Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
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Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#2That is pretty awesome. I would be very interested in limits of modern reconnaissance hardware in orbit, if commercial microsats can produce video with clearly visible cars.
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#3Site is down for me. Any mirrors?
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#4That is pretty awesome. I would be very interested in limits of modern reconnaissance hardware in orbit, if commercial microsats can produce video with clearly visible cars.
Well, in 1985 US Spy satellites (declassified in 2011) had a resolution of 2-3 feet[1]. "Keyhole-class" (KH) reconnaissance satellites have been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 years and reportedly have a resolution of 5-6 inches[2].
[1]http://news.yahoo.com/declassified-us-spy-satellites-reveal-...
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#5That is pretty awesome. I would be very interested in limits of modern reconnaissance hardware in orbit, if commercial microsats can produce video with clearly visible cars.
Well, in 1985 US Spy satellites (declassified in 2011) had a resolution of 2-3 feet[1]. "Keyhole-class" (KH) reconnaissance satellites have been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 years and reportedly have a resolution of 5-6 inches[2]. [1] http://news.yahoo.com/declassified-us-spy-satellites-reveal-... [2] http://science.howstuffworks.com/question529.htm
That is precisely why I mentioned modern, in particular would be interesting to know if given a good angle they can resolve phone number being entered on a cell phone with physical keyboard (nokia 3390 for example).
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#6Wonder if this can be used over Ukraine/Crimea?
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, in 1985 US Spy satellites (declassified in 2011) had a resolution of 2-3 feet[1]. "Keyhole-class" (KH) reconnaissance satellites have been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 years and reportedly have a resolution of 5-6 inches[2]. [1] http://news.yahoo.com/declassified-us-spy-satellites-reveal-... [2] http://science.howstuffworks.com/question529.htm
That is precisely why I mentioned modern, in particular would be interesting to know if given a good angle they can resolve phone number being entered on a cell phone with physical keyboard (nokia 3390 for example).
Not sure if troll. The answer is no. 5-6 inch resolution means that one pixel will represent 5-6 inches. You wouldn't even be able to see the phone.
Edit: Sorry, understood your comment now. The real problem isn't resolution, it's "getting a good angle". Unless your target and the satellite's orbit are magically aligned at a precise moment, you're going to have an extremely hard time getting a satellite into position in a reasonable time (the best commercial satellites can do is around 6 hours).
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is precisely why I mentioned modern, in particular would be interesting to know if given a good angle they can resolve phone number being entered on a cell phone with physical keyboard (nokia 3390 for example).
Not sure if troll. The answer is no. 5-6 inch resolution means that one pixel will represent 5-6 inches. You wouldn't even be able to see the phone. Edit: Sorry, understood your comment now. The real problem isn't resolution, it's "getting a good angle". Unless your target and the satellite's orbit are magically aligned at a precise moment, you're going to have an extremely hard time getting a satellite into position…
Parent knows this, and was asking what could be done with modern hardware, given that keyhole-class satellites have been up for 30 years.
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#9There are some hard, unforgiving physical limits on resolution of photographs from orbit, even with digital correction of the images. For one thing, the camera is necessarily far away, and moving fast at the same time.[1] I was able to follow the specific link just kindly submitted here, which of course shows a rather large object (a commercial airliner). The satellite company's image gallery[2] compares quite favorably in resolution to an earlier company's image gallery we discussed here on HN about three years ago. But it will be quite a while--perhaps never--before some of the statements about satellite imagery that were already being made for propaganda purposes in the 1960s will be anything close to reality, even for classified military intelligence satellites. We won't be reading people's mobile phone screens from orbit ever, probably. Unmanned drone aircraft are at nearer distance and travel at slower speed, and provide a much better platform than earth-orbiting satellites for high-resolution spying.
[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=6DBnS2g-KrQC&pg=PA204&lpg=P...
Re: Planes Landing in Beijing: Video from Space
#10Wonder if this can be used over Ukraine/Crimea?
I am pretty certain that's exactly what CIA is doing right now, but using their own spy satellite constellation.