[HN Gopher] Black Sky satellites return images just 58 hours aft...
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       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
        
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       (page generated 2020-08-18 23:00 UTC)