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Sen is on a mission to democratize area by way of using high-quality video from area. The cameras it has launched into area to date embody a free 4K video livestream from the Worldwide Area Station (ISS). NSF not too long ago spoke with the corporate’s CEO, Charles Black, who hopes these views will probably be accessed by billions of individuals to encourage, educate, inform, and in the end profit humanity.
“In case you have a look at Earth from area, you see issues otherwise,” says Black, the founding father of the London-based firm. “I’m pushed by this concept that there’s eight billion folks on the planet, and everybody ought to see that actuality of our existence, in the identical method astronauts do should you have been searching of the window of the Area Station. Everybody ought to have that perspective.”
These high-quality views of our blue marble are freely accessible on the corporate’s web site, YouTube channel, and companion app. Sen needs to broadcast photographs that empower us to see this totally different perspective and doc humanity’s exploration of area as we discover the photo voltaic system. Finally, Sen’s purpose is to inform superb tales of area exploration.
“In case you consider the Apollo landings, lots of of hundreds of thousands of individuals watched these and wished to see [them] taking place,” Black says. “In immediately’s foreign money, by way of the inhabitants and the supply of screens and web, that’s the equal of a number of billion folks. I feel telling the story of our exploration of the Moon and people’ return there’s completely important. That’s one thing folks wish to watch, and we wish to be a part of that.”
As with every enterprise that treads new floor, the enterprise mannequin may be difficult for buyers, however Sen is eager to stay to core ideas. “We’re doing this for the folks, to democratize area and to empower folks to witness planetary change,” Black explains.
An astronaut’s view of the Himalayas, Sep. 2024. (Credit score: Sen)
“We see ourselves as a video streaming firm. We’re not making an attempt to compete within the commentary market as a result of there are folks doing an excellent job there, taking actually high-resolution footage with radar and hyperspectral. We’re making an attempt to do one thing totally different, which is about what the general public needs.”
Whereas focusing on authorities and protection clients for its enterprise mannequin might need been simpler, Sen’s concentrate on the general public permits for a possible viewers of greater than three billion. With the growing variety of smartphones and high-speed web constellations resembling Starlink and Kuiper, Sen believes its viewers might exceed 4 billion within the subsequent decade. “So long as we get sufficient folks watching it, we will generate income by way of TV income,” Black provides. Along with its YouTube channel, Sen’s streams will change into obtainable as a free advert-supported Join TV channel within the coming months.
Broadcasting from the ISS
Sen’s first system, SpaceTV-1, launched in March 2024 as a part of the CRS-30 cargo resupply mission to the ISS. The payload was mounted to the station’s exterior utilizing the Canadarm-2 robotic arm.
Sen partnered with Airbus because the implementation accomplice, who had already constructed the Bartolomeo platform hosted on the European Area Company’s Columbus module. The platform was designed to host payloads, and as an early adopter, SEN might select a location for the cameras.
Hurricane Milton strikes throughout the Gulf of Mexico in the direction of Florida on Oct. 9, 2024. (Credit score: Sen)
Considered one of SpaceTV-1’s views exhibits the forward-facing docking port on the ISS’s Concord module. “It was necessary that we did have views of the Area Station and the docking port since you wish to join humanity in area with folks on the bottom,” says Black. “So, to movie them arriving and leaving [from the Station] is necessary. We then wished to have the Earth’s horizon in view, taking a look at storms and hurricanes and simply exhibiting the fact that we do stay on a planet. We additionally wished to look proper down on the floor so we will see large-scale occasions taking place, like wildfires or flooding, and in addition see the fantastic thing about the planet — the geology in mountain ranges and lakes, deserts and forests.”
Beginning with these three fundamental views, the crew labored backward to find out the optics and ideas wanted to attain them. “We work with a specialist firm that manufactures these optics with glass that doesn’t brown with radiation over time. That was one thing we really discovered from our first mission after we flew with off-the-shelf lenses, and after about six months, you would see that they have been going brown.”
The crew wished to incorporate as a lot element as potential for the view wanting down at Earth. Nonetheless, reaching high-resolution views of Earth brings its challenges. “You’re touring at 27,000 km/h, so you possibly can’t have one-meter decision on the bottom as a result of it’s transferring so quick and, with out having the ability to level the digital camera there, it could simply be blurred.”
London is seen from the ISS through Sen’s onboard 4k cameras. (Credit score: Sen)
Every pixel on this Earth-facing view equates to roughly 60 m of the Earth’s floor. “The scene dimension is about 240 km by 180 km, and it strikes at a velocity which I really feel has been profitable. It’s fairly hypnotic, and [Earth] strikes slowly sufficient you can see all the main points, nevertheless it’s additionally of top quality by way of optical and spatial decision.”
At present, the SpaceTV-1 cameras are usually not steerable, however this can be a function that’s within the growth pipeline. Having already flown a steerable digital camera developed for RSC Energia, Sen was eager to incorporate steerable cameras on the SpaceTV-1 core system. Nonetheless, growth points difficult including them to SpaceTV-1. “We discovered some classes, significantly round cable administration with pan and tilt, and we wished extra time to have the ability to redesign and enhance that,” says Black.
Steerable cameras will probably be added as a part of the SpaceTV-2 successor, which the corporate is engaged on. “I’ll be actually excited to get these onboard as a result of then you possibly can level at issues on Earth and be capable to level at each docking ports, which is able to give us extra capabilities,” Black explains.
The software program on SpaceTV-1 may be up to date at any time, and the corporate is continually studying and bettering its viewing capabilities, resembling night time settings. “We now have lookup tables onboard which we will change, for instance, what the publicity setting ought to be each second. Though you possibly can put it on auto-exposure, we don’t, and the one approach to take a look at this stuff is to get it into area and do it.”
Sen has been following Earth’s largest and oldest iceberg, “Iceberg A23a,” since Jan. 2024 because it drifts by way of the Southern Ocean alongside the Antarctic Circumpolar Present. (Credit score: Sen)
Assembly NASA’s design necessities
Designing and assembling a payload to be hosted on the ISS requires spending some intense necessities, particularly given its crewed nature. “Engineering for area is what actually impresses me. [SpaceTV-1 had] to cross vibration testing, thermal vacuum testing, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing, with three NASA security opinions for each mission. It’s important to actually concentrate on the reliability of the elements within the system as a result of it does undergo fairly a tough journey to get into area, and when it’s there, it has a fairly powerful time with thermal and radiation.”
“It’s important to spend various time designing the thermal facet — how the satellite tv for pc goes to behave, how warmth will radiate, and making the working temperatures as massive of a spread as potential,” Black instructed NSF. “Radiation is much less of a priority. New area firms are flying automotive-grade and even consumer-grade electronics with adequate shielding across the payload construction.”
“Our satellite tv for pc has been in orbit and working efficiently for 3 years, and our first mission continues to be working. Some elements now we have are radiation tolerant for supervisor processors which are monitoring the well being of the system, and these are elements you by no means wish to fail. We’ve tried to design elements the place there’s probably a path to a radiation-hardened model for after we put cameras right into a geostationary orbit and across the Moon, the place the radiation setting is quite a bit harsher than round LEO (low-Earth orbit).”
SpaceX Crew Dragon car seen docked to the ISS. (Credit score: Sen)
The SpaceTV system has a “twin string” design during which there are basically two of all the things. “We’ve bought three digital camera views, and there’s two cameras taking a look at every view for redundancy,” Black highlights. “It’s a technique of de-risking the mission, however should you begin doing that with satellites, they begin getting dearer.” Doubling up on radio downlinks, video computer systems, and even cameras all affect the mass, energy necessities, and bandwidth.
Early developments
Going again to 2016, with no off-the-shelf options obtainable for its streaming imaginative and prescient, Sen determined to develop its personal know-how slightly than make use of one other firm to construct it for them. This enables management over the entire knowledge chain, from capturing video in area to streaming it to the tip consumer. Armed with adequate processing energy, the video is compressed onboard in real-time, which helps to restrict the bandwidth required right down to “only a few megabits per second.” It additionally reduces latency in order that what you see on Sen’s stream is stay.
Early checks included flying an off-the-shelf video digital camera below a high-altitude balloon to see how it could fare in area and take a look at performance resembling distant zoom. “We realized that it didn’t work,” Black notes. “Being within the environment, there was condensation on the lens, and the zoom didn’t work. It was a catastrophe.”
“After that, we set about specializing in the digital facet to seize knowledge by way of a digital camera sensor, course of that knowledge, after which flip it right into a stream. I assumed one of the crucial efficient methods to begin can be with hosted cameras as a result of the electronics, payload, and pc are going to be the identical, whether or not it’s on our satellite tv for pc or in a hosted system.”
SEN’s digital camera’s caught the launch plume from Starship’s sixth flight from area (Credit score: SEN)
Sen’s first in-space testing alternative got here when RSC Energia wished to place 4K video cameras on a satellite tv for pc for self-inspection. With varied deployables and transferring components on the satellite tv for pc, RSC Energia wished visible verification to help the telemetry being obtained. “They’d spent two years looking for somebody to do it, so I went to Moscow, and after a protracted course of, we managed to get that contract,” says Black.
The challenge, which launched in February 2019 on a Soyuz, additionally allowed for the event of steerable cameras. “They really had the cameras on throughout the launch as properly. We handed over the code so they may change on the cameras and steer them by way of their interface. We had no management over it, however they have been happy with the outcomes, they usually shared a few of the movies with us.”
Sen’s subsequent challenge was to develop its personal satellite tv for pc. Launched in January 2022 atop a Falcon 9 on the Transporter 3 mission, ETV A1 is a 16U cubesat — one of many largest constructed at the moment — containing two cameras that document video in 4K.
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Transporter-3 mission in Jan. 2022 (Credit score: SpaceX)
The satellite tv for pc makes use of a easy X-band radio and requires packets of knowledge to be despatched in a sure approach to floor stations. This downlink permits knowledge to be transmitted at about 25 megabits per second. “It’s nonetheless working in orbit, and it’s a tech demo,” Black says. “We will livestream after we go over floor stations, however there’s restricted stay video for one minute. We discovered plenty of classes from that, [such as] how one can enhance the electronics, the cameras, and the way you do livestreaming [from space].”
Against this, the SpaceTV-1 cameras on the ISS benefit from NASA’s Monitoring and Information Relay Satellite tv for pc (TDRS) communications community, which is how the Station downlinks all its knowledge. Connecting to the Station through ethernet removes the limitation of ready to cross over a floor station to transmit knowledge. The livestreams can be found for over 20 hours each day, with replays throughout the routine lack of sign durations. “They’ve plans to take a look at newer types of relay knowledge, and our system would be capable to use any options which are carried out over the subsequent few years till the eventual finish of the Area Station,” Black provides.
The Alps as seen from SEN’s 4K cameras in Nov. 2024 (Credit score SEN)
Sen’s future plans
SpaceTV-1 has two totally different sensors onboard, and the forthcoming SpaceTV-2 mission will function sensors from an out of doors firm. The SpaceTV system is designed to be sensor-agnostic to make the most of newer sensors when they’re launched, together with these that may work in 8K.
“We’ll transcend 4K, however, extra importantly, we would like a better decision of the bottom,” Black factors out. When future cameras are steerable, Sen will be capable to level on the identical place for as much as 60 seconds. “It’s not sufficient for us to document after which livestream now and again over a floor station. I need to have the ability to change [the cameras] on at any time.” Black refers back to the latest Los Angeles wildfires and the worth that real-time observations would carry to the state of affairs. “It’s all about getting as a lot real-time video as potential, from as many alternative locations as potential.”
Sen can be in talks with different firms planning business area stations, resembling Huge and Axiom. The association can be a win-win, giving these operators exterior eyes on their stations and new digital camera views for Sen’s viewers. “The way in which it really works is we pay a charge to have the digital camera hosted, however the result’s that we personal the information. The plan is to get much more video cameras and livestreams into area, each on the ISS and personal area stations as they emerge, and into totally different orbits like geostationary and lunar orbit. We’d like to have a steerable digital camera on lunar rovers, and it could be nice to have a digital camera on a helicopter on Mars.”
SpaceX Cargo Dragon C208 docked to the ISS in Nov. 2024 on the CRS-31 mission, with South Africa within the distance. (Credit score: Sen)
Sen’s long-term ambitions embody inter-satellite hyperlinks on their satellites, which is able to change into required for a lot of future LEO satellites. For its subsequent mission, SEN plans to host three cameras, every with a 55-degree area of view, which may very well be stitched collectively to create an 8K-style picture of Earth’s horizon. “If there was, say, a hurricane you wished to movie. You could possibly stream that in 4K or do a full horizon picture at even better high quality. We’re persevering with to give you methods of making an attempt to make it even higher.”
The corporate can be engaged on augmented actuality (AR) and digital actuality (VR) experiences, which may be accessed by way of a subscription service. “The concept is in the end augmented actuality in VR providers and having the ability to watch stay views with steerable cameras of spacecraft docking. Think about viewing that in a VR headset!”
Sen’s movies and livestream may be seen through the Sen app, on the corporate’s YouTube channel, or by deciding on from the numerous totally different clips on its web site at Sen.com.
(Lead picture: A of a tropical cyclone from considered one of Sen’s cameras. Credit score: Sen)
