Awais Ahmed is the co-founder & CEO of Pixxel, a company building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites. Unlike “traditional” cameras, these satellites can see across hundreds of bands, opening up a lot more applications. We talk about the engineering -and funding- required to pull this off and how Awais manages a company between India (where Awais is from) and the US. But that’s just the 1st part of the interview. Then we talk about his vision for the company, which goes way, way beyond sending imaging satellites.
Sponsor: OpenCage
Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
Geomob
About Awais
Shownotes
Timestamps
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:09) - Sponsor: OpenCage
(02:34) - Awais describes himself
(03:46) - Pixxel
(05:07) - What is hyperspectral?
(10:36) - Spacial, Temporal & Spectral Resolution tradeoffs
(18:01) - Hardest part of building satellites
(22:58) - The resolution spotlight
(28:38) - Image Quality Rabbit Hole
(30:42) - The tricky part of raising money
(38:52) - Awais has a big, big vision
(50:42) - Likeliness of Awais's vision within 10 years
(54:14) - Working between India & USA
(59:04) - Personnal investing
(01:01:20) - Importance of Reading
(01:05:36) - Sci-Fi & History
(01:08:33) - Book recommendation
(01:10:43) - Awais in space?
(01:11:54) - Pushing the boundaries of humanity
(01:13:14) - Optimism in a cynical world
(01:19:11) - Support the podcast on Patreon
