U.S. Chamber of Commerce Space Enterprise Council

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce Space Enterprise
Council Industry Input to FLI-IWG (The Future of
Land Imaging Interagency Working Group) July 21,
2006
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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input
Summary of Industry Consensus on future Land
Imaging missions

• Continuity of Landsat enterprise is critical and
  must be maintained
• Landsat acquisition system must remain a U.S.
  Government-controlled and operated as well as
  U.S. industry-provided mission
• Backward compatibility is key should not grow
  Landsat into another mission. Enhanced
  resolutions and new technologies constitute new
  Earth imaging missions
• Industry has the capacity to meet a wider range
  of land use imaging needs, in the technologies
  (e.g. SAR, HIS, Lidar) that have already been
  demonstrated.
• The U.S. Government needs to continue research
  and development of new technologies to enable
  Land Remote Sensing to better meet societal needs.

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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input
A. Continuity of Landsat enterprise is critical
and must be maintained

• The U.S. Government provision of 30 years
  calibrated, moderate spatial resolution data of
  the Earths surface sets become more valuable
  with time only if current data sets are available
  for comparison.
• The Landsat enterprise has made a significant
  contribution to agriculture, forestry, mineral
  exploration, global change research, academia in
  general, federal, state and local governments
  plus new and emerging commercial online mapping
  applications.
• Landsat is to Earth imaging what a bridge over a
  canyon or river is to a public highway system. 
  While it may be impossible to profitably
  commercialize that one bridge, it connects toll
  roads, local roads and interstate highways all
  together making the overall transportation system
  possible.

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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input
B. Landsat acquisition system must remain a U.S.
controlled and operated as well as U.S. industry
provided mission

• Landsat is a Public Good like any other part of
  the government supplied national infrastructure
  of this country.
• As the politics, economics and, ultimately the
  consequences of global environmental changes
  become more critical in international relations,
  the U.S. Government would be ill advised to
  become dependent on a foreign entity to ensure
  the calibration, accuracy and integrity of the
  worlds most reputable source for global earth
  monitoring. We think the Presidents CRSSP
  supports this view in terms of the national
  security interests for a robust commercial remote
  sensing space industry.
• Foreign spacecraft manufacturers are generally
  heavily subsidized industries if not also owned
  by the parent government. These subsidies are
  intended to increase business for the foreign
  manufacturers of critical space systems but also
  to displace the manufacturing opportunities of
  their U.S. counterparts.
• There is no shortage of able manufacturers in the
  U.S. capable of bidding a Landsat opportunity
  thus creating the necessary competition to keep
  the prices of future systems quite competitive if
  procured only in the U.S.

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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input
C. Backward compatibility is key Should not
grow Landsat into another mission. Enhanced
resolutions and new technologies constitute new
earth imaging missions.

• Lessons learned - Landsat cannot be made
  dependent on another mission or as the subset of
  another mission. Keeping the Landsat enterprise
  compatible with previous data sets means
  compromises in the orbit, downlink, launch or
  other critical elements required to keep Landsat
  data compatible with previous data sets
  diminishes the value of future missions.
• It is in the U.S. Governments interest to lead
  in radiometric calibration and well characterized
  moderate resolution Landsat-continuity data
  products.
• Resolutions that rival U.S. commercial systems,
  alternative imaging technologies (like SAR) and
  other advances in earth remote sensing are
  tempting to include in a Landsat enterprise--but
  ultimately are not really Landsat. The
  continuity and feasibility (cost and schedule) of
  future Landsats will depend on the agency
  in-charge having the discipline to keep Landsat
  as Landsat. It is recommended that the U.S.
  Government migrate other earth remote sensing
  advances onto non-heritage type or commercial
  missions where they belong.

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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input

• Industry has the capacity to meet a wider range
  of land use imaging needs, in the technologies
  (e.g. SAR, HIS, Lidar) that have already been
  developed

• Studies for Concepts of Operations
  opportunities from U.S. Government for industry
  to develop architectures and concepts of
  operations for future land imaging systems based
  on technologies like interferometric synthetic
  aperture radar (IFSAR), hyperspectral imaging
  (HIS), and light detection and ranging (Lidar) to
  meet range of mapping and monitoring needs beyond
  those met by Landsat data products.
• Demonstration Projects demonstrate
  configurations integrating proven technologies
  into systems to benchmark the performance and
  cost for operational systems.

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Industry Consensus FLI-IWG Input
E. The U.S. Government needs to continue research
and development of new technologies to enable
Land Remote Sensing to better meet societal needs

• Advanced Technology RD opportunities from U.S.
  Government for industry to contribute to research
  and development of emerging technologies for
  future land imaging systems including adaptive
  sensing systems, sensorwebs, formation flying,
  etc., to meet range of mapping and monitoring
  needs beyond those met by Landsat data products.
• Technology maturation advance lower technology
  readiness levels into technologies and subsystems
  able to be integrated into demonstration systems.