AFWERX Announces EarthDaily Analytics Among Top Teams Selected to Revolutionize the Space Ecosystem
10.05.2020
AFWERX, the catalyst for fostering innovation within the U.S. Air Force, announced EarthDaily Analytics as one of the top 26 participating teams out of 809 total teams selected from across the globe competing in the EngageSpace challenge, working to revolutionize how the space ecosystem works, dismantle the walls between sectors and close the “believability gap” for what’s possible in space.
The EngageSpace Challenge is centered around four key topics – Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnerships, Global Space Transport and Delivery, Persistent ISR and Space Asset Resiliency.
Located in Vancouver, EarthDaily Analytics competed in the Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnership Challenge alongside a diverse group of teams – originating from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and other allied countries – that represent entrepreneurial startups, small businesses, large enterprises, academic institutions and research labs all vying to enable government buyers to pursue the most promising solutions to the most pressing challenges in the space domain.
“The AFWERX EngageSpace Challenge is critical to the future of industrial development in space,” stated Mark Rowland of AFWERX. “On behalf of AFWERX and the Department of Defense, we congratulate the teams advancing to the next phase. Their contributions are invaluable and have the potential to create game-changing results across the Air Force enterprise.”
The Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnership Challenge focuses on magnifying the capabilities of the Department of Defense (DoD) by expanding and strengthening its commercial portfolio. Teams competed to identify cutting-edge commercial satellite technology and uncover new payload ideas, designs, and prototypes to expand the DoD’s capabilities.
EarthDaily Analytics showcased the EarthPipeline, the world’s first service that automatically transforms raw downlinked Earth Observation (EO) satellite data from a heterogeneous constellation into high-quality, normalized imagery products ready for AI. The EarthPipeline commissions satellite/sensor characteristics, then calibrates, processes and QA’s imagery without touch labor using rigorous physical modelling combined with the latest advancements in computer vision and machine learning. This allows satellite owners to reach full operational capabilities faster, significantly reduce operational costs, lower the latency of product delivery, and generate higher quality products at scale that can reliably power automated analytics.
“We’re thrilled to engage in potential contract discussions with the US Air Force to explore how the EarthPipeline can support their current and future operational needs. Having our technology selected by a panel of leading subject matter experts validates our world class ground segment capabilities. It’s clear we’re at a pivotal point in space history where large Earth Observation missions need a new solution to support the huge amount of data being produced – this is where our EarthPipeline technology comes in as the New Ground solution for New Space.” said Chris Rampersad, VP of Engineering at EarthDaily Analytics.
The AFWERX EngageSpace Challenges attracted 809 solutions and featured over 50 space subject matter experts from the U.S. government to review the submissions. Throughout the event teams showcased virtual booth’s complete with video links, their challenge submission, digital brochures. The top 171 teams were invited to pitch their solutions to a panel of subject matter experts, followed by a Q&A from the evaluation team. The top 31 solutions from a total of 26 teams were then identified and invited to further engage with the Air Force with the hope of obtaining contracts. For a complete list of participating teams visit Engage.Space/exhibitors.
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ABOUT URTHECAST
EarthDaily Analytics Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly growing and evolving geospatial and geo-analytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services.
For more information, visit EarthDaily Analytics’s website at www.urthecast.com or contact info@urthecast.com.
ABOUT AFWERX
Established in 2017, AFWERX is a product of the U.S. Air Force, directly envisioned by former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. Her vision of AFWERX — to solve some of the toughest challenges that the Air Force faces through innovation and collaboration amongst our nation’s top subject matter experts. AFWERX serves as a catalyst to unleash new approaches for the warfighter through a growing ecosystem of innovators. AFWERX and the U.S. Air Force are committed to exploring viable solutions and partnerships to further strengthen the Air Force, which could lead to additional prototyping, R&D, and follow-on production contracts.
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