A weapon supported by Google to fight forest fires has made orbit

The first satellite of the constellation of Firesat on Google’s back succeeded in Made orbit During the weekend, the kick-off of what promises to be a new era in the detection and monitoring of forest fires.

The constellation Will keep an eye on forest fires. When they are fully operational, more than 50 satellites in the constellation can imagine almost the entire surface of the earth once every 20 minutes. The initial phase will only include three satellites, and it will return each point in the world twice a day when it is operational in 2026.

The first satellite was built by Muon space And launched aboard the Mission Transport 13 of SpaceX on March 14 from the Vandenberg Space Force base. The suite of sensors consists of multi -band multispectral infrared cameras, which are set to detect forest fires remotely.

Most of the forest fire monitoring today uses aerial photograph via low -resolution satellite planes or satellite images that have been reused for the task. The first is expensive, limiting the frequency to which it can be updated, while the second suffers from low resolution and sensors not specifically set to the detection of forest fires.

The fire constellation is designed to solve these two problems. He produces five -meter resolution images, and when the constellation is piloting his complete supplement, he will provide firefighters in almost real time on the place where fire and behavior.

The constellation is a joint effort between Muon Space and The Earth Fire Alliance, a non -profit organization supported by Google, Muon Space, the Environment Defense Fund, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Minder Foundation.