Are Satellites the Future of IoT Connectivity? | SpaceX's Sara Spangelo

From forest fire detection to illegal logging protection and beehive detection, Sara Spangelo, Co-Founder of Swarm (a subsidiary of Elon Musk's SpaceX), discusses what new use cases satellite IoT connectivity enables. Previously plagued by spotty connection, satellite connectivity provides a more stable worldwide option for IoT devices to stay connected. Sara discusses key points in the industry, such as the current landscape, the biggest values, and the future of satellite IoT connectivity.

Sara Spangelo is a former co-founder and CEO of Swarm and current senior director of satellite engineering at SpaceX. Before founding Swarm, Sara worked on small satellites and autonomous aircraft at the University of Michigan. She was a lead systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and Google X. Her expertise is modeling and optimizing satellite constellations to maximize impact and business opportunities. Sara holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and, in 2017, was a Top 32 Canadian astronaut candidate.

Swarm's mission is to connect people and devices from anywhere in the world, at all times, at the lowest cost. Swarm Technologies is based in the US and has about 40 employees today. The company currently has over 160 satellites in LEO, providing 100% global coverage. Swarm has full regulatory approval from the FCC to operate commercially in the US and is also commercially approved in 15+ countries worldwide. Swarm intends to continue launching satellites over time as necessary to maintain and expand its satellite network. Swarm's satellites are a 1/4U in size and have a mass of 400 grams with an average lifetime of 4 years. Swarm's uniquely small satellites enable the company to provide network services and user hardware at the industry's lowest costs while delivering maximum value to customers across various industries. These industries include agriculture, energy, environmental monitoring, maritime shipping, and ground transportation, providing the highest value for low bandwidth IoT use cases such as asset tracking and sensor monitoring. Swarm Technologies offers a hardware product called the M138 Modem, a satellite modem that can be integrated into user devices. SweetSense is an example of a client implementing Swarm connectivity for its water monitoring devices. With Swarm, SweetSense has been able to save 5x versus what they were previously paying for a legacy satellite solution. The Swarm M138 Modem is currently on sale for US $59-89 until November 30, 2022, and the data plan costs US $5 per month. The data plan provides users with up to 750 packets/month with a maximum packet size of 192 bytes. Swarm just launched the Swarm [Asset Tracker], which offers an end-to-end solution for tracking equipment, vehicles, and other remote assets. The Swarm Asset Tracker functions worldwide using Swarm's global satellite network and is ideally suited for remote locations that lack terrestrial network coverage.

Discover more about IoT, connectivity at https://www.iotforall.com
More about Swarm (a subsidiary of SpaceX): https://swarm.space/

Key Questions and Topics from this Episode:
(0:00) Welcome to the IoT For All Podcast
(2:12) Introduction to Sara and Swarm
(3:13) Swarm’s mission
(6:20) Satellite IoT landscape
(8:07) Biggest values of low-cost data services
(10:26) Use cases to benefit the most
(13:34) Future of IoT connectivity
(15:54) Challenges in satellite IoT
(19:36) Exciting things from Swarm

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