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Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by tenpoundhammer on Friday April 26, 2013 @11:33AM (#5613466)
How long until the paparazzi get their own satellite?
Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by gvb on Friday April 26, 2013 @02:00PM (#5614403)
Quite unlikely. For paparazzi style imaging, satellites are very unsatisfactory.

1) Clouds. Major bummer.

2) Intermittent time on target - most the time when something interesting is happening, the satellite will be over some other place in the world. Geostationary satellites solve the "hover overhead" problem, but then see #1, #3, #4, #5.

3) Atmospheric distortion. Resolution is inherently limited unless you use adaptive optics.

4) The lens required to get decent resolution isn't going to fit on a microsat. See also #3.

5) Blurry pictures of the tops of celebrities' heads ain't gonna sell well.

Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by DigitalJack on Friday April 26, 2013 @11:39AM (#5613507)
I was thinking piratebay.
Re:NASA has three smartphones orbiting the earth as mini-sat... by adestefan on Friday April 26, 2013 @11:46AM (#5613543)
Balloons/UAVs are more reliable when it comes to communications. Getting a suitable satellite into orbit that allows for reliable communication is way too expensive.

There was talk of doing a Pirate Bay dirigible at one point.