Thermal Lens: Large legacy missions vs smaller newspace missions

Those Space People

Join us in today's episode as we sit down with Ellis Freedman, the founder of Serious Science, a US-based consulting company specializing in satellite imaging systems. With over 40 years of experience in radiometry for infrared (IR) and VSWIR imaging, Ellis brings a wealth of knowledge from diverse remote sensing missions, including NASA's Landsat program. He has also served as a visiting lecturer on remote sensing payload design and IR phenomenology at Villanova University in the USA.

Ellis being a seasoned systems engineer, our conversation with him covers a range of topics. To ensure clarity, we've divided this insightful discussion into two distinct episodes. In our first segment, we delve into the distinctions between large space agency missions and smaller newspace missions. Tune in for insights into mission planning, target users, challenges in satellite bus design, data quality considerations, and potential synergies between data from large and smaller missions.

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:11) - About Ellis Freedman and Serious Science
• (05:05) - How are large agency missions initiated and planned
• (10:54) - Who are the target users
• (14:32) - How are small commercial missions initiated
• (18:45) - Challenges in satellite bus design for small thermal missions
• (21:25) - Data quality
• (23:01) - Synergies between data from large and smaller missions
• (25:42) - Use commercial data together with agency data?
• (28:14) - End of first segment