Inclined Orbits, Detecting Change and Having a GPS Moment

Listen to Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky, a company using the economics of small satellites to monitor the Earth and bring data down in real-time. Mr. O’Toole discusses cloud computing, high-performance computing, advancements in AI and machine learning algorithms as key enablers to using this data. The CEO describes a recent launch where BlackSky went from lift-off to delivering imagery in 58 hours, an impressive feat. He extols the virtue of AI and machine learning to monitor activities and automatically transport relevant data to customers through a real-time feed. This kind of data will cause an explosion of commercial applications not yet considered or developed, like what happened with GPS when it became available on a phone. Mr. O’Toole conjectures about a next level of convergence around data that is collected and combined from a multitude of source, which in turn leads to better predictive analytics. In addition, he discusses finding the ability to detect emerging events and what their impact can be to our planet, with COVID being a prime example.