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Spinoff story
Multispectral Satellite Imagery Shows Farmers’ Fields in New Light
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
When the Internet was young, Goddard Space Flight Center granted the University of Minnesota funds to develop applications to let the state of Minnesota make use of satellite imagery of its forests. Needing to process datasets and make them accessible on the web, the team created MapServer, an open source development environment thousands of websites still use, including that of Fargo, North Dakota-based Satshot. Satellite images the company distributes help farmers allocate resources, spot equipment problems, and monitor crop health.