The Tiny Satellites That Will Connect Cows, Cars and Shipping Containers to the Internet
In the shadow of giants like SpaceX, more than a dozen startups are building their own globe-spanning networks of nanosatellites, enabling a new kind of everywhere, all-the-time connectivity for people, animals and assets on Earth
Scientists who track the health of Adélie penguins on the ice-covered wastes of Antarctica are managing their cameras from thousands of miles awayvia tiny satellites orbiting above our heads.
Energy companies are exploring using the same technology for monitoring hard-to-reach wind farms; logistics companies for tracking shipping containers; and agribusiness companies for minding cattle. It even helped National Geographic track a discarded plastic bottle from Bangladesh to the Indian Ocean.
In the near future, it isnt unreasonable to imagine this evolving satellite technology could put a distress beacon in every automobile, allow remote monitoring of wildlife in any environment on earth, and track your Amazon shipmentnot just when its on a truck, but backward, all the way to the factory that produced it. And it could be done at a fraction of the cost of earlier satellite tracking systems.
These novel networks of nanosatsaka cubesatsare a result of a number of factors.
First, the satellites themselves are smaller, cheaper and more capable than ever. The smartphone industry has miniaturized all electronics, benefiting everything from cars to drones. Then there are falling launch costs, due to companies like SpaceX, active national space programs like Indias, and an array of new launch technologies, from reusable boosters to 3-D-printed engines.
Just as important, theres the rollout and adoption of new long-distance, low-power wireless communication standards that can work just as well in outer space as they do on the ground.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tiny-satellites-that-will-connect-cows-cars-and-shipping-containers-to-the-internet-11610168400
It's a brave new world we're entering.