“Just as each person has a unique fingerprint, each chemical or material has a unique spectral fingerprint,” says Awais Ahmed. But traditional satellites can’t always read that fingerprint. That’s where an emerging class of highly sensitive satellites, powered by hyperspectral technology, comes in—and in Ahmed’s vision, they could be used to protect Earth’s environment from space.
Ahmed is the 25-year-old co-founder and CEO of Pixxel, an Indian startup that builds satellites equipped with hyperspectral sensors. When launched into space, hyperspectral satellites can collect data over a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum than typical space sensors can. After launch its first in orbit last year, Pixxel is now building a network—or a constellation—of high-resolution satellites to view our planet from outside its atmosphere.
Although NASA the first launched hyperspectral imaging satellite back in 2000, its commercial purpose remained unexploited—and it was decommissioned in 2017. In Pixxel’s vision, this advanced technology could be used to combat a multitude of climate-related issues, including crop disease, gas leaks, and clandestine mining.
While a normal satellite image can range the basic health status of a given crop, hyperspectral imaging can see soil nutrient content, identify species and subspecies, capture chlorophyll and moisture levels, and catch pest infestations before physical symptoms appear—all sophisticated data that can help prevent the spread of disease in agricultural fields. Meanwhile, heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as methane are invisible to multispectral satellites—but not to hyperspectrals, which can spot leaks and emissions from afar. And as people map out mining explorations, hyperspectral satellites can determine where lithium, uranium and other resources are present—next to where they aren’t, saving areas from excavation.
“Having that snapshot of the Earth will help policymakers make better policy, the government act faster and create a database to see things globally,” says Ahmed.
Ahmed grew up without internet access in a village outside the small town of Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka; raised on children’s encyclopedias and That of Carl Sagan Cosmos, he wanted to become an astronaut. But his endeavors in space technology began in his first year of college when he began working with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) as part of a student team developing small satellites. The following year, he would help form a student group that answered Elon Musk’s call for teams around the world to build hyperloop pods; they would advance far enough to meet Musk and tour SpaceX’s factory. (The meeting would later pay off: Pixxel would eventually launch its first hyperspectral imaging satellite using SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.)
In his final year of university, Ahmed would be interested in building super-sensitive hyperspectral satellites. With his friend (and now chief technology officer) Kshitij Khandelwal, the duo founded Pixxel in early 2019 as students.
Pixxel raised a pre-seed round of $700,000 from college alumni, with 90% earmarked for building a satellite. With hardware in hand, Pixxel pulled in $7.3 million in its first seed round. More capital — with a $27 million funding round, then a $36 million round led by Google — followed. Today the company has more than 170 employees.
Pixxel’s client list includes notorious polluters such as oil and gas firm British Petroleum and mining company Rio Tinto, which use its hypersensitive imaging to detect potential toxic leaks and monitor tailings ponds. On the other side of the table, Pixxel works with government agencies such as the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and India’s Ministry of Agriculture, along with climate watchdogs, to monitor environmental violations.
In an effort to launch its constellation, Pixxel has built six commercial-grade hyperspectral satellites, which are currently being tested. The constellation is expected to launch early next year. But Ahmed’s ultimate plan for Pixxel ventures far beyond our atmosphere. In another five to seven years, he sees the company working with space agencies “to map the rest of the solar system,” he says, “like we map Earth.”
This story is part of Quartz’s Innovators List 2023a series that highlights the people who are deploying bold technologies and reimagining the way we do business for good around the world. Get the full list here.
