"Google Satellite" To Be Launched This Week 280
Lord Satri writes "Well, almost. Google signed an exclusivity deal with GeoEye regarding GeoEye-1, the most advanced high-resolution, civil, remote-sensing satellite to date. This must be annoying for other high-resolution, remote-sensing data users since Google already has an exclusivity deal in place with DigitalGlobe, the other major civil satellite imagery provider. From the CNet article: 'Under the deal, Google is the exclusive online mapping site that may use the imagery... in its Google Maps and Google Earth product. And as a little icing on the cake, Google's logo is on the side of the rocket set to launch the 4,300-pound satellite in six days from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. GeoEye-1 will orbit 423 miles above Earth, but it will be able to gather imagery with details the size of 41 centimeters... Google, though, is permitted to use data only with a resolution of 50 cm because of the terms of GeoEye's license with the US government.'"
why the (Score:3, Interesting)
50cm restriction? do they have something to hide??
50cm? That barrier is gonna fall soon (Score:5, Interesting)
Within 1-2 years other countries will have civilian spy satellites that break 50cm, putting American companies at a disadvantage.
The USA will have 3 choices:
Shoot the birds down, literally.
Shoot the birds down, politically - bully the other countries into imposing similar limits.
Lower or eliminate the artificial limit.
Anyone remember when encryption software was considered a munition? Apple and other companies had to go through hoops to export it, putting them at a distinct disadvantage over non-American companies.
Re:why the (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you really think that the difference between 41cm and 50cm, when it comes to satellite imagery, is going to hide that much?
Re:The jury's still out (Score:4, Interesting)
This was predicted three years ago (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Precisions on the summary (Score:4, Interesting)
Exclusivity doesn't make Google's mapping products any better, it just makes their competitors' products worse. Sounds anti-competitive and "evil" to me.
Re:why the (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think that there's much of a difference, but if there's going to be a line in how high resolution they can distribute, they have to draw it somewhere. They can't let things go by just because it's "only a little bit better" than what's allowed, or else there might as well not be a line there at all.
50cm? How about 10? (Score:4, Interesting)
So, either my understanding of satellite photo resolution is wrong, or Google can already go to 10cm, and possibly even 5cm resolution.
Re:why the (Score:5, Interesting)
I can think of a few loopholes around this regulation.
What about taking many low resolution images of the same area and combine them later using super resolution [wikipedia.org]?
Re:Precisions on the summary (Score:4, Interesting)
I keep hoping that Google will start releaseing some of their data into the public domain/GPL/Creative Commons.
That Google spy van must be gathering data like speed limits, which streets are one way. Maybe even which are paved and not.
One place missing GPL application is a really good navigation system.
Which Orbit? (Score:3, Interesting)
I did RTFA but nowhere did I see any information about which orbit they're going to use.
It can't be geosynchronous because that wouldn't allow them to photograph all of the country at once. In order to cover the whole US, they'll need to have an orbit that passes the satellite over different parts of the country at different times.
The interesting thing is that in order to get such an orbit, it has to pass over other countries. Will Google take footage of other countries? If so, will it use that footage? That would probably require some intense international negotiations.
Re:Gee I should have had a.. (Score:1, Interesting)
all myspace is belong to you.
Re:why the (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people are under 2 meters tall, and between 50cm and 100cm wide..
100cm Wide? I know a third of Americans are Obese, but 100 cm is massive. I'm about average and only 45 cm wide
Re:Which Orbit? (Score:5, Interesting)
The interesting thing is that in order to get such an orbit, it has to pass over other countries. Will Google take footage of other countries? If so, will it use that footage? That would probably require some intense international negotiations.
Actually, it will not. I'm not sure if it's codified anywhere in international law or just by historical precedent, but a nation's airspace does not extend into space. A satellite can legally take photos of anything it can see, and there's little a country can do about it except hide things under cover or shoot it down (which likely would be considered an act of war).
Some countries (like the US) can exert control in limited ways by restricting operations if the imaging company does business in the country, but that's it.
Google has quite detailed satellite photos of Pyongyang, North Korea - I'm sure they didn't really agree to that.
a lesson for everyone (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The jury's still out (Score:2, Interesting)
When is Google going to learn that we want Open Source Data? Bad Google.
Re:Gee I should have had a.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Then we can all say "back in my day Google was just a search engine, not a military force that had every bit of information on each human on earth. All hail Page Brin."
A Sun-Synchronous Oribit (Score:4, Interesting)
Most satellites for earth observation use sun-synchronous orbits. These orbits let the satellite's cameras take pictures ob objects at the same solar time. This means that it will pass overhead at the same local time every day ... so the images will have the same shadow characteristics.
You accomplish this by making the orbit precess exactly 360 degrees per solar year.
These orbits are typically nearly circular, but needn't be; you can put a spy satellite into a sun-synchronous elliptical orbit, so it'll swoops down and photograph near perigee, then waste a lot of time around apogee.
Since this orbit is around 684 Km, it can be shown that it must be pretty close to circular, has an orbital period of around 100 minutes, and its inclination is probably about 96 to 100 degrees (meaning that the satellite is slightly retrograde - 90 degrees inclination is polar, zero degrees is equatorial) In turn, this means that pretty much all of earth will be seen by the satellite, except for 8 degree circles around the poles.
A 96 minute period means that each successive orbit will look down on a place 15 degrees west ... one time zone to the west.
Geosynchronous orbits are pretty useless for this type of work, since they're so far away (you need really big telescopes to get much resolution). Also, you'd only see one hemisphere, and half the year it'd be nighttime over the areas you want to see.
Re:The jury's still out (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The jury's still out (Score:3, Interesting)
I know there's a lot of problems involved with getting the public free access to journals, but google has a lot of clout and coudl make a big difference there.
The publishing of scientific journals is a business. No amount of "clout" is sufficient to convince the folks that run these journals that they should give it all away free and go make money working at a hot dog stand or something.