Nano, micro and minisatellites

[pmn1]

http://www.sstl.co.uk/index.php?loc=30<br /><br />What impact do you expect nano-, mini- and microsatellites such as those built by SSTL to have on civilian and military use of space? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[ashish27]

Bomb Iran back to the stone age

 

[PistolPete]

On a serious note, smallsats are a boon for the scientific community as now lower priority experiments can be launched as piggyback sats, i.e. GeneSat-1. Commercial aspects have already included Earth observation satellites with such examples as the Early Bird and Ofeq 3 sats. The Iridium satellites almost qualified as smallsats (they were about 200 kg over the generally accepted limit), and perhaps the LEO commsat market might return in the future (somewhat unlikely, but a possibility nonetheless). On the military end, it might be possible that the USAF could reconfigure some of the old Minuteman or Peacekeeper silos at Vandenberg AFB as silo launchers for the Minotaur I or Minotaur IV rocket, keeping a minispysat or commsat ready to go at a moments notice (and who's to say they haven't done this already?). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[pmn1]

What kind of resolution could you expect from a photo satellite in the mini or micro size range? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[PistolPete]

Well, the Israeli Ofeq 3 that I mentioned has a reported resolution of 2.5 m. With 12+ years of advancements in CCD technology since Ofeq 3's launch, this could probably be greatly improved. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[rubicondsrv]

world view 1 has 50 cm resolution <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[billslugg]

<font color="yellow"><br />What kind of resolution could you expect from a photo satellite in the mini or micro size range?</font><br />What diameter objective could it carry? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[eniac]

If I got my math correct, at LEO, a 1 m aperture would allow 5 cm resolution, and a 1 cm aperture would provide 5 m resolution, give or take a factor of 2 or pi...<br /><br />What would be really cool is if synthetic aperture could be used with free flying nano-sats. You could get sub-mm resolution from a cloud of such sats, each with an aperture of a cm or less. You'd have to fly them in formation at sub-micrometer precision, though, which although conceivable, is not exactly a piece of cake.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>