A Global 'Planetary Skin' Network Will Monitor Earth's Resources

NASA and Cisco officially launch a $100 million effort to integrate ground, sea, air and space sensors

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 12.16.2009 at 1:31 pm 6 Comments

Planetary Skin Satellites join forces with drones and surface sensors to monitor the Earth NASA/Cisco

Every day, farmers and legislators make billions of small- and large-scale decisions that affect the Earth's resources, and typically rely on thousands of fragmented sources of data. Now NASA has joined tech firm Cisco in creating a $100 million "Planetary Skin" that would integrate all the Earth data from satellites, aerial drones and ground sensors, and put it in the hands of any decisionmakers who need it.

Such a data monitoring network could also help track national promises -- including whatever comes out of the Copenhagen climate summit -- to cut carbon emissions and preserve forests. NASA and Cisco already have pledged funding for more than half of the $100 million needed over the next three years, Reuters reports.

Global Sensor Network: Deploy the drone! Do it now! NASA/Cisco

The plan calls for seven network hubs located in Brazil, India, China, Africa, Japan, the European Union and the United States. The final network could enable a farmer to call up the view from a passing drone and assess possible damage from a forest fire. Or policymakers could model the impact of a possible decision on an area, based on its economic and environmental value.

Planetary Skin might similarly help monitor water resources around the world, and it probably would not stop there. Either way, we're looking forward to getting the SimCity view of Earth. It's just too bad that there's no magic insta-build option at our fingertips.

[Reuters via Fast Company]

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6 Comments

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freudianslipnslide

12/16/09 at 2:22 pm

This is the worst idea ever. For one reason. It will not be used on the Utopian planet that Popular Science writers seem to perpetually inhabit.
It will be used for spying on the people, making war, and raising taxes.

freudianslipnslide.blogspot.com

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CoolHand032

12/16/09 at 2:30 pm

You're just being a pessimist whereas Popsci writers are being optimists. I'm sure they catch flak either way, if they had cried doom at this invention you may even be here pointing out all the good that could come of it.
/rant
I think this is really interesting. I never thought about how lawmakers didn't necessarily have all the data they needed. Also interesting how they would set up access to it, maybe fund the project based on the install price for each farmer or agency that needs it?

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zombieninja

12/16/09 at 4:49 pm

SkyNet...we're boned.

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Azorus

12/17/09 at 2:28 am

This could be really bad or good. Unfortunately the human race does not have a good track record when it comes to things like this. take TNT for instance, it wasn't built for killing people although it has been most used for that. orginally it was for clearing mines, roads, and mountains for developement.

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NoNeoCons

02/22/10 at 5:20 pm

Man has the capacity to innovate and create wonderful things. Unfortunately, history has shown that some men take that technology and use it to control the people. IBM has patented technology that has helped man advance. They have also created technology used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party to engage in genocide--Google IBM +nazis. History has shown that man cannot be trusted with technology that has the potential to curb freedoms. They want to use drone technology to monitor carbon emissions. The same drone technology they use to kill "terrorists" in foreign countries. I say NO to using drone technology!!

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eric11

03/25/10 at 5:00 pm

Take TNT for instance, it wasn't built for killing people although it has been most used for that. orginally it was for clearing mines, roads, and mountains for developement.
www.eprostateproblems.com/

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