The satellite revolution in Low Earth Orbit

In the last twenty-five years, the number of active satellites orbiting the Earth has increased from about 500 to 8,000.  “In the first quarter of this year, we deployed nearly 1,000,” says space industry analyst Clarissa Bryce Christensen.  She adds, “Instead of a smaller number of very large satellites mostly far away, we are seeing many, many small satellites very close in.”

 The latest episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and the Canadian space company MDA, explores the exponential increase in satellites that are being launched into Low Earth orbit (LEO).  This is the zone of space between about 100 and 1200 miles above the Earth. 

 By the end of the decade, MDA’s Chief Executive Officer Mike Greenley predicts there will be tens of thousands of LEO satellites.   Many of them will be the component parts of vast satellite constellations, such as the Starlink network, offering broadband internet. Others will be providing the services which the modern world has come to depend upon: GPS navigation, defense and security reconnaissance, weather forecasting, and remote environmental monitoring.   For example, Earth Observation satellites are now the most important source of information on the pace and impacts of climate change.

 Our satellite eyes in low Earth orbit have become extremely sensitive, according to Professor Martin Sweeting, founder of the UK company Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.  Some of them are now able to resolve objects less than one foot in size from hundreds of miles above. Artificial intelligence is now being harnessed to process and interpret the vast amounts of data gathered by the new generation of satellites.

Host: Kevin Fong

Guests: Clarissa Bryce Christensen, Mike Greenley, Martin Sweeting