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PlanetIQ's Plan: Swap US Weather Sats For Private Ones
We've mentioned over the last few years several times the funding problems that mean the U.S. government's weather satellite stable is thinner than we might prefer. A story at the Weather Underground outlines the plan of a company called PlanetIQ to fill the needs met with the current constellation of weather sats with private ones instead. From the article, describing testimony last week before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce:
"PlanetIQ's solution includes launching a constellation of 12 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to collect weather data, which PlanetIQ says the federal government could access at less cost and risk than current government-funded efforts. ... [PlanetIQ Anne Hale] Miglarese added that within 28 to 34 months from the beginning of their manufacture, all 12 satellites could be in orbit. As for the cost, she says, "We estimate that for all U.S. civilian and defense needs globally for both terrestrial and space weather applications, the cost to government agencies in the U.S. will be less than $70 million per year. As the satellites collect data, PlanetIQ would sell the data to government weather services around the world as well as the U.S. Air Force. The most recently launched polar-orbiting satellite, sent into space by the U.S. in 2011, cost $1.5 billion."
We can do it SO much cheaper! Of course then there are cost over runs, shoddy construction, and unmet promises. Then the whole thing ends up costing more with less reliability...
You'd think there are better things to do with weather sats than try and undercut NOAA/NWS with some rent-seeking satellite project.
Also typical government contractor speak. They promise the world but will under-deliver and over-charge.
Sounds like the pitch I get from car salesmen from time to time. "We loose money on every car we sell, but we make it up with our sales volume!"
"Private capital is ready and waiting," Miglarese said last week. "But the government's culture of build-and-own-your-own satellites and the inability to commit is what's holding back these job-creating funds."
Statements like this always confuse me. Who does Miglarese think is building the satellites now? Monkeys? How does stopping making & managing your own satellites and paying someone else to do it create jobs? That sounds an awful lot like it just moves the jobs from one place to another.
Which isn't to say it might not be a better deal, but it feels like he just threw that in because he knows politicians go into Pavlovian slather if you mention "job creation".
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Sounds good to me if the US (and other governments) can freely disseminate the information, rather than just being allowed to access it but having it otherwise remain proprietary to PlanetIQ. The article isn't clear, but this is a crucial point. I've no problem w/ private industry providing a service that governments buy, but I do have a problem w/ such crucial information becoming strictly proprietary.
On one hand, I'm all for saving those tax dollars. And I applaud that a private entity can put stuff up into space and then sell access to it to the government more cheaply than the government can do for itself.
On the other hand, I'm naturally suspicious of the government buying services from private entities. Among these concerns are prisons, mercenaries (soldiers) and surveillance.
Thanks to some wonderfully crafted legislation, the people are guaranteed some form of transparency thanks to the freedom of information act. This has proven to be a real pain in the ass of wheeling-dealing politicians and the people who do business with them selling our government to the highest bidders. So it seems more and more they like using private companies to do the government's dirty work. You know it's dirty when they are given "retroactive immunity" for things which we still can't confirm they did or didn't do or what, precisely, they did!
So are they REALLY just doing weather surveillance? It's hard to believe these days. And since it's a private company instead of the government, it's hard to know where the blame goes since the agreements with private companies tend to be less than transparent.
Why? They get a lot of their vehicles from the private sector.
That being said, there's a lot of apples and oranges here.
OK, what is the life expectancy of that satellite? You can't just compare a 'per year' cost of an operation to a one time cost of part of an operation - the latter is usually averaged out into the former.
Also, there's quality and reliability concerns - if the product (satellite system) doesn't produce the quality you want (accuracy of weather mapping), it may be worth it to pay a lot more for an alternative. Also, they may be charging a certain amount per client ($70 million a year each?), but how many clients are there? It is possible, that in the long run, the total cost to all the clients could be higher, even if taxes were reduced proportional to the amount of money saved (heh, yeah, that'll happen... Wanna buy a bridge too?)
It looks good initially, but I wonder if, for the government, or society in general, it will actually pan out to be an advantage.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
They won't give up. Weather is one shining example of something government does better than private industry. They've actually tried to shut down NWS before, and it was such a dumb idea that even Congress couldn't be convinced, probably because they got a sudden spate of attention from people other than their usual lunch companions.
If we let that happen, forecasts would not improve; but ad deliver sure would.
Just say NO to private weather. It's one case where the profit motive is not welcome.
There are two issues to address here: 1) cost and maintenance, and 2) data ownership. The first is obvious and is the crux of the CEO's pitch to Congress. The second is the one she's skirting. Sure, she acknowledges the government would "buy" the data. But for what use and with what limits? We already see corporations trying to get laws passed making them the only distributor of government-generated data (weather companies, journal publishers). With a ploy like this they make it that much more likely the public is excluded from having and using the data.
The only way I'd encourage the government to go this route is if the law and contracts specify the data is free in every sense of the word. Otherwise this is just another government hand out to private corporations.
If PlanetIQ think there's a real market for weather data, they should finance the whole thing with private equity. My guess is no one in the right mind will give them the capital unless they can get the government give them a monopoly.
I wonder if, for the government, or society in general, it will actually pan out to be an advantage.
Of course not. This is just another attempted heist by the privateers, facilitated by the "crisis" that they have created.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
With weather satellites in private hands, they will be used for private purposes, holding NOAA (and everyone using its weather services, i.e., everyone) hostage to a private entity. This is an incredibly bad idea.
Because the USA's taxpayers are too stupid to actually demand drastic cuts in spending.
And weather prediction is the kind of obvious and useless pork we should cut back on, right?
It depends on whom you trust more -- a corporation or the US government.
I trust the government about as far as I can throw it. On the other hand, I trust corporations completely. I trust them to lie, cheat, steal, dump toxic waste, then get their government cronies to bail them out while the investors laugh all the way to the bank.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Are they going to not encrypt them and make it easy to receive the signal? Because I do that already with the Landsat birds. mini Laptop + small shortwave receiver and I can get weather radar images while I am away from the internet a lot of boats on the great lakes as well as the oceans depend on them.
If the private birds will not broadcast an easy to receive in the clear signal that everyone can receive for free, then they are not an option.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Remember a few years ago when weather.com and The Weather Channel tried to make the National Weather Service stop issuing free public satellite imagery and forecasts?
Any chance that NOAA/NWS satellite funding was cut to achieve their objective of privatizing the weather service by less-direct means?
Nah, our noble legislative branch would NEVER do something underhanded like THAT...
We are the 198 proof..
There were severe satellite gaps in the 1980s. GOES East had to be moved to a more central location to observe both coasts when GOES West failed and its replacement suffered a launch failure.
We'll get through this.
Kriston
The biggest change is that the new private company gets to hoover several more truckloads of the public's money into their investors pockets, compared to the current system. While they talk about reducing the cost of orbiting and maintaining the satellites, they're vague about what the pricing and licensing details are for the government "buying back" the data they need --- and I'd place a pretty big bet that the data won't be distributed freely to the general public like NOAA and NWS do. Net result: government has lower annual costs on paper because they are no longer providing useful, free, public weather data (the reason to have *any* costs in the first place), which instead must be bought (at a higher overall cost to society) from these government-monopoly-granted profiteers.
I find it a testament to our fractured society that we collectively feel "privatizing" things is good. The public loses 100% of oversight over the use, has to place 100% trust in the private entity (regardless of their track record), and becomes beholden to a private entity who can manipulate that data at will without us knowing, and the EULA that must be signed before using the "service" strips away your right to affirm that the data is even correct. And the primary reason anyone goes for it is because "someone profits"; any arguments about efficiency or cost-value or letting well-known criminals have yet MORE of our public commodities get swept under the rug with a snide "Quit being so communist!" quip. When did we become so eager to sell our collective riches for some shady MBA's "solution" to erode long term value from the public? Why does the vast majority of America so willingly work against it's best interest?
Weather isn't a terribly profitable industry, unless you're the ONLY one to own it.
The tactic is to create a loss leader. Drive the competition out of the market. Then reap the rewards of having a monopoly on a necessary product. Bonus points for having the government help you do it.
All those weather maps that you get for free because the government funds that satellites? The cloud maps that are shown on TV, your WeatherBug app, etc? Not only is the government going to pay, but they are not going to be allowed to freely redistribute. Everyone now pays multiple times for the same thing that we all paid for together. They are going to collect fees from The Weather Channel, CNN, every TV channel in the world (if they still want to report on US weather), each pay an additional fee. TINSTAAFL.
When it comes time to re-license the data, when the US has no more weather satellites, the USAF, USN, USCG, US Army, NOAA, NCAR, NWS, USDA, etc. will each have to license the weather data independently. Stock holders will rejoice. And the taxpayer gets fleeced again.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
Dude. Do you mind taking off your tinfoil beanie? You're tripping the sunglint detection algorithm and invalidating the data in the pixel you're standing in.
No? You'll keep the hat on? Ok. Don't blame us if a tornado forms on top of you and no one warns you.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I'm pretty sure that the reason that PlanetIQ will be paying less for satellites is because once NOAA and NWS satellite operations are defunded by Congress they'll be handed over for pennies on the dollar. That's been the pattern for pretty much every 'privatization' move in the last half century.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
I don't think you're crazy.
I'm not for Big Government, I really don't want the government involved in my life any more than is absolutely necessary, but that said, there are some things that I think should not be privatized, and this is one of them. Weather data benefits everyone in the U.S. one way or another, and considering corporate America's running track record concerning putting people before profits, I think it would be a huge mistake to rely on some corporation for weather data. As a taxpayer I'm happy to have some of my money go to the NOAA and keeping weather satellites in orbit and functioning.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
The CEO admits that her company has never launched a satellite before, but somehow she feels qualified to say that her company's "product" could meet all of the needs of NWS and all of the defense agencies for $70 million per year. How does she even know the requirements of NWS and all defense agencies, let alone know how much it would cost to support them?
Ignoring that, do we really think it's a good idea to replace public property with private property? If this company ever goes under, our government would immediately lose weather forecasts and defense satellite feeds. And do we even want sensitive defense information in the hands of a private company?
No, this certainly isn't tolerable for me. I'm fine with the government contracting competent companies to build, launch, and maintain these satellites, but if they're going to use our tax dollars, then the satellites themselves had better remain government property!
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