Albedo Space: Low Earth Orbit Satellites Will Have 10cm Resolution
February 20th, 2024Via: New York Times:
Anyone living in the modern world has grown familiar with diminishing privacy amid a surge security cameras, trackers built into smartphones, facial recognition systems, drones and other forms of digital monitoring. But what makes the overhead surveillance potentially scary, experts say, is its ability to invade areas once seen as intrinsically off limits.
“This is a giant camera in the sky for any government to use at any time without our knowledge,” said Jennifer Lynch, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who in 2019 urged civil satellite regulators to address this issue. “We should definitely be worried.”
Against that concern, Mr. Haddad and other supporters of Albedo’s technology say real benefits must be weighed, especially when it comes to fighting disasters and saving lives.
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Investors in Albedo include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the investment firm of Bill Gates. Albedo’s strategic advisory board includes former directors of the C.I.A. and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an arm of the Pentagon.
From 2019: Soon, Satellites Will be Able to Watch You Everywhere All the Time
“…real benefits must be weighed, especially when it comes to fighting disasters and saving lives.”
Now that satellite imaging is even better, isn’t it nice to know they can fight disasters and save lives everywhere like they recently did in Lahaina? I can hardly wait till the govt shares with us its zillions of satellite pics of the fire and its aftermath so that we can all see what actually happened there.
It’s been more than 15 years since I saw online b&w govt pics from satellites in which you could tell a pickup from a sedan on the ground. By now, I expect they can tell a black ant from a red ant. So I don’t think the funding is for inventing the optics, but for designing everything else needed to make it work as a global system. Won’t that be helpful to us: they can buzz me on my brain chip to warn me when a red ant is climbing up my shoe. Or maybe they’ll just incinerate him with a quick shot from a DEW?
Lastly — You know it’s govt when, instead of managing, dealing with, responding to, or the like, they fight.