After the satellite was launched, the commercialization process was accelerated.
It is learned that the commercial aerospace company “Zero Gravity Laboratory (Beijing Zero Heavy Space Technology Co., Ltd.)” has completed a new round of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led by an industrial fund affiliated to Guangzhou Fund, and several investment institutions such as the old shareholder Huaxun Ark followed suit. The funding will be used for satellite product research and development, satellite data services, and marketing.
Zero Gravity Laboratory is the core supplier and remote sensing data application service provider of China ’s commercial aerospace micro-nano satellite system. It was established in October 2016. It is headquartered in Yizhuang, Beijing, and has a branch in Shenzhen. Its technical team They come from various research institutes in various aerospace systems.
The main business of the Zero Gravity Lab includes the development and production of cube components, satellite solution consulting, satellite launch coordination services, etc., and is a commercial aerospace company that has achieved localization of satellites. Delivering experience on orbit. Among them, the research and development, production and data business of core group components are the main revenue sources of zero gravity.
Revolving around the development plan of “satellite sky, data landing”, Zero Gravity has deployed a fully autonomous, high-time-resolution “griffin constellation” since January 2019, and built high-frequency, multi-source 3. The intelligent spatio-temporal data service system “Lingmao Data” has now implemented regional remote sensing monitoring services in many cities and counties in China.
The Ling Ling remote sensing constellation program was co-sponsored by Zero Gravity Laboratory and Huaxun Ark. According to Introduction by Langley Dong, Chairman of Zero Gravity Lab , benchmarking the international similar constellation system US planet The pigeon constellation of the Planet (Planet), the “Episode” constellation plan initially launched 132 6U cubic stars, and its optical resolution is better than 4 meters. After the constellation is deployed, it will form a high-resolution earth observation capability with global coverage, achieve 12-hour global coverage, and re-visit key areas for 30 minutes.
In terms of data reception and application, the receiving, processing, and distribution of remote sensing constellation data of Zero Gravity Lab rely on Alibaba Cloud. The application of satellite data is mainly focused on urban governance. The Zero Gravity Lab hopes to provide more professional support for urban governance construction by deploying remote sensing constellations and satellite-photographed data, so that data can help cities to think and make decisions, and to build more cities. More development space and value enhancement.
In October 2018, the Zero Gravity Laboratory entered the Yunxi Engineering Academy, and cooperated with Alibaba Cloud Data Center to participate in the construction of the Hangzhou Urban Brain Project. It is reported that Hangzhou City UniversityThe brain project was officially launched in 2016. starting with the solution to traffic congestion, by establishing a clear direction for building a platform-based artificial intelligence center , With the help of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies to optimize the allocation of urban public resources and improve the urban governance model . The urban brain project is just one aspect of the application of remote sensing constellations. More commercial applications need to be developed. With the gradual improvement of the constellation, the data products of the Zero Gravity Laboratory will also be used for agricultural monitoring, disaster prevention and mitigation. , Watershed management and control.
It is understood that The Zero Gravity Lab successfully launched the first star of the Lingyu constellation in 2019. The business area has expanded from satellite R & D and production to high-frequency remote sensing application services. %, And achieved business in Guangdong, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places.
Regarding future plans, Zero Gravity Lab will continue to build commercial aerospace ecological links with a wider range of partners. Zhang Bei, CEO of Zero Gravity Lab, said: “I hope Zero Gravity Lab will On the basis of it, we will continue to expand in the areas of remote sensing services, satellite R & D, production and sales, and space rights services. “
In the commercial aerospace field, the company that currently launches the most satellites is the Planetary Laboratory of the United States (Planet), and its technical means and business models have been basically verified. Public information shows that P lanet, founded in 2010, has received a total of US $ 183 million in investment. In September 2018, Planet opened a new manufacturing base and can produce 40 satellites per week. Currently, Planet has customers and users in more than 100 countries and regions. The two largest customer groups are government and precision agriculture companies.
From the perspective of the development of Planet, the formation of a complete business closed loop, capital, technology, operation and maintenance, and users are indispensable, and controlling costs is the key. In terms of cost control, the Zero Gravity Lab has its own advantages. It is reported that the Zero Gravity Lab has the independent R & D capabilities of almost all components and systems in the Cube Star. Star solution.
In recent years, capital has gradually entered startups in the field of private satellites. In 2018, including Changguang Satellite, Tianyi Research Institute < / a>, Nine days MSI , Thousands of Discovery , Micro-Nano Starry Sky , Galaxy Aerospace, Zero Weight Lab and other companies engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of micro satellites have received financing. Among them, Zero Gravity Lab is currently The few commercial aerospace companies that have proposed the construction of remote sensing constellations, but the construction of remote sensing constellations is just the beginning of the closed-loop commercial space industry. The biggest problem.