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NewSpaceVision

#46: Why Thermal Data Will Transform Earth Observation (feat. Constellr’s Max Gulde, Co-Founder & CEO)

NewSpaceVision

NewSpaceVision

Technology

4.04 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if you could take the temperature of the entire planet - accurately, continuously, and in high resolution?

In this episode, we sit down with Max Gulde, co-founder & CEO of Constellr, whose team is launching a global thermal intelligence layer powered by microsatellites. Their goal: unlock new capabilities across agriculture, defense, urban planning, climate resilience, and beyond.

Max shares the unfiltered story behind Constellr’s rise - from ISS payload fiascos and 14 failed grant applications, to two successful satellite launches and major governmental partnerships. Along the way, he breaks down why thermal is the most underrated data source in Earth observation, and why accuracy (not just resolution) is the real game-changer.

We also dive into:

🌡️ Why temperature is the only continuous environmental variable - and why that unlocks “interpolated” EO data

🚀 How Constellr went from a Fraunhofer spin-off to a venture-backed space company

🔭 The difference between thermal sensing and traditional optical/radar data

🌍 Agriculture, defense, urban heat, industrial monitoring - and the markets thermal will reshape

🛰️ What’s coming next: 10+ satellites, meter-level thermal, and a queryable digital twin of the planet

Max’s stories are wild, insightful, and often hilarious - so don’t miss it.

Follow Max & Constellr:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-gulde-6563573/

https://www.constellr.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellr/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxe1n8xrOopkNKsDQqxVnUQ

https://www.instagram.com/constellr__/


Follow NewSpaceVision:

https://de.linkedin.com/company/newspacevision

https://twitter.com/newspacevision

https://www.instagram.com/newspacevision/

https://www.facebook.com/newspacevision/

https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/newspace/

This podcast is sponsored by LiveEO. For more information on how Earth observation can help your company, contact:

info@live-eo.com

podcast@newspace.vision

podcast@live-eo.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

After two days of basically not sleeping and Maris, my co-founder, who has wear a technical hand, he was devastated. He was probably the most devastated after 11 months of just marathon sprinting. A guy walks past the IT guy with a T-shirt, it says, did you try switching it off and out again? It's like, oh, yeah, that's the way we can do it. So we call it Houston and said, hey, switch it off and on again, maybe two or three times. And it turns out the Wi-Fi driver of the space station was not updated and had the problem doing the update. So it's a trillion-dollar space infrastructure, and they forgot to update, yeah, a flippin Wi-Fi driver.

0:52.2

Hi, and welcome to the new space vision podcast sponsored by Life here where we chat about new space technology, finance and innovation with executives, founders and more exciting people from the startup and new space ecosystem.

0:58.8

I'm Daniel Seid.

0:59.7

And I'm Sam Shriver.

1:00.8

And together we are the founders of the Earth Observation Company, LiveEO, and New Space Vision.

1:05.1

Today's guest is Max Goulder, our friend and CEO of Consular.

1:08.9

Backed by an impressive array of investors, Kansela is planning

1:11.7

a sophisticated constellation of thermal microsets with incredible high resolution to optimize

1:16.8

water usage in the agricultural sector. And these satellites, of course, are supported by Kansela's own

1:22.3

data platform. And we're very excited to hear more about that. But first, welcome Max.

1:26.5

Hey, welcome, Sven.

1:28.3

Welcome, Daniel.

1:29.3

Thanks so much for having me here.

1:31.3

And I was sure if I'm invited because I'm executive or just an interesting news space person.

1:35.3

Hopefully, interesting new space person.

1:37.3

Both.

1:38.3

And actually, in the background of this podcast, I'm really happy that we're sitting together right now

1:43.3

because we tried at multiple times, like three times, and always was something coming in between. So really good that we're sitting together now. I shouldn't mention my calendar. I'm sorry for that. All good. I just came into the office two minutes prior to the podcast starting because I was at the other event. But that's the different stories. Before we talk about Konsla, obviously we know one another since quite a few years now.

2:04.0

But on your LinkedIn profile, it says that you started out your career as a physicist.

2:09.3

So can you tell us what brought you to the new space industry and what have you been doing

2:13.0

before running the show at Kanselaar?

2:15.4

Yes.

...

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