Planet Labs, a purpose-driven space and analytics company based in San Francisco, recently announced that it will launch a constellation of 28 nanosatellites that will revolutionize the Earth imaging industry by offering frequent, low-cost images of any point on the globe. With these nanosatellites, it will be possible to take high-resolution graphic information quickly and at low cost, which can be used to address various environmental and humanitarian concerns.

“We are motivated to make information about the changing planet available to all people, especially the people who need it the most. The imagery could be used by anyone who cares about changes in land use over time,” said Robbie Schingler, co-founder of Planet Labs.

Planet Labs was founded in 2010, with aim to provide universal access to information about the changing planet. Formerly known as Cosmogia, Planet Labs raised $13 million in funding from DFJ, Capricorn, OATV, Founders Fund Angel, Innovation Endeavors, Data Collective and First Round Capital. The company will use the funding for the launch of constellation.

The nanosatellites have been designed to provide imagery with a resolution of 3 to 5 meters, and the constellation has been named Flock-1. It is scheduled to fly on the first of eight Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo transportation flights to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program.

The advantage of large size of constellation Flock-1 is that it eliminates the need to task satellite cameras to obtain imagery of specific regions as per requirement. Besides, Planet Labs will collect frequent imagery of latitudes within 52 degrees of the equator, an area that covers the vast majority the world’s population and agricultural regions. Talking about the concern that nanosatellites do not aggravate the problem of space debris, Marshall said,

“We factored this into our design from the first day. Our constellation flies very low and far away from congested areas in space. We have the ability to move to avoid a potential conjunction. And the satellites will disintegrate into the atmosphere in singles of years to avoid becoming space debris.”

In addition to Flock-1, Planet Labs is preparing to launch two additional technology demonstration missions.