India, June 30 -- Remember the Uttarakhand forest fires that raged for weeks in 2016? Or the massive blazes that swept through Himachal Pradesh last year? The pattern is always the same - by the time we spot most wildfires, they're already unstoppable monsters consuming thousands of hectares.

Current wildfire detection systems miss about 85% of fires during their first crucial hours when they're still small enough to contain easily.Most detection happens through frantic calls to local authorities from villagers who spot smoke or forest guards on patrol routes. Ground-based camera networks cover barely 5% of at-risk areas globally.

Here's where it gets interesting. A new constellation called FireSat just proved it can spot fires smaller ...