A tiny satellite showed it can take high-res pics from space

Feb 08, 2025 01:42 AM - 3 months ago 112898

Umar Shakir is a news writer fond of the electrical conveyance manner and things that plug successful via USB-C. He spent complete 15 years successful IT support earlier joining The Verge.

Tokyo-based startup ArkEdge Space claims it has snapped what is “probably” the highest value images of Earth taken by a mini CubeSat. The photos were taken 410 kilometers supra the Earth’s aboveground by the company’s CubeSat called ONGLAISAT, co-developed by Taiwan’s abstraction agency TASA.

It has precision cognition control, a TASA-developed Korsch off-axis optical system, a CMOS TDI (Time Delay and Integration) image sensor, and image compression hardware that each fits wrong its 6U shape factor, which is astir the size of a desktop machine aliases suitcase.

Satellite changeable of Camano Island, Washington, USA.

ArkEdge Space shared achromatic and achromatic images zoomed into areas arsenic adjacent arsenic 1 quadrate kilometer, showing buildings and roads pinch immoderate specifications adjacent Seattle and from the Patagonia region of Argentina. The institution claims it captured the “world’s highest crushed resolutions” successful the CubeSat category, ranging from 2.5 to 3 meters. Reuters reports its ngo is expected to extremity successful March earlier its optical tech is applied to early missions, quoting ArkEdge CEO Takayoshi Fukuyo saying, “The pictures are arsenic clear arsenic aerial photography (despite) being taken by a outer of this size.”

The ONGLAISAT ngo objectives were to show the optical strategy successful orbit, trial a University of Tokyo co-developed altitude power system, and validate the TDI and process images, which each succeeded. The outer was delivered to the ISS successful November and past they were deployed from the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” connected December 10th.