Exploring Earth Observation, AI Techniques, and Industry Consolidation

This week on Pathfinder, we're joined by Sid Dixit, former CTO of Maxar and a seasoned leader in the space industry. Sid's career spans pivotal roles at Planet, Amazon, and Maxar, where he has been at the forefront of satellite technology, artificial intelligence, and geospatial data platforms.

Our discussion delves into the transformative impact of generative AI and large language models on satellite imagery analysis, the evolving landscape of commercial and government demand for Earth observation data, and the potential commoditization of satellite imagery. We also explore:

– The role of SpaceX and its impact on the LEO market
– Challenges and opportunities for Earth observation startups
– The future of satellite imagery quality and its market needs
– Investment strategies within the industry
– Promising Earth observation startups
This episode is brought to you by Epsilon3, a cloud-based platform that supports a wide range of operational procedures requiring extreme efficiency and control. Innovative teams at NASA, Blue Origin, Redwire, and Firefly Aerospace use it to plan, execute, and automate their most complex workflows. • Chapters • • Show notes • Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes • About us • Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy briefing, publishes weekly on Tuesdays 4) Payload Research, our weekly research and analysis piece, comes out on Wednesdays You can sign up for all of our publications here: https://payloadspace.com/subscribe/

• Chapters •

00:00 Intro & Epsilon Ad

01:24 Sid's journey from Planet, Amazon, and Maxar

04:57 Sid's robotics work at Amazon

07:24 How Sid got back into Earth observation

08:21 Maxar's acquisition

11:11 Advent and BCI's end goal

13:20 State of Earth observation

18:50 SpaceX's potential impact on LEO

23:04 If SpaceX goes after remote sensing, what will happen to all the companies operating in LEO?

25:37 Commercial demand

28:31 Do you see imaging tech as improving marginally or step-wise?

34:14 Will AI help open up the commercial market?

41:05 Who's the winner when it comes to the use of models in EO?

45:07 Will satellite imagery become commoditized?

46:48 At what point will imaging quality improvements be enough?

49:03 If you were managing $1m, how much of it would go to EO?

51:20 EO startups to look out for

52:54 Overview