Expanding the application of Axelspace’s satellite imagery
Axelspace Corporation (HQ: Tokyo; CEO: Yuya Nakamura) has announced today a collaboration with Amana Images Inc (HQ: Tokyo; CEO: Kinya Horikoshi) at the “KDDI ∞ Labo 10th DemoDay” event in Tokyo’s Shibuya Hikarie venue. The collaboration consists in the experimental release of the Earth imagery taken by Axelspace’s microsatellite Hodoyoshi-1. Moreover, we have published another press release with details about various new collaborations announced today at “KDDI ∞ Labo 10th DemoDay” (see here for that press release).
Hodoyoshi-1 is an Earth observation microsatellite developed in collaboration with Tokyo University and the Next-generation Space Systems Technology Research Association (NESTRA) and launched in 2014. With the intent of expanding the use of its Earth imagery, Axelspace has started soliciting applications from interested industries on July 8th 2016. Today’s announcement is in connection with that project. Amana Images will store and use the satellite images in the TIFF format, formatted in a way that is easy to handle for industry users.
Axelspace is now building AxelGlobe, a new Earth observation network comprised of 50 satellites. With AxelGlobe, it will be possible to capture images of approximately 50% of the worlds land every day, covering all the areas where humans are economically active. The first 3 satellites of the constellation will be launched in 2017, accompanied by the release of the service. After that, more satellites will be gradually launched with the objective of reaching full capacity by 2022, covering the maximum area every day. We continue to work to make AxelGlobe’s Earth imagery accessible to the widest range of applications possible.