Consumer Level Controlable Satellites on the way!

Just looking at some coverage of the CES 2023 event from last week and noticed Sony have a cool product coming out later this year-
Called the Sony Star Sphere it is a network of camera satellites which anyone can rent and take control of the camera(point into space or at the earth) and possibly to a limeted degree,the trajectory of the satellite in real time.
starsphere.sony.com...

So first- imagine the fun of doing that with a decent VR headset on-as close to a real spacewalk most of us will get!
Or what about space anomaly/UFO spotting?
No more NASA feeds getting cut off whenever something strange happens!
This could be amazing.

Of course it has negative potential as well,depending on the camera resolution and lens-maybe stalkers could use it to follow people,or other bad dudes could use it for making sure the coast is clear for heists or other crimes.
Then there is the issue of secret ground facilities-I guess Sony could have special dead zones where the satellites cannot fly to stop spying on secret areas?
In fact they must have decent collision avoidance tech-or how long before some idiot tries to crash a satellite into something lke a rocket?
Anyway there is a short segment on it at 6:50 in this vid-


BTW-the Asus laptop screen later in the video is worth a look-full 3D without glasses!
The presenter is mindblown,could be something that becomes a thing I reckon.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
Just looking at some coverage of the CES 2023 event from last week and noticed Sony have a cool product coming out later this year-
Called the Sony Star Sphere it is a network of camera satellites which anyone can rent and take control of the camera(point into space or at the earth) and possibly to a limeted degree,the trajectory of the satellite in real time.
starsphere.sony.com...

So first- imagine the fun of doing that with a decent VR headset on-as close to a real spacewalk most of us will get!
Or what about space anomaly/UFO spotting?
No more NASA feeds getting cut off whenever something strange happens!
This could be amazing.

Of course it has negative potential as well,depending on the camera resolution and lens-maybe stalkers could use it to follow people,or other bad dudes could use it for making sure the coast is clear for heists or other crimes.
Then there is the issue of secret ground facilities-I guess Sony could have special dead zones where the satellites cannot fly to stop spying on secret areas?
In fact they must have decent collision avoidance tech-or how long before some idiot tries to crash a satellite into something lke a rocket?
Anyway there is a short segment on it at 6:50 in this vid-

BTW-the Asus laptop screen later in the video is worth a look-full 3D without glasses!
The presenter is mindblown,could be something that becomes a thing I reckon.

This is cool as hell, but yea Barry the backyard astronomer is going to be able to park a satellite over mainland China. it would be a blast to see what you could do and actually watch. if it was affordable I would use try it out

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

This looks like an extension of the kind of service offered by Planet Labs (or "Planet", as it's now called). I worked there a few years ago. The business model for Planet is to have a fleet of low earth orbit cubesat spacecraft continuously taking images of the Earth below and then selling the image sets to users. Usually the use cases are things like land management, disaster relief, news organizations, DOD, intelligence agencies, etc. In that model, the user does not get to individually target the spacecraft--they only get to buy images and data products once the images have already been taken.

The spacecraft look to be 6U cubesats, so about 3 times bigger than the Planet spacecraft. They will have more power, probably higher communication bandwidth, probably more pointing agility (ability to retarget faster), and probably onboard propulsion (so they can maintain the desired orbit longer).

However, it looks like the telescope aperture will still be limited to 100 mm, so the resolution will be about the same that Planet provides. That makes sense because non-governmental satellites are prohibited from taking images with resolution greater than 30 cm per pixel, so a bigger aperture would be of no commercial use.

Also, the spy agencies who set the rules for where you can look and at what resolution are more concerned with private spacecraft looking outward from orbit than looking downward (they don't want you to see what they have in orbit). So, these spacecraft will probably be prohibited from looking above the horizon.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

take control of the camera(point into space or at the earth)

Flat earthers aren't going to like that.

I would like to have my own personal internet satellite. Any idea if something like that is coming out?

a reply to: scraedtosleep
I haven't heard if there are personal satellites yet,maybe one day.
That would be handy for using to scout the road ahead,allowing for safe overtaking on blind bends.

Found the Innovations presented including SONY's satellite Camera to be very interesting. And I like the idea that the pictures/footage/whatever that is captured remain with the User, they maintain the rights to it.

But I got to say... The ASUS 3D laptop was the mind blower as I've often wondered when a 'glasses-less; device can produce with your own eyes is to me fantastic.


Johnny

a reply to: JohnnyAnonymous

I want an eye popping 3D laptop thingy too