Common Space

About this episode

This episode discusses the Common Space initiative aimed at providing high-resolution satellite imagery for humanitarian efforts.

This episode examines the Common Space initiative, a non-profit project dedicated to building and launching high-resolution optical satellites designed specifically for humanitarian purposes, such as aiding populations at risk from climate events and conflict. Although there are over a thousand Earth observation satellites currently in orbit, high-resolution imagery remains largely inaccessible to humanitarians, journalists, and civil rights groups due to high costs, restrictive licensing, and the prioritization of defense and intelligence tasking. Common Space aims to bridge the gap between low-resolution public goods (like Landsat and Sentinel) and expensive commercial options by offering 50 to 70-centimeter resolution imagery with open licensing. The project plans to utilize a "club good" funding model, where humanitarian groups can access the data for free, while commercial and government entities pay to participate to fund the system's continued operations. How will a community-driven governance model successfully navigate the ethical risks and potential misuse of releasing high-resolution conflict data in real-time? Learn more about Commonspace here…

People in this episode

Host: MapScaping

Topics covered

• high-resolution satellites
• humanitarian purposes
• Earth observation
• community-driven governance
• ethical risks
• climate events
• conflict

Keywords

• satellites
• humanitarian
• Earth observation
• high-resolution imagery
• open licensing
• community governance
• climate risk

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Common Space

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