Tiny satellites that photograph the entire planet, every day | Will Marshall

Translator: Petra Kumi Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

The Earth needs no introduction.

Toka nuk ka nevoje per prezantim.

It needs no introduction in part because the Apollo 17 astronauts,

Nje arsye pse nuk ka nevoje per prezantim eshte sepse astronautet e Apollo 17,

when they were hurtling around the moon in 1972,

kur po fluturonin rreth henes ne 1972,

took this iconic image.

bene kete fotografi te famshme.

It galvanized a whole generation of human beings

Nxiti nje gjenerate te tere qeniesh njerezore

to realize that we're on Spaceship Earth,

qe te kuptonin qe ne jemi ne Anijen Kozmike Toke,

fragile and finite as it is,

ashtu e brishte dhe e thyeshme sic eshte,

and that we need to take care of it.

dhe qe duhet te kujdesemi per te.

But while this picture is beautiful, it's static,

Por edhe pse kjo foto eshte e bukur, ajo eshte statike,

and the Earth is constantly changing.

dhe nderkohe Toka eshte duke ndryshuar ne menyre konstante.

It's changing on days' time scales with human activity.

Po ndyshon ne shkallen e kohes se diteve nga aktiviteti i njeriut.

And the satellite imagery we have of it today is old.

Dhe imazhet satelitore te Tokes qe kemi sot, jane shume te vjetra.

Typically, years old.

Tipikisht, disa vjecare.

And that's important because you can't fix what you can't see.

Dhe kjo eshte e rendesishme sepse nuk mund te ndreqesh cfare nuk sheh dot.

What we'd ideally want is images of the whole planet every day.

Ajo qe do donim idealisht jane imazhe te gjithe planetit cdo dite.

So, what's standing in our way?

Pra, cfare na pengon?

What's the problem?

Cili eshte problemi?

This is the problem:

Ky eshte problemi:

Satellites are big, expensive and they're slow.

Satelitet jane te medhenj, te shtrenjte dhe te ngadalte.

This one weighs three tons.

Ky ketu peshon tre ton.

It's six meters tall, four meters wide.

Eshte i gjate gjashte metra, kater metra i gjere.

It took up the entire fairing of a rocket just to launch it.

Duhej nje rakete e tere per ta leshuar.

One satellite, one rocket.

Nje satelit, nje rakete.

It cost 855 million dollars.

Kushtoi 855 milion dollare.

Satellites like these have done an amazing job

Satelite si keto kane bere nje pune fantastike

at helping us to understand our planet.

per te na ndihmuar te kuptojme planetin tone.

But if we want to understand it much more regularly,

Por nese duam ta kuptojme boten me rregullisht,

we need lots of satellites,

na duhen shume satelite,

and this model isn't scalable.

dhe ky model nuk mund te zvogelohet.

So me and my friends, we started Planet Labs

Keshtu qe une dhe shoket e mi, filluam Planet Labs

to make satellites ultra-compact

per t'i bere satelitet shume kompakte

and small and highly capable.

dhe te vegjel dhe shume te fuqishem.

I'm going to show you what our satellite looks like:

Do t'ju tregoj si duken satelitet tane:

This is our satellite.

Ky eshte sateliti yne.

This is not a scale model,

Nuk eshte nje model i zvogeluar,

this is the real size.

kjo eshte madhesia reale.

It's 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters,

Eshte 10 me 10 me 30 centimetra,

it weighs four kilograms,

peshon kater kilogram,

and we've stuffed the latest and greatest electronics

edhe e kemi mbushur me mjetet elektronike me te mira e me te fundit

and sensor systems into this little package

dhe me sisteme ndjeshmerie

so that even though this is really small,

ne menyre te tille qe edhe pse kjo eshte shume e vogel,

this can take pictures 10 times the resolution of the big satellite here,

mund te kape foto me cilesi 10 here me te mire se ky sateliti i madh ketu

even though it weighs one thousandth of the mass.

edhe pse peshon sa nje e mijeta e mases.

And we call this satellite "Dove" — Thank you.

Dhe ne e quajme kete satelit "Pellumbi" -- Faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

We call this satellite "Dove,"

Ne e quajme kete satelit "Pellumbi",

and we call it "Dove" because satellites are typically named

dhe e quajme "Pellumb" sepse sateliteve tipikisht i vihen emra zogjsh,

after birds, but normally birds of prey:

por normalisht zogjsh gjahu:

like Eagle, Hawk, Swoop, Kill, I don't know,

si Shqiponje, Skifter, Kap, Vrit, nuk e di,

Kestrel, these sort of things.

Sokol, gjera te tilla.

But ours have a humanitarian mission,

Por tonat kane nje mision humanitar,

so we wanted to call them Doves.

keshtu qe donim t'i quanim "Pellumba".

And we haven't just built them, though.

Dhe ne jo vetem i kemi ndertuar.

We've launched them.

I kemi leshuar.

And not just one, but many.

Dhe jo vetem nje, por shume.

It all started in our garage.

Gjithe kjo filloi ne garazhin tone.

Yes, we built our first satellite prototype in our garage.

Po, ne ndertuam prototipin e pare te satelitit tone ne garazhin tone.

Now, this is pretty normal for a Silicon Valley company that we are,

Tani, kjo eshte shume normale per nje kompani ne Silicon Valley sic jemi ne,

but we believe it's the first time for a space company.

por besojme se eshte hera e pare per nje kompani hapsinore.

And that's not the only trick we learned from Silicon Valley.

Dhe kjo nuk eshte hilja e vetme qe mesuam nga Silicon Valley.

We rapidly prototype our satellites.

Ne bejme prototipe te shpeshta te sateliteve tane.

We use "release early, release often" on our software.

Ne perdorim "lesho shpejt, lesho shpesh" ne softuerin tone.

And we take a different risk approach.

Dhe ne kemi nje menyre pakashum te ndryshme per te pare riskun.

We take them outside and test them.

I nxjerrim ata jashte dhe i testojme.

We even put satellites in space just to test the satellites,

Ne madje edhe i cojme satelitet ne hapsire sa per t'i provuar

and we've learned to manufacture our satellites at scale.

dhe kemi mesuar t'i prodhojme satelitet tane ne madhesine reale.

We've used modern production techniques

Kemi perdorur teknika moderne prodhimi

so we can build large numbers of them,

qe te mund te ndertojme shume prej tyre,

I think for the first time.

mendoj per te paren here.

We call it agile aerospace,

Ne e quajme aerohapesira e shkathet,

and that's what's enabled us to put so much capability into this little box.

dhe ajo na dha mundesine te fusim kaq shume aftesi ne kete kuti te vogel.

Now, what has bonded our team over the years

Tani, cfare e ka bashkuar skuadren tone nder vite

is the idea of democratizing access to satellite information.

eshte idea e demokratizimit te aksesit te informacionit satelitor.

In fact, the founders of our company, Chris, Robbie and I,

Ne fakt, krijuesit e kompanise sone, une, Kris dhe Robi,

we met over 15 years ago at the United Nations

ne jemi takuar mbi 15 vjet me pare tek Kombet e Bashkuara

when they were hosting a conference about exactly that question:

kur po jepnin nje konference mbi pikerisht ate pyetje:

Si mund t'i perdorim satelitet

How do you use satellites to help humanity?

per te ndihmuar njerezimin?

Si mund t'i perdorim satelitet qe te

How do you use satellites to help people in developing countries

ndihmojme njerezit ne vendet ne zhvillim

or with climate change?

ose me ndryshime klimaterike?

And this is what has bonded us.

Dhe kjo ishte cfare na bashkoi.

Our entire team is passionate about using satellites to help humanity.

E gjithe skuadra jone eshte shume e apasionuar

pas perdorimit te sateliteve per te ndihmuar njerezimin.

You could say we're space geeks,

Ju mund te thoni qe jemi te fiksuar pas hapsires,

but not only do we care about what's up there,

por neve nuk na intereson vetem cfare ka atje lart,

we care about what's down here, too.

na intereson edhe per cfare ka ketu poshte.

I'm going to show you a video

Do t'ju tregoj nje video

from just four weeks ago of two of our satellites

nga vetem kater jave me pare, te dy prej sateliteve tane

being launched from the International Space Station.

duke u leshuar nga Stacioni Nderkombetar Hapsinor.

This is not an animation,

Ky nuk eshte nje animacion,

this is a video taken by the astronaut looking out of the window.

kjo eshte nje video e kapur nga astronauti qe po shihte jashte dritares.

It gives you a bit of a sense of scale of our two satellites.

Te jep pak nje figure te madhesise se dy sateliteve tane.

It's like some of the smallest satellites ever

Eshte sikur disa nga satelitet me te vegjel ndonjehere

are being launched from the biggest satellite ever.

po leshohen nga sateliti me i madh ndonjehere.

And right at the end, the solar array glints in the sun.

Dhe tamam ne fund, veshja ndaj diellit shkelqen ne diell.

It's really cool. Wait for it.

Eshte shume e bukur. Prit.

Boom! Yeah. It's the money shot.

Bum! Po. Eshte pjesa me e bukur.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

So we didn't just launch two of them like this,

Pra ne nuk kemi leshuar vetem dy prej tyre ne kete menyre,

we launched 28 of them.

kemi leshuar 28.

It's the largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites in human history,

Eshte yjesia me e madhe e sateliteve qe fotografojne Token ne historine e njerezimit,

and it's going to provide a completely radical new data set

dhe do te mundesoje nje sasi te re te dhenash, teresisht radikale

about our changing planet.

ne lidhje me planetin tone te ndryshueshem.

But that's just the beginning.

Por ky eshte vetem fillimi.

You see, we're going to launch more than 100 of these satellites

Ne fakt, ne do leshojme me shume se 100 satelite te tille

like these over the course of the next year.

gjate vitit te ardhshem.

It's going to be the largest constellation of satellites in human history.

Do te jete yjesia me e madhe e sateliteve ne historine e njerezimit.

And this is what it's going to do:

Dhe ja cfare do beje:

Acting in a single-orbit plane that stays fixed with respect to the sun,

Duke u sjelle si aeroplan me nje orbite te vetme

qe qendron e fiksuar ne lidhje me diellin,

the Earth rotates underneath.

Toka rrotullohet poshte.

They're all cameras pointed down,

Jane te gjitha kamera te drejtuara per poshte,

and they slowly scan across as the Earth rotates underneath.

dhe ngadale ato skanojne teksa Toka rrotullohet poshte tyre.

The Earth rotates every 24 hours,

Toka rrotullohet cdo 24 ore,

so we scan every point on the planet every 24 hours.

keshtu ne mund te shohim cdo pike ne planet cdo 24 ore.

It's a line scanner for the planet.

Eshte si nje skaner linear per planetin.

We don't take a picture of anywhere on the planet every day,

Ne nuk kapim nje foto te nje vendi ne planet cdo dite,

we take a picture of every single place on the planet every day.

ne kapim nje foto te cdo vendi ne planet cdo dite.

Even though we launched these just a couple of weeks ago,

Edhe pse i leshuam keto vetem disa jave me pare,

we've already got some initial imagery from the satellites

kemi marre disa pamje fillestare nga satelitet

and I'm going to show it publicly for the first time right now.

dhe do t'i tregoj publikisht per here te pare tani.

This is the very first picture taken by our satellite.

Kjo eshte fotoja e pare e kapur nga sateliti yne.

It happened to be over UC-Davis' campus

Qelloi te ishte mbi kampusiun e UC- Davis

in California when we turned the camera on.

ne Kaliforni kur ndezem kameren.

But what's even cooler is when

Por me e bukura eshte kur

we compare it to the previous latest image of that area,

e krahasojme me foton me te fundit te meparshme te asaj zone,

which was taken many months ago.

qe i eshte bere para shume muajsh.

And the image on the left is from our satellite,

Dhe fotoja ne te majte eshte nga sateliti yne,

and we see buildings are being built.

dhe mund te shohim ndertesa duke u ndertuar.

The general point is that we will be able to track urban growth as it happens

Idea e pergjithshme eshte qe do kemi mundesine te ndjekim rritjen urbane teksa ndodh

around the whole world in all cities, every day.

rreth gjithe botes, ne te gjitha qytetet, cdo dite.

Water as well.

Edhe ujin gjithashtu.

Thank you.

Faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

We'll be able to see the extent of all water bodies

Do kemi mundesine te dallojme deri ku shkojne te gjithe trupat ujore

around the whole world every day and help water security.

rreth gjithe botes cdo dite dhe te ndihmojme sigurine e ujit.

From water security to food security.

Nga siguria e ujit ne sigurine e ushqimit.

We'll see crops as they grow in all the fields

Do shohim sesi bimet rriten neper fusha

in every farmer's field around the planet every day.

ne fushen e cdo fermeri ne bote cdo dite,

and help them to improve crop yield.

dhe t'i ndihmojme te permiresojne prodhimin e tyre.

This is a beautiful image that was taken

Ky eshte nje imazh i bukur i kapur

just a few hours ago when the satellite was flying over Argentina.

vetem para pak oresh kur sateliti po fluturonte mbi Argjentine.

The general point is

Idea e pergjithshme eshte qe

there are probably hundreds and thousands of applications of this data,

ka me shume mundesi qindra dhe mijera menyra per t'i perdorur keto te dhena,

I've mentioned a few, but there's others:

kam permendur disa, por ka akoma:

deforestation, the ice caps melting.

shpyllezimi, shkrirja e akullnajave.

We can track all of these things, every tree on the planet every day.

Mund t'i ndjekim te gjitha keto, cdo peme ne kete planet cdo dite.

If you took the difference between today's image and yesterday's image,

Nese do te merrje ndryshimin mes fotos se sotme dhe te djeshme,

you'd see much of the world news — you'd see floods and fires and earthquakes.

do te shihje shumicen e lajmeve boterore-- do shihje permbytje dhe zjarre dhe termete.

And we have decided, therefore, that the best thing that we could do with our data

Dhe ne kemi vendosur, keshu, qe gjeja me e mire per te bere me te dhenat tona

is to ensure universal access to it.

eshte te sigurojme nje aksesim mbareboteror te tyre.

We want to ensure everyone can see it.

Duam te sigurohemi qe te gjithe mund t'i shohin.

Faleminderit (Duartrokitje)

Thank you. (Applause)

We want to empower NGOs and companies and scientists and journalists

Duam t'i japim mundesine OJQ-ve dhe kompanive dhe shkencetareve e gazetareve

to be able to answer the questions that they have about the planet.

t'i pergjigjen peytjeve qe ata kane mbi planetin tone.

We want to enable the developer community to run their apps on our data.

duam t'i krijojme mundesine beresve te aplikacioneve

qe t'i perdorin ato aplikacione me te dhenat tona.

In short, we want to democratize access to information about our planet.

Shkurt, ne duam te demokratizojme aksesin e informacioneve mbi planetin tone.

Qe me sjell perseri tek kjo:

Which brings me back to this.

You see, this will be an entirely new global data set.

Pra, ky do te jete nje grup teresisht i ri mbareboteror te dhenash.

And we believe that together,

Dhe ne besojme se sebashku,

we can help to take care of our Spaceship Earth.

mund te ndihmojme qe te kujdesemi per anijen tone kozmike Toke.

And what I would like to leave you with is the following question:

Dhe ajo me te cilen do doja t'ju lija eshte kjo pyetje:

If you had access to imagery of the whole planet every single day,

Nese jo do te kishit mundesine te shihnit foto te te gjithe planetit cdo dite,

what would you do with that data?

c'do te benit me ato te dhena?

What problems would you solve?

Cfare problemesh do te zgjidhnit?

What exploration would you do?

Cfare eksplorimi do te benit?

Well, I invite you to come and explore with us.

Epo, ju ftoj te vini e te eksploroni me ne.

Thank you very much.

Shume faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)