First light for Tanager-1: As the state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer prepares for its first observations of methane and CO2, these images indicate what the instrument can do!
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) September 25, 2024
🎨 Colors represent 3 combinations of 400+ wavelengths of light that the instrument can detect. https://t.co/lLYbsUsPzu pic.twitter.com/kiPf4LHOpB
Planet Labs released the first hyperspectral images from Tanager-1. Satellite commissioning will take a few more months, after which Planet plans to deliver data to customers in 2025. A second satellite, Tanager-2, is also on the way providing customers shorter revisit times.
Apparently Tanager-1 and second satellite (Tanager-2?) together cost $130m. However, Tanager-1 was funded by a “philanthropically funded public-private coalition.” So Planet Labs did not bear all cost. Planet already announced a $20m contract to sell data from Tanager-1 to Carbon Mapper. Carbon Mapper aims to use this imagery to pinpoint methane leaks and emitters. The contract spans five years, equating to $4m in yearly revenue. Planet also lists defense and intelligence customers as commercial use cases for Tanager data.
Another space stock – Sidus Space – also plans to offer customers hyperspectral imaging. Lizziesat-2 and -3 will launch with Raptor Photonics Owl 1280 sensors. Sidus Space’s future revenue growth is largely dependent upon selling data collected by the Lizziesat constellation. Sidus Space described the cameras installed on Lizziesat as “industry leading“. Can Sidus shareholders expect its next two Lizziesats each costing about $2m to generate similar revenue as Planet’s $65m Tanager?
Sidus Space opted for a camera with a 1280 x 1024 pixel sensor, four-times below current top-of-the-line. And the aperture size looks tiny, maybe 5cm. The published spectral range is 600nm to 1700nm. Conversely, Planet’s Tanager-1 satellite houses a sensor scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and constructed. Whereas the full specs are not public, what is known shows no comparison between Planet’s Tanager and Sidus’s Lizziesat. Tanager’s spectral range is 400-2500 nm, providing substantially wider spectral coverage than Sidus Space. And the >30cm aperture on Tanager allows collection of more photons yielding a high signal-to-noise ratio.
So should Sidus shareholders expect a similar $4 million in yearly revenue from the multispectral cameras installed on the two upcoming Lizziesats? Probably not.Â