The New Satellite Economy: Beyond Cheap Rockets
SpaceX has made getting satellites into orbit cheaper and faster.But back on Earth, firefighters are still making life-or-death decisions without knowing exactly where a fire is, how hot it’s burning, or how fast it’s spreading.
I recently caught up with Muon Space co-founder and CEO Jonny Dyer to find out how he’s helping change that.
Jonny started as an intern at SpaceX, helping build an early Merlin engine—and fixing it after it blew up on the test stand. Now, his company is building dishwasher-sized satellites that can spot fires as small as a swimming pool from space.
And as Jonny told me, giving firefighters better information is just the beginning of what this new generation of satellites could make possible:
In our interview you’ll hear:
Why firefighters are still operating in the “fog of war” (10:18)
How satellites spot tiny fires from 500 kilometers above Earth (13:43)
What the early days of SpaceX taught Jonny about doing the impossible (24:43)
The great space businesses nobody is building yet (35:35)
How satellite data could unlock much better forecasts of extreme weather (50:17)
—Stephen McBride
Stephen McBride is a co-founder of the Rational Optimist Society.
