more than ten times more information about the planet. We’re imaging the whole Earth every day.”