[HN Gopher] Black Sky satellites return images just 58 hours aft... ___________________________________________________________________ Black Sky satellites return images just 58 hours after launch Author : ChuckMcM Score : 18 points Date : 2020-08-17 21:30 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (techcrunch.com) (TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com) | nippoo wrote: | What, exactly, used to be so difficult about this? Do new | satellites take time to train their orbits, or test systems, or | otherwise commission when they're in the air? What technological | changes have happened recently to make this feasible? | noodlesUK wrote: | I think it's funny that people are surprised by this. It's not | new technology really, the defence sector has had taskable | satellite imagery for decades, it's just a matter of the cost | coming down to the point where it's feasible commercially. That | is super cool though. There are a lot of applications for space | based real-time imagery that could be tremendously more useful to | the majority of society than tracking bad guys. | tpmx wrote: | A random example of a useful application: realtime forest fire | detection. In e.g. Sweden during the summer months people are | still paid (well, compensated for their expenses) to fly around | in Cessnas looking for smoke plumes. | ed25519FUUU wrote: | I knew this was true when google earth launched. Every conflict | area (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) has very up-to-date images. I | assumed these were military image-requests making their way | into the commercial imagery catalogue. | gibolt wrote: | Getting a satellite into the planned orbit is often takes quite | a while, because every bit of onboard fuel either adds cost or | reduces available instrument weight. | | That is is becoming more commercially viable to begin operation | immediately is exciting! | ChuckMcM wrote: | This is an interesting capability. | | Since the very first spy satellites were placed into orbit, | adversaries have carefully tracked their orbits so that they | could avoid exposure during an overpass. This form of cat and | mouse game has had various options thrown at it, from satellites | that can change their orbits, to "cover" satellites which operate | as one thing and provide surveillance capability in addition to | their "public" persona. | | SpaceX threw up 2 satellites on a ship that was carrying 60 | separate satellites (the others being Starlink nodes). But it | _could_ throw up 60 black sky satellites if asked. Further it | could do that fairly quickly[1] from time to request to launch | using a flight proven booster. Or perhaps 30 satellites with | their own booster engine to maximize the number of orbits they | could reach. | | At some point continuous monitoring of a point on Earth becomes | simply a question of cost. That can be kind of game changing from | a geopolitical perspective. | | [1] Where quickly here is anywhere from 10 to 60 days depending | on whether or not a company like black sky could have the upper | stage on hand with the delivery system. | LargoLasskhyfv wrote: | Why bother with this, instead of having the emerging sat | constellations deployed in ways that offer continous coverage | of any place on earth, anytime, from various angles, in all | useful spectra? | | Call it _iLive_ by _Setec Astronomy_. | | Maybe make it public in ways like OpenStreetMap, combine with | something like Internet Archive, have it distributed by some | P2P-protocol. Done. | | Global transparency/awareness for all. Next best thing to the | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect | gruez wrote: | >That can be kind of game changing from a geopolitical | perspective. | | Don't forget from a civil rights perspective. Remember this[1] | from a few years ago, or this[2] a few weeks ago? Now imagine | that the government can do the same thing, all over the us, | 24/7, with zero marginal cost. | | [1] https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/how-buzzfeed-news-revealed- | hidd... | | [2] https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/y3zvwj/military-fbi- | flyin... | JKCalhoun wrote: | Yes, interesting. See a car speeding? The software knows | where the car came from, will know where it is when | "destinated". | | I suppose license-plate readers do something similar, but | this is space-based, blanket, all-seeing. | | Brave new world.... | ricardobeat wrote: | Planet Labs already has full coverage of the Earth, and with | the latest SkySat (another 3 launched earlier today) they will | have the ability to image the same point on earth 12x a day. | | I think it's very unlikely that the USA and maybe others _don | 't_ have this capability already. | 7952 wrote: | Don't forget that many of those images will be of cloud. | PoachedSausage wrote: | It must be getting pretty crowded up in LEO. How long before we | get a Kessler Effect? | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-08-18 23:00 UTC)