On-Board Processing and Edge AI
Why would a satellite analyse its own images before sending them down, and how far has on-board AI come?
Chapter summary
Satellites collect far more data than they can downlink, and most of it (clouds, empty ocean) is useless.
Key takeaways
- 1
Processing on board lets a satellite discard bad images, compress the rest intelligently and send down only detections ("a ship here", "a fire there") within minutes.
- 2
Since 2020 several missions have tested on-board AI, including ESA's Φ-sat experiments, and in 2025 a geospatial foundation model (NASA–IBM Prithvi) ran on two in-orbit platforms for the first time.
- 3
Edge AI reduces latency and downlink cost, and enables tip-and-cue between satellites.
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