3 ms·
I'd reckon this. The US government knows exactly what is going on up there at all times and most likely has the most advanced spying satellites and capabilitie
by m4jor 4y ago
I'd reckon this.
The US government knows exactly what is going on up there at all times and most likely has the most advanced spying satellites and capabilities out of all countries.
The NRO has been doing this since the 60s!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office
>In 2012 the agency donated two space telescopes to NASA. Despite being stored unused, the instruments are superior to the Hubble Space Telescope.
I had a retired intel guy at DEFCON tell me the imagery is so advanced they could zoom in on a coin on the ground and tell if it was heads or tails.
- Nevermark 4y agoPresumably we have telescopic tech that could do much much better than that, but at some point the field of view would become near microscopic too
- fooblaster 4y agoIt is highly unlikely that you can see a coin on the ground from LEO, given the size of the telescope and the laws of physics[1]. Assuming a great number of things, a larger than Hubble 3 meter aperture, 200km orbit, red 750nm light, zero atmospheric distortion, the resolving power cannot be better than 6.1 centimeter resolution. tan(750e-9/31.22)200000 = 0.061 If you want the best possible example of NRO's capabilities, the best example in recent memory is when trump unintentionally disclosed them with the highest resolution satellite image I personally have ever seen [2] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_resolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_resolution [2] https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/758038714/can-president-trump-really-tweet-a-highly-classified-satellite-photo-yep-he-can https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/758038714/can-president-trump...