Is real time satellite video possible?
like in the Mission Impossible 2 where you can spy on someone and it show up as video and not still image. I know its possible for still image (Google Earth) but is there technology out there for satellite video, consumer market or otherwise?
Tagged with: earth • google • mission impossible • mission impossible 2 • video consumer
Filed under: Video Marketing
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Yes, it’s possible, if you have access to the satelite.
Governments do, we don’t.
‘How good is the resolution’, is pretty closely held.
You might reasonably expect to track a vehicle, but an individual????
depends on what resolution you want.
resolution down to 10s of meters is no problem. it’s just expensive, that’s all. *really* expensive.
reading license plates from orbit is not possible.
If your name is Richard Stana, Director of Homeland Security, I’m sure you can obtain live video of anyone on the planet with resolution of a centimeter or so—if they’re outdoors under a cloudless sky and you know where they are. However, even Stana has limitations; he can’t get live surveillance when the satellites are in the wrong place, and he can’t order the satellite to look in a particular direction yesterday.
We have a lot of spy satellites, but they can’t see everything at once in full resolution. What they do see is being recorded, just in case it comes in handy, later; but you need a lot of pull and a really good reason to view those recordings.
Edit: Oops! Stana is Dir. H.S. at the GAO. He’s more into financing it than running it. Janet Napolitano is the one reading over your shoulder from space.
I’m sure the technology is out there…but…"us"..the public…don’t have now..nor will we most likey ever…have access to that.
It’s a privacy..as well as a security issue.
Well!!
Right now …
Not possible
No.
The greatest "spy satellites" allegedly have a best resolution of two feet per pixel. And even that sounds a little gratuitous considering the lense size at that distance of a geostationary orbit, which would be the only orbit that would actually be able to stay fixed on a narrow area for any length of time with such a zoom.
Most of the "close ups" you see on Google Earth are actually aerial photographs taken from airplanes/helicopters. Satellite imagery isn’t that good, especially to the public. And you can completely forget about viewing any live feed. Major breach of international laws there.
No that is not possible. Even with a VERY large lens (as big as the Hubble telescope) you cannot see things as small as people on Earth from a geosynchronous orbit, which is 25,000 miles high. And satellites in low enough orbits (200 miles or less) that can see people cannot see more than a very small part of Earth at one time and cannot hover over any one spot, but must constantly move. The best you could do is a 1 minute video clip every few days. So in real life the CIA and other spy agencies just take snapshots of whatever part of Earth is under the satellite as it orbits, and periodically transmit them to the ground in groups, when the satellite is over a receiving station.