How the Planet Labs Naval Contract for Maritime Surveillance Informs Astronautical Engineering

In March 2024, the U.S. Navy awarded a contract to Planet Labs, an imaging company that captures photos daily to surveil ships in the Pacific Ocean. This collected imagery will now be analyzed by the Naval Information Warfare Center, a research facility that supports a variety of intelligence and reconnaissance initiatives, to enhance decision-making and strategic initiatives in the Pacific region. To help with this new contracted initiative, Planet Labs will be working with SynMax, a geospatial analytics company, to create a rich dataset of ship activity to amplify intelligence on common maritime issues. This work will ultimately better inform the field of astronautical engineering, as maritime satellite imagery technology provides important data for climate change, urban development, and more.

Improving Maritime Situational Awareness 

To accomplish this task, Planet Labs will be deploying two main satellite constellations to monitor areas of interest and increase maritime situational awareness: PlanetScope and SkySat. PlanetScope uses roughly 130 satellites to scan nearly 100 million square miles each day, while SkySat features 21 satellites that can capture high-resolution images for more than 150,000 square miles each day. This data will be incorporated into the Department of Transportation’s SeaVision platform, a web-based situational awareness tool developed to consolidate maritime information. 

In partnering with SynMax, the focus will be to identify and monitor vessels that are more than 30 feet long or “dark shipping” using SynMax’s, Theia platform, a successful AI-enabled “watchdog technology”, and providing updates on “unreported fishing, illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and vessel spoofing.” Recently, SynMax tracked the CHIOS LION (IMO 9398280), a Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged crude oil tanker that activated automatic ID system (AIS) darkness after being struck by an uncrewed Houthi vessel, stating that “Theia tracks vessels regardless of AIS status, creating truly actionable intelligence.”

The Applicability of Satellite Imagery to Astronautical Engineering

Satellite imagery technology, like that used by Planet Labs, is incredibly useful and continuously evolving in the field of astronautical engineering. Beyond its applications for maritime surveillance and security, satellite imagery provides important data on climate change, deforestation, and natural disasters. Analyzing this data can help identify long-term environmental changes and help scientists and policymakers make informed decisions about how to mitigate its effects. High-resolution images assist in urban development by identifying and monitoring landscapes and their surroundings, helping to create a more nuanced understanding of complex concepts like urban sprawl and regional delineation. This imagery can also optimize resources and support the planning for critical infrastructure planning by tracking project progress and identifying pitfalls, as well as precision agriculture, which can improve crop yields.

The benefits of satellite imagery have been driven by technological advancements across the astronautical engineering industry for decades. For example, the creation of smaller, more cost-effective satellites made it easier to deploy and launch these machines in larger numbers to provide more comprehensive coverage. And the modernization of satellites now offers higher resolution imagery and more frequent data collection, enabling near real-time monitoring and more detailed analyses.

The recent artificial intelligence revolution has enhanced the ability of companies like Planet Labs and SynMax as well. AI has improved the processing and analysis of vast amounts of satellite data, enabling the identification of patterns and anomalies more efficiently and accurately. Companies like Blackshark AI are making waves with AI technology that allows for the creation of a digital twin of the Earth and extracting “insights about the planet’s infrastructure from current satellite and aerial imagery via machine learning at global scale.” A NASA global citizen initiative called SpaceML also uses “AI and ML to create an imagery search pipeline for the discovery of patterns within GIBS imagery viewed using Worldview.” Newsweek recently reported on the open-source availability of maritime satellite information regarding the presence of at least nine ships from the U.S. and China in the Pacific Ocean, including aircraft carriers of interest. Further, the development of autonomous satellite constellations and swarms allows for more coordinated operations, improving data collection and resilience against technical failures.

These advancements not only enhance the capabilities of satellite technology but also expand its applications, making it a vital tool in various fields, including national security, environmental science, commercial industries, and more.

Astronautical Engineering at Capitol Tech

Capitol Technology University offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Aviation and Astronautical Sciences that prepare you for an impactful and long-lasting career in flight and space studies. Our student centers and labs, as well as our on-campus ALPHA Observatory, provide hands-on experience with satellite ground stations and balloon payloads, imparting the technical skills development needed to excel in this field. For more information, contact our Admissions team or attend a virtual open house.