SkyServe is collaborating with scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and D-Orbit to pioneer advancements in Earth observation systems. The collaboration centres on optimizing and deploying AI models developed under NASA’s New Observations Strategies (NOS) initiative on D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier.

As part of NASA’s NOS initiative, JPL aims to create a unified network of space-borne, terrestrial, and airborne sensors. This system envisions near-real-time monitoring of critical phenomena such as wildfires, floods, and urban heat islands, thereby supporting scientific research and disaster response efforts. Achieving these objectives requires harnessing edge computing to integrate and optimize AI models across diverse sensor configurations.

The collaboration leverages SkyServe’s STORM, an edge-computing platform for satellites that enables seamless deployment of advanced AI applications in orbit. Complementing STORM, the SURGE software suite offers an on-ground environment to test, develop, and deploy AI models on a highly configurable architecture.

This software suite envisions a wide range of use cases—from detecting wildfires in Malibu to tracking unregistered ships in the Red Sea—all within the same orbital mission. The rapid adaptability of these systems enhances response times for emergencies and accelerates decision-making.

By simulating the constraints of space embedded environments, SURGE ensures AI models maintain operational consistency across varied satellite platforms and computing environments. This abstraction simplifies the complexities of deployment and management, allowing satellite operators to onboard end users, such as government and commercial entities. SURGE efficiently manages the diverse sensors and computing hardware involved.

“SkyServe’s technology plays a pivotal role in streamlining AI model deployment across diverse satellite platforms, ensuring consistency and efficiency,” said Vishesh Vatsal, CTO of SkyServe. “Our platform bridges the gap between groundbreaking AI models and the hardware diversity of satellite systems, enabling a unified approach to Earth observation.”

D-Orbit’s ION satellite platform enhances these efforts with a robust and adaptable infrastructure foundation, ensuring seamless integration with SkyServe’s STORM and SURGE for superior in-orbit performance.

This collaboration exemplifies the fusion of EdgeAI solutions with satellite platforms to meet the dynamic challenges of Earth observation. SkyServe is pushing the boundaries of space technology and Earth science, redefining the possibilities of space innovation and driving transformative advancements in global monitoring.

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We’re thrilled to share that we're teaming up with Loft Orbital for Mission Denali to deploy SkyServe STORM, our in-space edge computing platform on YAM-6. 

Mission Denali will leverage Sensing and Compute Resources on YAM-6 to deliver insights from space. By processing multispectral and hyperspectral data in real-time, SkyServe STORM is defining the paradigm of space-based data processing, delivering insights processed from the edge. 

YAM-6 blasted off to low-earth orbit aboard a Falcon-9, on the SpaceX Transporter-10 dedicated rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US on March 4th. The mission carried 52 other satellites that, like other Transporter missions, were composed of innovative new space startups both demonstrating new capabilities and increasing capacity for existing ones.

SkyServe STORM for Geospatial Developers

SkyServe is empowering solution providers and core industries with software infrastructure to deliver real-time insights from space. SkyServe STORM will deploy customers’ AI models on the edge leveraging Loft’s satellites to deliver on-demand predictions for wildfire tracking,  irrigation, mining logistics, maritime surveillance, energy, utilities, and carbon monitoring. By deploying AI models onboard STORM, analytics providers can now accelerate their access to space data and process information in real-time at scale.

On-demand information from space has prompted the need for a reliable partner in space operations, and we are proud to work with Loft to provide the essential space infrastructure and multi-sensor data for SkyServe's ambitious goal to build critical value for geospatial developers.

How Loft Makes This Possible

Loft is pivotal to SkyServe's mission by providing space infrastructure and sensor data to power their platform. While many space companies are constrained to the traditional process of designing, building, integrating, testing, launching, and operating a satellite, Loft manages this challenging, capital-intensive process so customers like SkyServe can directly access the data they need. SkyServe STORM will leverage Loft's compute resources and sensing capabilities including multispectral, hyperspectral, and RF sensors.  

What's Next (TL;DR)

In the coming months, SkyServe will enable geospatial companies to push their AI models to space in a snap. It will help them process and feed multi-sensor data into their models onboard. The shared vision of making space simple, and democratizing satellite data pushes the boundaries in the realm of space-based technologies.

In order to provide a response to this need, an application programming interface (API)-driven solution for quantifying geospatial risk named GeoRisk is presented for looking at properties spanning a large area of interest. Apart from the risk factors like water availability mentioned before, our algorithms are also detecting property accessibility, road width, administrative level, seismic zone, cyclone hazard, proximity to Archaeological Survey of India monuments, and green zone status of any property in the area of interest. The algorithms are demonstrated to work with known public/open datasets and sample solutions are provided for verification. We are using open-source tools such as Shapely and Django that help us write the required geospatial algorithms which helps us identify and operate between a lot of layers of data. These algorithms take care of doing the spatial operations of overlapping, distance matrix, and all other requirements. A sample API response for a randomly chosen property point is shown below:

Considering the momentum of growth of geospatial technologies in recent times, more data is being made available by the Indian government, organizations and individuals from this sector. As a pre-requisite, we have also worked on generating the required data using the raw datasets from the above-mentioned sources. These datasets are generated by using algorithms and geo-processing tools such as interpolation, change-detection, raster-vector conversions, spatial cropping, land use classification, and precise geospatial intersections. All of which was achieved by using open-source tools. For example, the difference in lake bed water body over a period of two decades can be used to identify areas where encroachment can be checked. Satellite imagery datasets separate from the above-mentioned are also available to be used for further insights being available. The datasets cover Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The rest of India is planned to be integrated into the GeoRisk API very soon. An interactive interface to test and visualize the solution is also provided for checking the validity of responses over areas of interest. The user interface can be accessed through any browser. The entire functionality is available under the GeoRisk API.

NAVANC’s Nagachethan S M said about the partnership “At Navanc, we are creating India's first comprehensive credit score mechanism to the assets possessed by an Individual and help him/her leverage the same financially. NAVANC uses GeoRisk API as a crucial integration for an asset’s geographic risk along with legal and crime reporting.“

If you find this useful, why not request a demo? Reach out to us at: hello@skyserve.ai

SatRevolution will fly SkyServe’s computer onboard its STORK satellite scheduled for launch in Q2 2023. SkyServe’s computer is designed to deliver Earth Observation insights with low latency, eliminating computation and cloud resources on the ground for organizations. The upcoming STORK mission will carry Vision 300, an optical payload made by SatRevolution that can capture images at 5-m GSD resolution. The imagery is fetched by SkyServe’s computer for further processing using custom analytics models to derive insights in real-time. The mission will pave the way for geospatial companies to deploy their applications on this analysis-ready data platform, onboard STORK. SkyServe and SatRevolution have come together owing to clear synergies towards making space accessible for all and making EO data ‘actionable’ for users.

The planned number of flights, targeted revisit, diversity of optical sensors planned and the rapid turnaround time between contract and flight was another key reason for the decision to partner with SatRevolution.

Hosted Payload Mission service provided by SatRevolution is an excellent opportunity to establish interesting business relations across the world and bring new value to the market. The prospect of leveraging SkyServe platform for on-orbit processing of earth observation data is extremely exciting for SatRevolution.

“When building a satellite constellation, edge computing technology provided by SkyServe gives a chance for better allocation of resources and allows for achieving the final product more efficiently”, says Grzegorz Zwoliński, CEO of SatRevolution.

“‘Space for all’ is a key driver to solving many of the challenges we have on Earth. We are happy to come together with SatRevolution as a partner in building affordable and novel EO solutions”, says Vinay Simha, CEO of SkyServe.

About SatRevolution

SatRevolution, founded in 2016, is a Polish space tech company providing complete end-to-end solutions for nanosatellite systems focusing on Earth observations. The main goal of SatRevolution is to enable easy access to space and Earth Observation data by deploying a Real-Time Earth Observation constellation consisting of 1500 satellites capable to deliver high-resolution images with a revisit time of around 30 minutes from every place on Earth. The first company achievement is the successful deployment of two satellites (Światowid and KRAKsat), launched to the International Space Station and deployed into orbit in July 2019. In 2020, SatRevolution’s UniBus platform was approved by NASA as TRL 9 CubeSat platform in the “State of the Art Small Spacecraft Technology” Report. SatRevolution wants to change the way of building the Earth Observation business by focusing on small, lightweight, and reliable spacecraft.

For more information please visit satrev.space

About SkyServe

SkyServe is building autonomous solutions to democratize Earth Observation data for organizations, bringing down the cost of data processing and latency by an order of magnitude. SkyServe’s SaaS offering allows developers of geospatial solutions to deploy their apps on analysis-ready data on satellites. They are working with multiple Earth Observation businesses, enabling them with insights for remote operations and monitoring with a significant reduction in turnaround time and decision-making.

For more information please visit skyserve.ai

Space as a resource has become a great enabler for countless entrepreneurs, businesses and decision makers. With over 6000 satellites orbiting and monitoring the Earth, there is an abundance of spatial information being generated on a daily basis.

Needless to say, the applications and use cases that arise from such a rich source of information are countless.

But in today’s article, we’re going to look at a company that helps you smartly navigate through this sea of information (or sky of information to be more precise) and provide you with actionable insights for deployment and decision making. SkyServe!

Read the full article to know more about their Insight-as-a-Service model and their latest partnership with Ellipsis Drive.

SkyServe: Insight-as-a-Service for Smart Decision Making

SkyServe is an India and US-based NewSpace company that has created an Insight-as-a-Service platform that enables users with smart decision making.

But what does Insight-as-a-Service mean in this context?

It’s simple! Contrary to the traditional NewSpace data flow, SkyServe has built a platform that processes and deduces insights on the satellite itself, instead of sending TBs of raw data down to ground stations for processing. 

SkyServe strives to employ data processing algorithms and models on the edge to link insights down to earth instead of a huge binary blob. Makes sense right? Why send down the entire haystack when you can send the needle itself? As a decision maker, more data is not always better. What you need is the insight you were looking for. The rest is Noise. This is something that SkyServe understands. 

As such, captured data is processed on the edge and feeds directly into end user’s data models in near real time. This way, timely and accurate predictions can be made. Solutions that are created this way are more scalable and affordable too as a result.

SkyServe is constantly expanding the satellites it works with as well as the EO network that helps them grow their coverage, impact and speed of delivery.

Below are some of the popular use cases:

Change Detection: Conventional methods involve compulsory data procurement, processing and archiving. With edge-processing, change detection alerts users only when a change they have subscribed to occurs, with an option to download any image only if required. This is being used in identifying change in land cover, deforestation trends, flooding risks and studying urban growth.

Asset Monitoring: Today, assets are only being surveyed - using a combination of drones and archive satellite images. Edge-processing allows continual monitoring of assets for monitoring and progress-tracking purposes on a budget. This allows for centralized monitoring which can shorten a project’s timeline significantly.

Agriculture: AgriTech uses multiple satellite-based spectral indices to ascertain the health of crop fields across large geographies, but needs to procure images first. This use-case using edge-processing can deliver NDVI, SAVI, ARVI etc as per the customer's needs for their farm alone—without having to deal with the raw data.

Partnership with Ellipsis Drive

As a company, Ellipsis Drive is a big advocate of optimization, synergies and collaboration. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the NewSpace data chain and add value to every stakeholder within the ecosystem by making spatial data management and consumption easy. 

Ellipsis Drive sees eye to eye with SkyServe’s Insight-as-a-Service business model and the value that it has to offer.

Ellipsis Drive (ED) is used by SkyServe as a visualization tool for viewing and sharing edge-computed results with their customers and PoC partners. ED’s cloud powered web viewer is ideal for such use cases as it allows SkyServe’s spatial insights to be viewed by third parties without having the need to download heavy files or have a strong technical background. 

Going forward, SkyServe also plans to use the drive as a way to enhance data consumption and integration for their end users. Data would directly feed into ED from the satellite constellations they work with.

This would allow SkyServe’s customers to experience value from their insights straight away. We expect this to improve SkyServe’s customer success and sales operations tremendously.

The NewSpace industry is still at its early stages. Companies such as SkyServe are finding new ways to add value to the data chain and to the stakeholders involved. Ellipsis Drive is happy to be a part of this journey and is committed to pushing the boundaries of our industry.

Originally posted on the Ellipsis Drive Blog.