Small Satellites are used for Humanitarian Efforts!

In recent years, small satellites have been used by commercial industries to provide better quality location based services. These satellites have allowed many businesses as well as many government agencies to give us important information and reliable service for much of the technology that we use today.

While most of the work has been done to improve commercial interests, it has also been directed towards humanitarian efforts as well. NASA has been heavily pushing small satellites in this direction by emphasizing on Earth science for the year 2017. NASA intends to support the development of commercial satellites in order to use the data for addressing important issues such as disaster management, food security, weather forecasting and much more. Commercial companies are also aiming to address humanitarian issues. One company in particular, Descartes Labs, aims to use its technology to address the global food crisis.

Descartes Labs aims to address the global food crisis by utilizing a wide variety of tools that involve small satellites. Descartes Labs captures satellite images and, with the help of deep machine learning, makes accurate predictions of food production and availability that are more granular, frequent and precise than those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Predictions and forecasting of crop yields and conditions could be used to help mitigate the effects of a food shortage and ensuring that effective response systems are put into place to avoid disaster. 

Small Satellite Research Laboratory seeks Students Passionate about Space

Georgia - By 2019, the University of Georgia plans on having its very own small satellite in orbit. 28 students at UGA's small satellite research laboratory will have the chance to launch two satellites into low-earth orbit over the course of the next few years, and they're taking applications. This laboratory, which is entirely student run started in 2016 and is seeking to use the small satellites to monitor environmental conditions. The students selected for this program aren't necessarily strictly involved in aerodynamics but come from all majors and their goal is to help this program succeed and solve the problems that exist in the laboratory.

“The goal of the lab is to give UGA a continuous presence in space,” said Caleb Adams, chief manager and founder of the Small Satellite Research Laboratory. “We have our very own space agency at UGA because of this.”

For more information on this story check out the original article in The Red and Black.