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.
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.