ASRC MS Eyes Imagery Opportunities

February 26, 2008 By: Mary Jo Wagner

ASRC Management Services (ASRC MS) may be one of the most formidable multi-million-dollar companies the geospatial industry has never heard of, but that may soon change. In January 2008, the company was awarded the exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ResourceSat and CartoSat-1. Though relatively unknown outside of U.S. federal government circles, ASRC MS is now preparing to permeate the U.S. market with the relatively unknown data assets of the ResourceSat and CartoSat-1 satellites.

Tim Lewis, president of ASRC MS, spoke with Mary Jo Wagner from his Greenbelt, Maryland, office about the staying power of medium-resolution satellites, the company’s plans for building its satellite-imagery business, and how its entrance into the geospatial industry is particularly opportune.

MJW: What’s the history behind the launch of ASRC MS, and what is its relationship to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC)?

TL: ASRC Management Services is an Alaskan Native Corporation and a subsidiary of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. We were established to serve the needs of the various federal government agencies as they strive to meet their ever-growing demand for the capture, control, and dissemination of information. In short, we were chartered to be an information management company.

MJW: ASRC MS started in 2002 with a workforce of one — yourself. Today it has over 700 employees across 40 states, with revenues of more than $55 million. To what do you attribute your substantial growth in a relatively short time?

TL: We actually finished 2007 with over 900 employees and sales of just over $95 million. We attribute our success to our employees, first. Their hard work and dedication to high customer satisfaction is what gets our name out there and affords us the ability to pursue other contracts.

We have also received opportunities through the federal government small business program. As a participant in this program you can bid on contracts that are limited to small businesses only, so you’re not competing against large vendors such as Lockheed Martin or Raytheon. We took advantage of the opportunities provided to us under this program and we were successful in those pursuits. That’s the catalyst that helped us to get to where we are today.

Now we’re preparing and positioning ourselves to enter the full and open marketplace and compete against those big companies. So hopefully we have built and prepared the company to go to that next level. One of the big contracts we’re competing for right now is a Technical Support Services contract at the USGS EROS facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This contract is a geospatial gem. EROS' mission to enable greater understanding of the Earth's land resources depends on high-quality science and readily accessible data. The importance and value of the Landsat data captured and archived at the EROS Data Center, and the analysis performed on the data by USGS and others throughout the world, is immeasurable. With this tender we’re competing against SAIC, Honeywell, and other big corporations. We hope to have a response on the bid in March, with a contract award in early April.

MJW: Your core competencies have included business management, information management, and IT services, with a seemingly smaller emphasis on geospatial analysis. What motivated you to want to enter the geospatial services sector as a satellite imagery provider? What opportunities did you see?

TL: We did begin with those core competencies, but as we got our arms around our business and obtained new customers, we found other ways to leverage those contracts, that expertise, and those assets into bigger and better business opportunities. That’s how we got to where we are today with the geospatial industry.

Our foray into the geospatial market was through an outgrowth of a contract we had with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). One of the first tasks on that contract was to develop a new business plan that looked at the mission, the resources, and the technology drivers and options within that mission to enable huge success for the USDA FAS. The FAS has been one of the big purchasers of Landsat images. The USDA FAS’s primary responsibility for USDA’s international activities is market development, trade agreements and negotiations, and the collection and analysis of statistics and market information. As such, a primary mission of FAS is to target, collect, analyze, and disseminate timely, objective, useful, and cost-effective global crop condition and agricultural production information. The purpose is to provide unbiased commodity estimates and forecasts to create a marketing edge for U.S. producers in world markets. Satellite imagery is just one of the many inputs for the USDA FAS to utilize to accomplish its mission. They used the Landsat imagery as one data source to analyze the foreign agriculture market, the health of the crops, and yields.

That study was what led us down this geospatial path. We saw opportunities to do other things outside of that contract. So we leveraged that experience and success at USDA to enter into this business sector.

We see a short-term opportunity for us right now with the rights to the IRS platform to alleviate the coming Landsat data gap caused by the sensor failure on Landsat 7 and the ailing Landsat 5 satellite. We see an opportunity to help alleviate that gap in the short term — that’s what we’re doing at USDA. We’re using the IRS data exclusively for functions that can be accomplished or augmented by mid-resolution imagery; we use Landsat data sparingly. We’ve evolved to the new platform because when you start doing analysis and you’re looking at change from year to year or week to week you want to have continuity and frequent revisit rates. The effective revisit time of ResourceSat is almost twice that of Landsat. Resolving how to provide the USDA FAS with data continuity was one of the significant factors we looked at in our initial study. And the IRS program is a great program with which to do that.

In the longer term, we see that there are other opportunities to succeed in the remote sensing industry with the federal government and the commercial markets. Our licensing agreement for ResourceSat and CartoSat-1 will allow us to sell to other agencies beside the USDA. We plan to sell to all the government agencies that use remotely sensed data, whether that’s the USGS, NASA, EPA, DHS, or whoever it may be.

MJW: Now that you offer geospatial services in your business portfolio, will you still primarily serve federal government customers or do you have plans to service state and local government agencies as well?

TL: We absolutely plan to expand our customer base. Our exclusive rights just started in January so we are now rolling out our marketing plan and setting up our value-added reseller network. We’ll be the source of the imagery, and VARs can then add value to that imagery to provide to the state and local or commercial markets. We hope to provide images to state and local and federal governments. We’re not going to exclude anybody. But we do believe our primary customer will be the federal government.

MJW: What was your interest in distributing the ResourceSat and CartoSat-1 data rather than other possibilities, such as those in the very high-resolution radar or optical markets?

TL: The multi-spectral satellites are the platforms you want to use for the Earth science and monitoring-type applications that we have customers for right now. We see value there, but we do believe there will be future opportunities for us to enter into some of the other programs as time matures, whether that be a Radarsat or some other type of remote sensing satellite. The customers we support right now have a need for medium-resolution, multi-spectral-type data sources, and we plan to earnestly support this market segment.

MJW: Is this exclusive contract the first of its kind for you?

TL: The first that we’ve entered into like this, yes.

MJW: You negotiate contracts and acquire all satellite imagery for the USDA. How did that contract come about, and do you provide that consulting service to other government agencies?

TL: For the USDA, the first thing we did was to review and revise their business plan and to create a technology road map to enable them to fulfill their longer-term mission goals. In doing that, we developed a consulting model for the purchasing of satellite imagery and to remove them from the administrative tasks of ordering imagery. That way, the USDA just gives us their requirements and we obtain the data for them from a variety of sources — one of the main data sources is the IRS ResourceSat platform, but it can also be from the high-resolution platforms like DigitalGlobe, or GeoEye’s WorldView. It depends on what they’re looking for. We have pre-negotiated image prices with these various vendors, which was a nice advantage to USDA.

MJW: Do you know if the USDA is interested in bringing radar into the program, or are they still predominately looking at optical?

TL: I don’t think we’ve actually had a need for that at the moment, but it sure could be an opportunity to add, depending on what it is they’re trying to analyze. We do see a time when to efficiently and effectively meet mission requirements, customers will obtain data from a wide range of remote sensing sources. Some of these will be non-U.S.-based systems, and as such they could be owned by either commercial entities or by other governments. We believe we can add a lot of value in this approach.

MJW: As the medium-resolution ResourceSat was specifically designed for agriculture applications and Earth resources, it seems to be a good fit for you in your role as the satellite imagery provider to the USDA. Is the data in fact a satellite image source for the USDA?

TL: Yes, it’s one of the major sources we’re using now. That’s what we own the exclusive rights to in the U.S.

MJW: Apart from federal government agencies, can other users order and acquire ResourceSat and CartoSat-1 data from you? If so, what kind of data coverage can you offer customers, and how do they acquire it?

TL: For U.S. data, they can order directly from our customer service center or from our Web site where you’ll see a link to satellite imagery; clicking on that link will take customers to the contact points for ordering. We have a toll-free number customers can call, or they can contact one of our value-added resellers and the reseller would contact us for the imagery. There are various ways to acquire the data. Our data coverage is all of North America, but our exclusive rights are for the U.S. only.

MJW: ResourceSat was launched in 2003; CartoSat-1 in 2005. How has the commercial market for this data fared, and what is your plan for the two data sources for the U.S. market? How do you see it growing in the U.S.?

TL: Very well. ResourceSat is still fairly new, and as with any new product being brought to market, it takes a while to become accepted and to gain the confidence of your customers. So it’s starting to build traction now. During the last two years, once we became involved through our USDA FAS contract, sales really started to grow. Once we proved that the imagery was reliable, high-quality, and useful for what the end users wanted, then the market started to grow around that. So things are going well now. We’re predicting 20 to 30 percent growth over the next few years for the U.S. market.

For CartoSat-1, that data stream has not been previously available in the U.S. It’s been used in foreign locations in Europe, such as with Euromap for telecom applications, because it’s particularly good for mapping applications. It provides stereoscopic images, so you can create DEMs with the data. As this data wasn’t available in the U.S., we’re hoping to bring that online this year. We’ll be receiving the data at the U.S. ground station in Norman, Oklahoma. We’re just rolling out our marketing for that, and we hope to be fully operational later this year and supporting the cartographic applications and mapping industry in the U.S.

MJW: So for CartoSat-1, it might be a bit more time before users can begin ordering imagery?

TL: We’re talking to folks. We’re trying to make sure we have all of our equipment needs met and the resources we’ll need to service customers first. We’ve had enough interest from the commercial market so far that we believe it’s a smart decision to pursue the imagery, and we plan to be up and running and selling that data to cartographic mapping providers very soon.

Cartosat-1 has two panchromatic cameras that take black-and-white stereoscopic images in the visible light spectrum at a resolution of 2.5 meters. The stereo images can be used to create accurate elevation data of the Earth and create three-dimensional image maps, such as this digital terrain model of Warsaw.

MJW: How are these satellite sources being used operationally at present? What kind of operational applications are there?

TL: There are three instruments on the ResourceSat spacecraft, and those are primarily used for natural resource and land change applications and agricultural monitoring and analysis, which is what the USDA does with it. Globally it’s used for crop discrimination, crop yield prediction and assessment, soil wetness, forest fire mapping, snow cover mapping, urban land use classification, and as a source for carbon sequestration monitoring. That’s why it is of high interest to end users interested in environmental applications and change detection.

The most advanced satellite built by ISRO, ResourceSat carries three cameras similar to those of IRS-1C and IRS-1D but with improved spatial resolutions. A high-resolution, multi-spectral Linear Imaging Self Scanner with 5.8-meter spatial resolution; a medium-resolution multi-spectral LISS with 23.5-meter resolution; and an Advanced Wide Field Sensor offering 56-meter resolution. The AWiFS image above is of South Africa.

The CartoSat-1 imagery is designed for mapping applications such as generating large-scale topographic maps, creating DEMs, disaster management support, relief planning, and telecom facility planning, which is a major application in Germany. So each platform has its applications in the market. For natural resource and land applications, a wider swath is what you’re really looking for, and frequent revisit is very important for those applications. Its versatility is an asset that we’re excited to bring to the U.S., and at a price point that allows us to compete with some of the other satellite platforms out there.

MJW: Despite the high profile and demand for very high-resolution optical and radar data, the medium- to high-resolution satellites such as ResourceSat and CartoSat-1 have been able to maintain healthy market share. Why do you think they are still strong? Do you see continued growth potential?

TL: They are healthy markets because of the applications and the end users. There are many people using the imagery for land change issues and Earth resource monitoring. That’s where the multi-spectral, wide swath comes into play as a big value. They are a great fit for the market that is using the data. It’s their best value deal. They can do a lot with it. It meets their requirements. It’s not as expensive as the high resolution. It’s a very cost-effective option for their applications, and we hope to continue to supply that and will do our best to make sure those prices are as low as possible.

These satellites have not been marketed as heavily in the U.S. So we see this as an opportunity for us to educate end users on what these platforms can do for them. By doing that we think it’ll help us grow the market share here.

MJW: Since entering the geospatial market, what has been your overall impression of the industry so far — particularly the satellite imagery sector?

TL: I think it’s still a developing industry, and one that will continue to evolve and adapt to the changing customer requirements over time. We believe we’re entering the market at a very opportune time, and we also have great partners in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), ANTRIX (the commercial arm of ISRO), EoTec, and Global Marketing Insights who all helped put this package together with us. ISRO has the technology and sensors, and most of all a robust plan for continued development and augmentation of the current fleet of operational satellites. That’s where the Landsat program in the U.S. is faltering a bit. We didn’t have a replacement. We think the Indian program is a very committed one, and it’s very robust from that standpoint, and that’ll help us build a business plan in the U.S. I think the end users in this industry are moving toward using images from multi-platforms to meet their requirements. If you can bring satellite data sources together, such as Landsat and ResourceSat, and integrate the best attributes of both, you can get a better product. We see people use data from a variety of different sources.

MJW: What are your geospatial plans for the future?

TL: Our plans are to grow in this business and to be around for a long time. We’re excited about the prospects available to us right now in the geospatial industry. We’re confident that we can capture a significant portion of the medium-resolution business, and we’re going to continue to pursue other opportunities in this sector. We’re working on some other things that I can’t discuss yet, but we’ll have some announcements later this year that will be of interest. This is a business we want to stay in, and we think we can make a mark in this business. We’re also hopeful that we will successfully capture additional opportunities within the federal government, such as the USGS EROS contract, but we are also looking at other opportunities with USDA, NASA, NOAA, and other major users of geospatial data and services.

There are also exciting opportunities to support the commercial side of this industry, as the use of geospatial data continues to become an essential part of our personal lives.

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