Photo courtesy of AAC Clyde Space
The Canadian Space Society recently touched base with Wyvern’s CEO Chris Robson about their hyperspectral imaging satellites and company, here is the status update from Wyvern.
Wyvern is an Edmonton company that is offering hyperspectral imaging data from the satellites in a Dragonette constellation. These satellites are in a sun synchronous orbit around earth, that means that they are in an orbit that matches the daylight on earth. So that the solar illumination of the surface is always the same where the satellites are looking. Providing the best imaging of the earth’s surface and allowing the illumination of the Earth’s surface to always be correct where the satellite orbits. This is especially great when the satellites use the Visible to Near infrared spectrum to provide their hyperspectral data.
The Dragonette satellites (001, 002, and 003) are registered under the AAC Clyde Space names of EPIC Hyper-1, EPIC Hyper-2, and EPIC Hyper-3 (respectively). They are owned and operated by AAC Clyde Space, with the output data exclusively supplied to Wyvern under an innovative Space Data as a Service (SDaaS) model. This SDaaS model allows Wyvern to specialize in hyperspectral data payloads without a requirement to build and operate a satellite.
Dragonette-3 is to be launched on an upcoming SpaceX launch and Dragonette-4 coming sometime next year. Dragonette-4 is planned to make use of a Loft Orbital satellite. Loft orbital is company from San Franscisco that is building software and hardware on a standard satellite and Wyvern is adding their hyperspectral camera as a payload to make a rapidly deployable Dragonette-4.
Wyvern is selling hyperspectral imaging data to many industries including agriculture, forestry, military, the mining industry, and more. Their hyperspectral imaging helps identify nutrients in the soil, minerals in the ground, and up to date images of the earth’s surface in the visible spectrum. This is a new technology that has lots of customers and Wyvern is one of the first to market to sell.
—- Joshua Sorell
