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Regarding the satellite image, a few questions : 1) Can nation-states spy like this on every location on the planet? 2) Can you view the live feed of any loca

Regarding the satellite image, a few questions : 1) Can nation-states spy like this on every location on the planet? 2) Can you view the live feed of any location and follow vehicles(for example)? 3) Is there anything a country can do to prevent other's from spying on your country from satellites?

_jal 6y ago
1) Yes. 2) Well, I can't, but the capability exists. 3) Dig.
taejo 6y ago
I don't think you can get a live feed of a location since the satellites generally aren't geostationary (geostationary orbit is too far away, and are always above the equator). But AFAIK even commercially you can get still photographs of any point on earth within a couple days (i.e. you don't have to be a nation state or have your own satellites)
- walrus01 6y ago
  a live feed to follow something would 99% of the time be implemented from a HALE (high altitude/long endurance) group 4 size UAS. RQ9 or in the same class, with a combination of a high end gimbaled camera system and satellite data uplink.
- savoytruffle 6y ago
  Geostationary is very very far away and useless for nighttime. Imaging satellites usually have a shorter polar orbit that precesses east to west along with sunshine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit
htrp 6y ago
2) costs lots of money, or you have to be a government. following vehicles is near impossible commercially (resolutions are too low)
azernik 6y ago
1. Yes. Not just state actors - Planet Labs (https://www.planet.com/ https://www.planet.com/) in San Francisco, for example, is a commercial satellite company that photographs the whole globe once per day and sells that imagery online. 2. Live feed is a bit tricky, and that's where governments have an advantage - they own their own satellites, and can task them to follow a specific target. But you have to know where the target is at the start of the window, they don't have real-time video of the whole planet, and unless you've got a very big fleet you won't always have a satellite overhead when you want to look at your target. 3. Keeping track of the times of satellite passes overhead, hiding stuff underground, putting your aircraft in covered hangars and only moving them at night, putting a roof on your military docks, using upwards-facing camouflage, etc. Same methods that have been used for a hundred years to hide from air surveillance.
- DuskStar 6y ago
  > 2. Live feed is a bit tricky, and that's where governments have an advantage - they own their own satellites, and can task them to follow a specific target. But you have to know where the target is at the start of the window, they don't have real-time video of the whole planet, and unless you've got a very big fleet you won't always have a satellite overhead when you want to look at your target. I would really not be surprised to see the NRO go the Planet Labs / Starlink route at some point in the future and put 20 satellites in a dozen orbital planes to provide coverage everywhere at less than 60 degrees latitude 24/7/365. Sure, maybe you need the big KH-11s for the extremely high resolution shots - but 3m resolution isn't exactly trash either.
  - ta17711771 6y ago
    > unless you've got a very big fleet Starlink
  - azernik 6y ago
    At 3m resolution a tank is about 3 pixels; a sedan is around 1 pixel. It's very hard to distinguish objects from each other and therefore to track one at that resolution.
- 6y ago
TallGuyShort 6y ago
2) is more of a drone thing
- gizmo686 6y ago
  Drones require you to get permission or vioalate the airspace of the host country.
  - Scoundreller 6y ago
    Or a good relationship with your neighbours or a target close to international waters. What’s a dozen extra kilometres when you’re that high anyway.
numpad0 6y ago
Satellites fly unpowered and frictionless in the vacuum, with kinetic energy equivalent to speed of Mach 22 at sea level, balancing against Earth’s gravitational pull, along an own 2D ellipse with one focus at the center of the gravity of the Earth. So you can’t like fly a 3D orbit, fly at same altitude but different angular velocity, or change course without expelling significant amounts of mass. You play by those rules.

_jal 6y ago

1) Yes. 2) Well, I can't, but the capability exists. 3) Dig.

taejo 6y ago

I don't think you can get a live feed of a location since the satellites generally aren't geostationary (geostationary orbit is too far away, and are always above the equator). But AFAIK even commercially you can get still photographs of any point on earth within a couple days (i.e. you don't have to be a nation state or have your own satellites)

walrus01 6y ago
a live feed to follow something would 99% of the time be implemented from a HALE (high altitude/long endurance) group 4 size UAS. RQ9 or in the same class, with a combination of a high end gimbaled camera system and satellite data uplink.
savoytruffle 6y ago
Geostationary is very very far away and useless for nighttime. Imaging satellites usually have a shorter polar orbit that precesses east to west along with sunshine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit

htrp 6y ago

2) costs lots of money, or you have to be a government. following vehicles is near impossible commercially (resolutions are too low)

azernik 6y ago

1. Yes. Not just state actors - Planet Labs (https://www.planet.com/ https://www.planet.com/) in San Francisco, for example, is a commercial satellite company that photographs the whole globe once per day and sells that imagery online. 2. Live feed is a bit tricky, and that's where governments have an advantage - they own their own satellites, and can task them to follow a specific target. But you have to know where the target is at the start of the window, they don't have real-time video of the whole planet, and unless you've got a very big fleet you won't always have a satellite overhead when you want to look at your target. 3. Keeping track of the times of satellite passes overhead, hiding stuff underground, putting your aircraft in covered hangars and only moving them at night, putting a roof on your military docks, using upwards-facing camouflage, etc. Same methods that have been used for a hundred years to hide from air surveillance.

DuskStar 6y ago
> 2. Live feed is a bit tricky, and that's where governments have an advantage - they own their own satellites, and can task them to follow a specific target. But you have to know where the target is at the start of the window, they don't have real-time video of the whole planet, and unless you've got a very big fleet you won't always have a satellite overhead when you want to look at your target. I would really not be surprised to see the NRO go the Planet Labs / Starlink route at some point in the future and put 20 satellites in a dozen orbital planes to provide coverage everywhere at less than 60 degrees latitude 24/7/365. Sure, maybe you need the big KH-11s for the extremely high resolution shots - but 3m resolution isn't exactly trash either.
- ta17711771 6y ago
  > unless you've got a very big fleet Starlink
- azernik 6y ago
  At 3m resolution a tank is about 3 pixels; a sedan is around 1 pixel. It's very hard to distinguish objects from each other and therefore to track one at that resolution.
6y ago

TallGuyShort 6y ago

2) is more of a drone thing

gizmo686 6y ago
Drones require you to get permission or vioalate the airspace of the host country.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Or a good relationship with your neighbours or a target close to international waters. What’s a dozen extra kilometres when you’re that high anyway.

numpad0 6y ago

Satellites fly unpowered and frictionless in the vacuum, with kinetic energy equivalent to speed of Mach 22 at sea level, balancing against Earth’s gravitational pull, along an own 2D ellipse with one focus at the center of the gravity of the Earth. So you can’t like fly a 3D orbit, fly at same altitude but different angular velocity, or change course without expelling significant amounts of mass. You play by those rules.