GalaxEye is reinventing Earth imaging

While working at TCS Research, Suyash Singh stumbled upon a problem: the quality and reliability of satellite images. For decades satellites have been capturing images used by govts, militaries, farmers, businesses, weather forecasters, and so on. But the images couldn’t always be counted on. “You might get an image today. But there was no guarantee you’d get one tomorrow, the day after, or even next week,” says Suyash.Clouds, limitations of optical sensors for night time imaging, and rain obscured visibility. To plug this gap, Suyash and four others launched a venture with the idea of synchronising optical and radar imaging satellite systems. They called it GalaxEye. The startup – founded in Bengaluru in 2021 and backed by venture investors including Speciale Invest, Mela Ventures, Infosys, Navam Capital, Rainmatter, and others – wants to bring GPS-level reliability to Earth observation.Missing pieces in Earth’s pictureFor decades, Earth observation satellites have relied on one of two technologies – optical cameras or radar. Optical versions function m u ch l i ke cameras in the sky, giving images that are intuitive and easy to interpret. But they need perfect conditions for clear images and fail to deliver when there are clouds, fog, smoke or low light. The second technology uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR). They can ₹see’ through clouds and operate regardless of lighting conditions. But the images they generate are highly technical and often difficult for non-specialists to interpret.Organisations frequently depend on multiple satellites and multiple providers to obtain a complete picture. But this fragmented approach creates operational headaches. Decision-making slows, monitoring is inconsistent and costs increase.“GalaxEye addresses this through a multi-sensor platform which combines optical and radar technologies,” says Suyash, who has a Master’s in aerospace engineering from IIT Madras. Suyash, CEO of GalaxEye, and the four co-founders – Denil Chawda (CTO), Kishan Thakkar (VP-engineering), Pranit Mehta (VP-sales) and Rakshit Bhatt (VP-product) – combined two fundamentally different sensing systems on a single satellite.They call their proprietary technology platform OptoSAR. The OptoSAR architecture has optical sensors and SAR payloads observing the same location on Earth simultaneously. The resulting output called SyncFused OptoSAR imagery offers both the intuitive clarity of optical images and the all-weather reliability of radar.Complex engineeringThe concept was a complex engineering challenge. Says Suyash, “Space is fundamentally unforgiving. Every component has to work with extreme precision and reliability in one of the most harsh environments possible.” And their platform required synchronising hardware, software, data processing and power management systems. “We were repeatedly told that what we were trying to build wasn’t possible,” Suyash says.Ironically, the founders’ lack of prior experience in the space-imaging industry may have helped. Suyash and team could view the problem differently.They approached the problem from first principles, drawing on expertise in aerospace engineering, deep tech and systems design. The founders also got guidance from mentors at ISRO and DRDO.The team did a lot of test flights to validate its technology on Earth. They first deployed its sensor-fusion architecture on drones, airborne systems and high-altitude platform systems (HAPS). Over time, they did more than 750 flight validations across increasingly challenging environments. This also helped GalaxEye achieve several milestones, including developing a drone-based SAR system.The culmination of nearly five years of research arrived this year, in May, when Mission Drishti, GalaxEye’s flagship satellite, launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The company says the mission validated critical technologies and operations in its early phase, but then communications stopped following damage to a key system after a geomagnetic solar storm. The founders, however, are not deterred.“By 2030 our goal is to build and deploy a constellation of 10 to 15 satellites. With this, we will be able to monitor any point on Earth on a near-persistent basis,” says Suyash.By Shelly Singh