Commercial Remote Sensing: A Global View
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 15:45
The 2010 International Commercial Remote Sensing Symposium (ICRSS), scheduled for March 3-5 in Washington, D.C., will provide attendees three days of discussions on the issues affecting the community, including industry providers and capabilities, and export control, licensing and policy concerns.
The goal of the symposium is to foster a robust and responsive commercial remote sensing industry, according to conference organizer Eve Douglas, of the NOAA Office of Space Commercialization. “The symposium will allow leaders from around the world to hear perspectives on issues such as resolution limits and the future of the industry from the people who are shaping those decisions today. Currently we have about 15 different countries represented on the agenda, so I’m hoping that we’ll get a truly global perspective on the market and the issues facing it.”
Douglas pointed to a recent report projecting that by 2020, 180 new electro-optical (E/O) satellites will be launched by government and commercial operators. She also noted that countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and others are getting into this market.
The explosion in global remote sensing capability is a key issue for USGIF as well, explained the group’s president, Keith Masback. “We are still sometimes stuck in the mindset that the U.S. is the center of all things when it comes to space and even remote sensing. We do have here in the U.S. world leaders in terms of electro-optical capabilities, for instance DigitalGlobe and GeoEye. But given the proliferation of different types of imaging and different types of phenomenology that are going on around the world, it’s incredibly important to bring that message to Washington.” ♦
