
A San Francisco startup is set to launch the largest fleet of satellites in history, with 88 craft that will image the entire Earth every day in a breathtaking 50 trillion pixels.

Planet, Inc already has 60 shoebox-sized 'Doves' observing our planet, each capable of medium resolution at 3-5 meters, and downloading downloading 50 million square kilometers of imagery every day.

However, with its next launch, planned for Valentine's day, it will boost that dramatically with the launch of 88 new small satellites, and begin capturing the whole of the Earth every day.

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A San Francisco startup is set to launch the largest fleet of satellites in history, with 88 craft that will image the entire Earth every day in a breathtaking 50 trillion pixels. Planet, Inc already has 60 shoebox-sized 'Doves' observing our planet, each capable of medium resolution of 3-5 meters. Istanbul is pictured, on September 29, 2016, captured by Terra Bella's craft

300,000 IMAGES EVERY DAY With 60 satellites in orbit, approximately 1.6TB, or around 300,000 images, are produced every day. Within 2016 alone, we expect to have collected over 9B km2 of imagery – or 60 times the amount of all of the Earth’s landmass. Advertisement

Planet will launch its new satellites on Valentine's Day from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, and if things go to plan, it will operate a total of 143 satellites—the most of any company in the world

The fleet will be deployed on February 14, heading for an altitude of 500 km (310 miles).

And, they will be combined with the 12 satellites of Flock 2p to create a 100-satellite 'line scanner' that will work with the firm's RapidEye satellites to capture daily images of the entire Earth.

The craft are expected to be fully operational by this coming summer, according to The Atlantic.

The firm has already made a name for itself with stunning images of the Earth captured by its fleet of Dove satellites, which are built in-house.

Now, their constellation will be made up of two components - the small, cheaply made Dove satellites, and the larger Terra Bella satellites.

The firm also recently bought Google's in-house satellite business Terra Bella, adding their SkySat constellation of 7 satellites, capable of sub-meter resolution, to the fleet.

This latter high-resolution craft can detect pixels that are 90 centimetres to a side, The Atlantic reports.

The multi-year contract will also allow Google to use Earth-imaging data from Planet.

'You can use the medium-resolution constellation to scan the planet every day, and then – say you see a plane crash or a flood in a town – you can use the high-resolution satellites to snap those changes,' Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of planet, told The Atlantic.

'If we see a change in the middle of Siberia, in some field, we won't point the high-resolution satellite at that.

'But if we detect some change in downtown Kiev, it might be good to have a high-resolution image.'

The latest batch of Doves being deployed into orbit from the International Space Station, in pictures captured by JAXA astronaut, Takuya Onishi, from onboard the ISS.

'We believe that if we can image everywhere on earth on a weekly or daily basis, we’ll be able to see change as it happens, and change the way people make decisions,' Planet's Karthik Govindhasamy said.

'Imaging the entire planet at high resolution requires a huge constellation of satellites all capturing data at the same time.

'To get this many satellites into orbit, Planet has taken a radically different approach from traditional earth observation satellite companies: we needed to dramatically reduce the cost of each satellite, iterate satellite design quickly, and deliver the most capable satellite per kilogram ever.

'In short, we needed to practice something we call ‘agile aerospace’. '

HOW THE DOVES WILL FLY The solar powered, shoebox-sized Dove satellites are each equipped with radio antennas that allow them to communicate with ground station on Earth multiple times a day, according to Planet. They also have an array of optics and sensors, including a main camera that captures images at 3-5 meter resolution Planet's new satellite constellation will have two components - the small, cheaply made Dove satellites, and the larger Terra Bella satellites. This will allow them to capture medium resolution images daily, along with higher resolution views to track particular moments or changes. The fleet of 88 new Dove satellites will be deployed on February 14, heading for an altitude of 500 km (310 miles). And, they will be combined with the 12 satellites of Flock 2p to create a 100-satellite 'line scanner' that will work with the firm's RapidEye satellites to capture daily images of the entire Earth. Planet has also obtained Terra Bella, adding their SkySat constellation of 7 satellites, capable of sub-meter resolution, to the fleet. The SkySat craft can capture high-resolution color and near-infrared. It achieves 90 centimeter resolution, and has a two-dimensional sensor array equipped with a proprietary image filter The new fleet will be combined with the 12 satellites of Flock 2p to create a 100-satellite 'line scanner' that will work with the firm's RapidEye satellites to capture daily images of the entire Earth The solar powered, shoebox-sized Dove satellites are each equipped with radio antennas that allow them to communicate with ground station on Earth multiple times a day, according to Planet. They also have an array of optics and sensors, including a main camera that captures images at 3-5 meter resolution. These craft photograph the surface continuously, and complete an orbit roughly every 90 minutes. And, their ‘star camera’ allows for the correct positioning of the image on Earth. The SkySat craft can capture high-resolution color and near-infrared. It achieves 90 centimeter resolution, and has a two-dimensional sensor array equipped with a proprietary image filter. With this, the craft can capture multiple frames per second, which are later stitched together on the ground. Advertisement

Currently, Planet's 60 orbiting satellites produce roughly 300,000 images every day.

In 2016 alone, the fleet collected a dataset of imagery roughly the equivalent of 60 times the amount of Earth's landmass, according to the firm.

And, the addition of the new satellites will bring their capabilities even further.

The satellite industry has long been working toward the goal of photographing every area on the planet every day – and, with this latest move, Planet will be the first to achieve the goal.

Planet has now revealed it will be acquiring Google's in-house satellite business Terra Bella, adding their SkySat constellation of 7 satellites, capable of sub-meter resolution, to the fleet. This high-resolution craft can detect pixels that are 90 centimetres to a side. Aix-en-Provence is shown, captured on October 20, 2016

The multi-year contract will also allow Google to use Earth-imaging data from Planet. The satellite industry has long been working toward the goal of photographing every area on the planet every day – and, with this latest move, Planet will be the first to achieve the goal. Decommissioned aircraft 'boneyard' outside of Tucson are pictured, captured on October 19, 2016