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Swarms of Small Satellites Set To Deliver Close To Real-Time Imagery of Earth
ananyo writes "A swarm of small satellites set to deliver close to real-time imagery of swathes of the planet is launching today. San Francisco-based Planet Labs, founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, is scheduled to launch 28 of its 'Doves' on 9 January. Each toaster-sized device weighs about 5 kilograms and can take images at a resolution of 3–5 metres. Meanwhile Skybox Imaging plans to launch a swarm of 24 satellites, each weighing about 100 kilograms, which will take images of 1 meter resolution or better. Skybox launched its first satellite on 21 November (and captured the first HD video of the world from space) and plans to launch another this year, followed by the remainder between 2015 and 2017. In a first — at least for civilian satellites — Skybox's devices will also stream short segments of near-live high-resolution video footage of the planet. So, too, will UrtheCast, a start-up based in Vancouver, Canada, whose cameras will hitch a ride on the International Space Station. Because the swarms are still to be launched, scientists have yet to fully assess the quality of the imagery. But the satellites' spatial resolutions of 1–5 metres are much higher than those of most scientific satellites. Landsat, NASA's Earth-observation workhorse, for example, has a resolution of 15–100 metres depending on the spectral frequency, with 30 metres in the visible-light range."
I'm sure film cameras have been in space before and they are much higher quality than HD.
they will know every time i take the train too
I believe the military already has this capability. I saw them track a subject on a bicycle in real time, in the documentary film "Enemy of the State."
Just what we need. More crap in orbit.
We will never see the images. They will be declared top secret in the name of terrorism by homeland security.
Where I am there is aerial photography done but none of it is viewable by common people now.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
Creepy.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
If people won't show restraint with respect to the sovereignty of nations and the privacy of the people, then at some point someone will put an end to the usability of low earth orbit by blowing up a couple of these things with explosives. "Because we can" cuts both ways.
And where are the Europeons?
Russia is part of Europe geographically and Russia is how NASA gets to space these days.
Of who owns the airspace above the atmosphere. Understanding that each Country in the world has control over the airspace within it's borders, but what what elevation does that cease? Could you launch a vehicle from international waters taking your own satellites into orbit and beyond the control of anyone? I'm sure it would upset many folks. Resources not being an issue for such an undertaking.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
More space junk when they fail. Didn't read the article, but hopefully their orbit is sufficiently low that they will quickly spiral down.
I assume the satellites themselves have minimal delta-v so how do you end up covering "large swaths of earth" with a bunch of satellites launched at the same time from the same craft?
imagine what the NRO's 30+ ELINT/SIGINT satellites are doing across the FULL spectrum. mapping out and monitoring brain electrical activity, tapping into electronics remotely, radar systems for viewing people everywhere they go.. watching your energy signatures even under cover of buildings, etc.
I calculated that based on Moore's law (governors optics, sensors, transistors, and integrated circuitry/CMOS), that satellites today are approximately 65536 times more powerful than Hubble was when it launched in 1990. And I already heard that 13+ year old NRO satellites were about 1000 times more powerful than Hubble was, so today ... yeah they got things that can watch the electromagnetic emission of neurons from space, in your genitals, and brain for example. imaging all that energy pretty precisely. and that is in addition to being able to read books from ground from space, and all that garbage that has been known to be possible for years.
O.O
full article about it here, with NSA Whistleblower Russell Tice talking about using space capability to spy on Americans + remote mind reading patents, etc : http://www.oregonstatehospital.net/d/russelltice-nsarnmebl.html
The Ural Mountains delineate the border between Europe and Asia. 75% of Russia lies in Asia.
I work on the Landsat program. The article pulls Landsat out as an example of mid-resolution satellites, but it's really an apples-to-oranges comparison. Landsat 8 has 11 spectral bands, including thermal IR, a Cirrus band, a coastal aerosol band, and so on. All of these are used for scientific purposes. The Dove and Skysat instruments have 3 or 4 bands, just enough to get an RGB picture and maybe some chlorophyll distinction for agriculture producers.
Landsat is used to study land cover change, find new resources, map fire scars, and other applications that require precision and data depth; the swarm satellites will be used to make maps and that's about it. Both are important, but comparing one to the other is like comparing a smart car to a grain combine. They're used for totally different purposes.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Bzzzzrrrt.
75% of Russia is in Asia.
The actual launches and landings occur in Khazakstan which is not part of either Russia or Europe.
NASA gets to orbit a number of different ways, including some private companies nowadays.
how long until they get commandeered for "other" uses? or perhaps they already are?
Digital Globe already offers 41cm resolution. Much of Google Earth imagery comes from their satellites. This new constellation will produce lower-res information, but more frequently. Useful for traffic studies and such, but the market isn't clear.
Ever heard of ESA? Because your oh-so-great United States of Fucktards pulled the plug on space missions, the ISS now relies on European ATVs for supplies, just to give you an example. We humble Europeans might not do the megalomaniac stuff you Americans do (well.. did!), but without us your space program would halt to a complete standstill.
NSA backdoor. Check!
No good deed goes unpunished.
Where are the Europeans? Oh, I don't know... (http://www.astrium.eads.net/, http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10008/, http://www.cnes.fr/web/CNES-en/7114-home-cnes.php)
Swarm?
I see a bunch of sats moving around, some coordinated, some independently at will. But I thought these are just LEO sats in specific positions, aka a average constellation, or a fleet. Not even close to a swarm aside from being cool, like a buzzword.
If you did anything, we couldn't see it.
No surprise here. America still kicking ass and taking names in the space business. While China struggles to launch a monkey into orbit, private American companies are now dominating the space race. And where are the Europeons? Has Britain even launched a satellite yet? Ever? Well of course if we told them to launch one they would. America's whipping boy.
Anyway, good job here. Can't wait to see the results!
We did. Back in the 60's and it is still up there. It's called "prospero X1". Launched from Woomera atop a black arrow rocket.
Um No. As someone who has worked with remote sensing imagery the resolution is not all that good. Landsat is ancient and there are loads of other high resolution options. The resolutions these "swarms" have are not particularity good.
The interesting part is the in "real time" bit.
However in that I am even doubtful unless they are using very large values for "real" time.
Anyone that has worked with this kind of data will tell you A) it is usually HUGE, and B) marginally compresses. Data has to be sent from satellite to ground. That means transmission. At what speed? Unless they have discovered a way of sending data magically faster than the rest of the world, it is still constrained by that. In addition, most of the time these sorts of images need to be processed, and with the volume of data we are talking about, even machines with a lot of processing power can be pushed to the limit, doing small chunks for days.
That said, I would be really excited if it really worked. This would allow for all sorts of scientific observations, and resource management, and a host of other things. (if only in small limited areas which are predetermined by orbit)
I get a kick out of all the TV and movies like Enemy of the State depicting satellite tracking and zooming etc... Enhance! Sure it is possible that some secret agency somewhere has some magic technology that does this. Then again has your encounters with any other branch of government given you the idea that this might be a possibility?
Maybe the real story here is that that satellites are really cheap to build and launch, meaning that we may have access to half decent (1-5m resolutions) coverage over most of the globe soon most of the time. Still processing may be a problem. So rather than a very poor update measured in years, you might get something better is much less time. Maybe. I presume these are commercial, and will have to make a profit off these somehow. Selling the data to Google Maps perhaps?
So now we can really say "What did you film this with? A toaster?"
I think you are confusing meter with centimeter, here.
You're saying that it's possible to launch a satellite into orbit around the earth, turn a camera on that satellite towards earth, and watch what's happening in "almost" real-time?!
Whatever you do, don't let the NSA know about this - they might start spying on us...
Ken
I have discovered NASA - A == NSA !
Yours In Crypto,
Kilgore Trout, Akademgorodok
NSA, CIA, NRO, Israel , ???
Been rewatching "Max Headroom" (one of my all-time faves) lately and have been so impressed with how much they foresaw. Sure, today's cameras are a lot smaller and several details about society and industry were a bit off-base, but the idea that information is more valuable than money, the rise of corporate power while governments decline in relevance, and a lot of other things they got spot on.
That said, the live telemetry from "satcams" is something which has been missing. Google made a big leap forward with Maps and Streetview, I just wanted it to all connect together in realtime like at Theora's console... nice to know we're still making progress!
Perfectly Normal Industries
No, NASA - A = NAS ;-)
Also know as the Kessler Syndrome.
A beowulf cluster of these..... I know I just brought back a dinosaur.
You just know the nsa is gonna love this. Sure, the nro already has satellites, but think of how many more eyeballs there'll be available to co-opt.
No, NASA = ANASS -- FTFY,,,
Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
What is the goal of this project?
Twinstiq, game news
If real time imagery is possible, can this be used to track and intercept incoming missiles?
Goresat lives!
Table-ized A.I.
..."photograph huge swathes of the planet as often as several times each day — a frequency much higher than that achieved by current Earth-observing satellites." Well no wonder ananyo didn't include anything about latency in his summary. Chaturbate is close to real-time. This is not.
Spent All My Mod Points
Some of us are looking at the stars, and some of us are finding new real time ways to look at the ALL the gutters.
Best post of the thread.