Persistent Surveillance

[Jonfliesgoats]

http://www.radiolab.org/story/eye-sky/

Previously I was wondering about cube sats as arrays.  What about lots of cheap satellites to give us global, persistent surveillance of the earth and/or cosmos?

[Nibb31]

How many new threads do you need to create about this ? The issues with the optical and power limitations of small sats haven't changed since last week.

The NRO already has lots of expensive satellites to give them global, persistent surveillance.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Nibb31

[Jonfliesgoats]

I am excited about the possibilities and accessibility of this date to other alphabet agencies, nations, etc.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[kerbiloid]

Dot-com bubble looked swell, too.

Next stop: Arduinosats.

[wumpus]

On 12/28/2016 at 4:49 AM, Nibb31 said:

How many new threads do you need to create about this ? The issues with the optical and power limitations of small sats haven't changed since last week.

The NRO already has lots of expensive satellites to give them global, persistent surveillance.

Compare the cost of a small sat to equal coverage by persistent small drone (solar glider or quad copter).  Spy sats got big for more than just high resolution.  Also while the NSA/NRO/HSA did start a tethered blimp program, I imagine that disappeared after one broke free and crashed in Maryland.

Seriously.  Check the limits of apatures and lens/reflector size.  You can't get around them by building more devices.  Generally, the very few groups capable of putting up spy sats prefer big birds, and can presumably limit access for the small ones as well.

[Jonfliesgoats]

Yeah.  I used to fly around all those aerostats and drones in a previous life.  Satellites also have to deal with weather while a tethered balloon can simply winch up or down as necessary.  I was just really jazzed thinking about swarms of satellites.