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Google Earth's New Satellites

Posted by Soulskill on from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with,-my-dear dept.

Rambo Tribble writes "The BBC provides some insights into the next generation satellites being built for Google by contractor DigitalGlobe in Colorado. The resolution of these satellites' cameras is sufficient to resolve objects that are only 25cm wide. Unfortunately, the public will be allowed only half that image quality, the best being reserved for the U.S. military. 'The light comes in through a barrel structure, pointed at the Earth, and is bounced around by a series of mirrors, before being focused onto a CCD sensor. The big difference – apart from the size – between this and a typical handheld digital camera, is that the spacecraft will not just take snapshots but continuous images along thin strips of land or sea.'"

4 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Continuous Image by Vulch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Usually means the sensor is just a single strip rather than a 2D array. The sensor is aligned across the path of the satellite and the motion along that path provides the other dimension.

  2. Wow, this must be high tech! by hubie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'The light comes in through a barrel structure, pointed at the Earth, and is bounced around by a series of mirrors, before being focused onto a CCD sensor.

    Hmmmm, some kind of "barrel structure" and "bouncing light around with a series of mirrors". That all sounds pretty futuristic. And here I thought they could get by with just using something like a telescope.

  3. Re:Deliberately crippled by thomst · · Score: 5, Informative

    icebike conjectured:

    But it probably gets Google the sats it needs for free.

    If google can build it, but only the military can use the full resolution, it sounds like google is probably getting huge piles of money from the US Military.

    The summary is completely wrong (surprise!)

    Google is NOT building the satellite (note the singular) in question. It will merely be a customer of DigitalGlobe - one of many, including the US government.

    Not that the US goverment needs DigitalGlobe's images. After all, the NSA has a fleet of its own satellites with far better image resolution capability than the DigitalGlobe effort.

    Slushdot: come for the misleading summaries, stay for the uninformed commentary!

    --
    Check out my novel.
  4. Re:Continuous Image by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, so it's a series of 1 dimensional snapshots!