In today’s fast-changing world, satellite imagery supports many important missions, from national security to environmental monitoring and humanitarian relief. In this Q&A with Jason Kim, chief executive officer of Millennium Space Systems, he talks about the changing face of satellite imagery for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
How does Millennium fit into the ISR market?
We have been supporting the national security space mission for over two decades, with the development of satellites and mission operations supporting ISR, tactical ISR and missile warning and defense missions, among others.
What sets Millennium apart is our focus on the customer’s mission. We can deliver a wide range of imaging capabilities that go beyond visual imagery, giving decision-makers a more complete picture of the area that they’re looking at.
Jason Kim
Satellite image quality is getting better every day. What do you mean when you say going beyond visual imagery?
Image resolution is better than ever, and traditional panchromatic imagery still provides a useful look at areas of interest. There are also limitations, such as the need for daylight and clear weather. Decision-makers need a range of information that can be accessed through other types of imagery. Lower resolution imagery delivered sooner or over a wider area may be better than higher resolution that is not delivered in timely manner.
This is where hyperspectral imaging is helpful. It breaks down each pixel into hundreds of adjacent spectral channels, giving a much more detailed look at what is being imaged. Hyperspectral imaging gives us insight into what materials a surface is made of, as well as other elements in the surrounding atmosphere – think of a methane gas leak for example.
Human visual systems and traditional pan and multispectral imagery provide some cues as to what material might be present. Hyperspectral goes much further, by providing a geometrically large combination of bands to enhance the contrast of an object to the background, and by quantitatively proving the existing of unique materials. This is helpful for things like finding camouflage, detecting landmines, or distinguishing between different paints and surface covers.
With panchromatic imagery, as resolutions become better, swath width and coverage area can suffer. Hyperspectral has a role for wide-area search at a lower spatial resolution. Combined with high resolution panchromatic, you can have the best of both worlds. Hyperspectral imagery can provide quality data at a resolution that strikes the right balance between affordability and performance.
How do you know what information decision-makers need?
We know the critical information our customers are looking for because we’ve been supporting them for decades – listening to their mission needs. We’ve been delivering high-performance systems to the government for years using this cooperative approach. For something like hyperspectral imaging, the most discerning customers of this type of data are advanced analysts, but we also listen to what the NASA Earth and planetary scientists are doing with spectral data.
Is hyperspectral imaging the “next big thing” for remote sensing?
Hyperspectral imaging has been around for more than 30 years. For example, airborne sensors are widely used by government and academic institutions, and laboratory sensors are used for process control and manufacturing analytics. The transition to space-based remote sensing has been led by the Earth and planetary science community. Adoption for various applications has been slow because of the traditionally high cost. But all of that is changing. At Millennium, we’re focused on finding the right size sensor on the right size spacecraft, enabling low launch and operations costs.
What type of customers do you expect to use this data?
There are a number of customers who can use this data, including first responders, government, Earth sciences and more. For example, the agricultural community could use the hyperspectral imaging data to survey crop health and precision agriculture; and disaster response could use it to assess clean-up or recovery efforts.
There are other companies providing hyperspectral data right now. What’s Millennium bringing to the table?
We bring our satellite prime experience to the table, with a track record of delivering high-performance satellites in rapid timeframes to government customers. And that history gives us a depth of understanding for the data they need, which is critical to achieving their missions.
Millennium’s development of advanced quantitative analysis means our hyperspectral systems can obtain a level of detail that reveals new information vital for any mission. And we can get that information affordably.
We also manage our systems end-to-end, from data generation and satellite downlink to processing, handling and distribution of data. We provide ground mission planning and command and control of satellites constellations.
What other types of imagery do you see playing a role in future ISR missions?
At the end of the day, customers need multiple resources to be successful, and in this case, more than one type of imagery. This will likely be a combination of visible, multispectral, hyperspectral, polarimetric and even radio frequency imagery.
Let’s say you spot a suspicious-looking shrub, or in this case, a camouflaged tank. We might first be able to see it through visual imagery but may need more information for confirmation. With hyperspectral imaging, we can determine that what looks like plants is actually mixed with other materials, like plastic or metal. And with polarimetric data we might catch light reflecting from man-made shapes. So, different kinds of imagery paint a complete picture to support better decision-making.
