Near Space Labs
Balloon robots will fly over the USA
An American startup has created a network of high-altitude balloons that will use high-resolution images to identify areas prone to extreme meteorological phenomena.
The newly deployed balloons are equipped with AI-enabled robots called “Swifts,” which are capable of capturing images with a resolution of 7 centimeters per pixel, according to one from the company Near Space Labs.
Operating in the stratosphere at altitudes twice those of commercial airliners but lower than Earth observation satellites, each Swift can capture up to 1,000 square kilometers of images per flight — approximately the size of the five boroughs of New York City, says . Furthermore, the “Swifts” network reaches heights of up to 25,900 meters.
The idea started with…insurance companies. “Lots of Insurance companies still rely on aerial data collection methods from the 1950s to assess the climate risks of 2024″, explains the startup.
“With our balloons and our Swifts, insurance companies can have access to information immediately after the catastropheassess the damage and pay compensation in a few days, instead of weeks and months”, he said Rema MatevosyanCEO of Near Space Labs,
The recent rollout is projected to be beneficial, especially for the U.S. home insurance market, which has struggled to safeguard investments due to growing number of buildings destroyed by climate-related disasters and rising reconstruction costs of houses caused by inflation.
In 2023, the sector suffered a net loss of 15.2 billion dollars (around 14.4 billion euros), the worst since 2000.
“When you consider that only 6% of the $250 billion in losses caused by can be covered by insurance, it becomes clear that outdated risk assessment methods are creating a domino effect,” the statement said.
Lack of data leads to inadequate policy pricingexplains Space, which leads to losses for insurers, and ends up forcing insurers to abandon entire markets — leaving homeowners stranded and unable to secure mortgages“, explica a Near Space Labs.
“We are looking for ways to help insurers Assessing things like soil moisture for wildfire risk and new and innovative ways of mapping areas that were previously not considered high-risk areas, but currently are”, explains the CEO.
“There are neighborhoods in Colorado that are very difficult to evaluate because wildfires have suddenly become very common there,” he concludes.
