How Big Data is fueling SpaceX, NASA and Space Exploration

28

September

2016

4.75/5 (4)

SpaceX has recently announced their ambition to take humankind to mars and to make us a multi-planetary species. After SpaceX also received a $1.6 billion contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station (SpaceX, 2016), the company is the fueled by an immense growth rate. To continue the transformation of space exploration, the firm hopes to receive over $10 billion in the next years.

So how does big data come into play? By the time you have read solely this sentence, NASA would have already gathered nearly 2 gigabytes of data from their current undertakings (NASA, 2016). With the growth and development of this market, SpaceX plans to launch more satellites and collect even larger amounts of data to help support their space missions. This data is seen as one of the most important resources to help the research and science behind these undertakings.

One of the biggest steps forward will be the construction of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA); one of the biggest multi-radio telescopes in the world. Due to its size, the project is planning to be built in South Africa and Australia, generating an Exabyte (= one billion gigabytes) of raw data per day to explore the unknown. Researchers even expect up to 700 Terabytes of data per second to be processed from the SKA alone (SKA, 2016).

It is not only the SKA which provide us with data for future developments; other technologies such as NASA’s Mars Rover upload tens of thousands of data points, helping us learn and study new planets (Forbes, 2016).

What is important is not the amount of data we collect from these processes, but much rather how we analyze and use them to create value. Information and Data is a fundament on which most of the operations of SpaceX, NASA and all other space exploration corporations are built upon. As this industry is fueled with the growth of information technology, there will be an increasing big data challenge to make use of this information in the most viable way. Currently, we are only just in the early stages of exploring the big data universe, but what lies ahead is boundless economy of digital opportunities.

References

Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/04/14/amazing-big-data-at-nasa-real-time-analytics-150-million-miles-from-earth/2/#28e1bb02ae1e [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].

openNASA. (2016). What is NASA doing with Big Data today? | openNASA. [online] Available at: https://open.nasa.gov/blog/what-is-nasa-doing-with-big-data-today/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].

SKA Telescope. (2016). The Square Kilometre Array SKA Home. [online] Available at: https://www.skatelescope.org/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].

SpaceX. (2016). Company. [online] Available at: http://www.spacex.com/about [Accessed 28 Sep. 2016].

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Video – The Future of Digital Content

27

September

2016

5/5 (4)

Have you noticed that more and more of your Facebook content has become video?

The way content has been portrayed over the history of humanity has had various forms. Aging back to the 1600s when the first newspapers were physical printed, to yesterday’s digitalization, where most of our content is now virtually displayed on our smart devices. This development in technology entails numerous changes in the way we create, view and use visual content.

Video as a medium has become one of the most popular forms of conveying information in today’s society. Mostly since it can convey a large amount of information in little time. As a result, many businesses leverage this medium to engage their audience in a new & modern ways. “Most of the content 10 years ago was text, and then photo, and now it’s quickly becoming videos” Zuckerberg. (Fast Company, 2016).

With up to 8 billion video views per day, Facebook is expecting 90% of the newsfeed to be in the form of videos (BBC, 2016). Even Cisco believes that video will make up for 80-90% of the Internet traffic by 2019 (Cisco, 2015). With this development, we business students need to ask ourselves – how we can use video for the good of our future businesses.

Businesses can benefit from video content in countless ways. The most popular and also common way video is currently used is to advertise a company’s product or service. People who view web video are 65% more likely to purchase than other site visitors (Adiele Studios, 2015). As such, it is becoming close to essential to make use of video as a medium, if any business wants to keep the upper hand of the market.

Is video really worthwhile considering though for small businesses? Definitely! Making videos has never been as affordable and easy. With numerous programs and platforms such as the Wideo.co, users can make engaging videos for free with little prior video editing knowledge. Templates can easily be used to kickstart various types of videos ranging from simple tutorials to product explainers.

With the growing amount of video content in this world, it is crucial that a business does not miss out on this step. More than 800 million hours of video already exist on YouTube alone (YouTube, 2016). However, only few of them reach their viral potential and ultimately boost the businesses value. The importance every company needs to consider behind a video is the audience. A company needs to clarify whom they want to reach with their video and what message they want to get across. If this is done in a creative and unique way, the reach and potential of a video is immense.

Video-Mobile-Growth

 

References

 

Adeliestudios.com. (2016). The Top 15 Video Marketing Statistics for 2015 | Adelie Studios. [online] Available at: http://www.adeliestudios.com/top-15-video-marketing-statistics-2015/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

Cisco. (2016). Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019 White Paper. [online] Available at: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

Fast Company. (2016). Mark Zuckerberg: Soon, The Majority Of Content We Consume Will Be Video. [online] Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3057024/fast-feed/mark-zuckerberg-soon-the-majority-of-content-we-consume-will-be-video [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

Social Media Today. (2016). Top 5 Facebook Video Statistics for 2016 [Infographic]. [online] Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/top-5-facebook-video-statistics-2016-infographic [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

the Guardian. (2015). Why online video is the future of content marketing. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/jan/14/video-content-marketing-media-online [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

The Huffington Post. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lucia-doynel/video-is-the-future-of-co_b_9759344.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

The Wideo Blog. (2012). The Power of Web Video Innovation | The Video Marketing Blog. [online] Available at: http://wideo.co/blog/the-power-of-web-video-innovation/#.V-JibJOF7rI [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

Vidyard. (2016). The Future of Video Marketing: My Top 10 Predictions. [online] Available at: https://www.vidyard.com/blog/the-future-of-video-marketing/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

Youtube.com. (2016). Statistics – YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2016].

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