Eyes in the sky aim to protect the Earth's rainforests and its resources

In the Brazilian state of Para, authorities receive weekly alerts indicating which parts of the Amazon rainforest have been cut, with photos to back it up.

The images are taken daily at 10:30 am by American satellites, providing a detailed view of every three to five meters on the ground.

An algorithm helps to automatically reveal the location of logging.

Authorities send agents to investigate and potentially apprehend the suspects before they cause further damage.

"Previously, it took six days, sometimes two or three months without images," said Iara Musse Felix, CEO of SCCON, the company that distributes the alerts.

"Now we have daily pictures."

This revolution in forest monitoring and the Earth in general comes from a constellation of satellites headed by a company called Planet.

Founded in San Francisco in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, Planet is a leader in small satellites that are easier to produce and replace, and generally have a lifespan of three to five years.

This economic model is in complete contradiction with the traditional aerospace industry, which builds large, sophisticated satellites, much more powerful, but whose construction requires hundreds of millions of dollars.

Planet has placed 298 satellites in orbit since 2013 and half of them were launched last year.

Some 150 are active today, of which 130 are nanosatellites.

The others fell back to Earth and burned when they returned to the atmosphere.

& # 39; Doves & # 39;

These so-called "Dove" satellites are being manufactured in San Francisco, in a new building presented this week at the World Summit on Climate Action.

"A technician can build three Dove spacecraft a day," said Chester Gillmore, 33, vice president of manufacturing at Planet.

"You need about 10 tools to build one of our satellites."

There is no "clean room" here. Visitors enter and exit freely.

Electronic components are placed on one side of the room, then tested and assembled.

The doves are a format known as "Cubesat 3u", comprising a 30 cm cylinder, equipped with an internal camera and two solar panels that deploy in orbit.

Six completed doves wait on a cart to be sent to India, where they will be loaded onto a rocket and sent to orbit, about 500 kilometers above the Earth.

We "continue to update it," said co-founder Robbie Schingler, a former NASA employee.

"And that's what we master, the ability to take the latest chips and technologies from other industries like automotive and consumer devices, to take the 50 chips that are here … and to make them work in the aerospace. "

The result is a daily picture of every square kilometer of the Earth's surface, accessible on the Internet.

The company still does not make a profit. But there are plenty of opportunities for companies looking to start Earth monitoring around the world, whether it is to follow the actions of humanity on a global scale or to understand the prevalence of drought.

Another project funded by Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen, is monitoring coral reefs. The cameras on Planet's small satellites allow researchers to see whether they are whitening, dying or growing up.

Regarding the Amazon rainforest, illegal loggers know that every day at 10:30, the "doves" are watching.

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