Posted on 10/21/2009 12:23:22 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A new generation of electro-optical imaging satellites to be built by Lockheed Martin pending congressional approval will have an aperturesize of 2.4 meters, a senior U.S.intelligence official said.
James R. Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, disclosed the aperture size — or diameter of the satellite’s primary imaging mirror — of the Next-Generation Optical satellite system Oct.19 during a keynote address here at the Geoint 2009 Symposium. Technical details and capabilities of the nation’s spy satellites typically are closely guarded secrets.
Aperture size and altitude are the two factors that determine a satellite’s imaging resolution, which is the minimum size of ground objects or features that can be distinquished in the imagery.The GeoEye-1 commercial imaging satellite, for example, has a 1.1-meter aperture and can distinguish ground objects as small as half a meter across from an orbital altitude of 681 kilometers. According to an industry source, a satellite with a 2.4-meter aperture orbiting at 600 kilometers could distinguish ground objects about 15 centimeters across.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., is doing preacquisition work on the Next-Generation Optical System, and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which buys and operates the nation’s spy satellites, expects to award the company the full-scale development contract in late 2011. The two-satellite system will be an evolutionary upgrade of the satellites Lockheed Martin has been building for decades.
However, Congress has yet to approve the Next-Generation Optical system, and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Christopher Bond (R-Mo.),
(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...
Wow, that is amazing.
Can't wait for the civilian version to be known as "Google Spy Satellite."
I was suprised too. Google might have one of their own.
i am always amazed at this tech. i would love to see how they integrate everything as i betting it would be very very impressive. making these images available to ground assault troops or at least commanders in real time would give a huge advantage IMHO. whatever happened all that 21 century soldier stuff??
It is one of those things that you love to see our military and intelligence service have but are frightened at how it could be used by domestic police on American citizens.
Didn’t WalMart have these on special last week ?
Domestic police already have aircraft which can capture images and video at a greater resolution than 15 cm. Spy satellites are for spying on places where airplanes can't go, and it is a very rare American that has air superiority over his house.
Satellites, at least the current bunch, generally can’t be steered. Satellites that could be steered at orbital height from target to target would be interesting.
Not completely. Remember the factor of detector noise. More light, higher S/N ratio, better quality image. These satellites don’t use film.
I don’t think the point of this article was how cool the satellite is.
THe point is that the administration official leaked highly classified information that will hurt our country and help our enemies, divulging classified information about a program about to be under development.
This disclosure gives the enemy years to prepare to counter this, plus it tells them what the US thinks is possible, which may help them develop similar capability.
Obama won’t punish this guy, because Obama thinks the way to make us safe is to make us inconsequential. He was raised in the streets where you avoided being mugged by not being worth mugging, and that is his plan for protecting the country.
Obama is dead wrong, because he is an idiot. But that idiot is destroying our country.
Zooming in via google street view gives me the impression that many of those snapshots will be “live” in 10 years (i.e. live feed video).
And that is a lot of cams!
(maybe we can catch Nessie, now?)
I use Google Earth to check Russian fixed missile bases and their ABM system. I have every known missile site on the planet plugged into my Google Earth.
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