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NOAA Requires License For Photos of the Earth

Posted by timothy on from the agressive-product-placement dept.

Teancum writes "In an interesting show of the level of regulations private spacecraft designers have to go through, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has demanded that American participants of the Google Lunar X Prize obtain a license if their spacecraft are 'capable of actively or passively sensing the Earth's surface, including bodies of water, from space by making use of the properties of the electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected, or diffracted by the sensed objects.' What prompted NOAA to ask for this license came from a visit by the XPrize staff to the NOAA offices in Maryland. What is going to happen when 'space tourists' bring their private cameras along for the ride?"

7 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Secrecy to the nth absurd by twatter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Space sensing act of when??

    Is the US government the only entity that can image the planet from orbit?

    What, are they scared I might take a photo of the aliens in Area51?

    And what if I'm snapping away at Africa? Australia?

    Do I go to jail or what??

    Ridiculous.

  2. Re:Notice from NOAA to Lunar X Prize Participants by Plazmid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well then, looks like the winner of the Lunar X Prize won't launch in the US, and probably won't start a business here either.

  3. And people wonder why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The rest of the world is nowadays inclined to treat american laws with a huge "fuck you".

    Seriously, the russians (already doing it) and - god help us all - the british (virgin) are the ones already strongly involved in private space tourism. America sucks so much these days.

  4. In the Soviet States of America...... by budword · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All Soviet jokes aside, anyone notice how much the United States is resembling more and more the old school buffoons of the USSR ? It was illegal to possess accurate maps in the old USSR, to protect state secrets. Now we have the US claim you need a license to take a picture of the earth. It's just a 21st century version of screaming, "Papers Please". I for one, don't hail our old overlords.

  5. Re:Notice from NOAA to Lunar X Prize Participants by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It looks like the purpose is to protect the commercial interests of private space companies. If all the sudden people are launching rockets and giving away the data for free, that hurts space commerce. ... This policy probably had good intentions, but is now very out of date.

    Saying "if other people make money doing X, we're going to pass a law preventing you from doing X for free" never has good intentions. It can only be a favor to existing commercial interests in return for their lining politicians' pockets.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  6. Re:What will happen? by urcreepyneighbor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If Cuba ever gets its act together, it could become the hub of private space.

    --
    "The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
  7. Re:Notice from NOAA to Lunar X Prize Participants by Logic+and+Reason · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's scary is that I can't tell if you're serious.