Landsat in context: The land remote sensing business model

Earth remote sensing has long been considered essential to human endeavors. Beginning with military reconnaissance and evolving to weather, agriculture, environmental, and disaster monitoring, remote sensing broadens our view and provides context for our actions. While the provision of airborne remote sensing data is overwhelmingly a function of the commercial sector, space remote sensing remains predominately the purview of the public sector. Most attempts to commercialize space remote sensing have failed because there has not been a consumer base large enough to finance the enormous fixed costs of designing, building, launching, and operating space remote sensing systems. This paper reviews the business models for remote sensing with a particular emphasis on the Landsat program including its history and its political economy.