Private spy sattelite - could or will it be done?

I was wondering if someone will ever build a private commercial spy sattelite? Would you even be allowed to?

Just think of the possibilites. For a few hundred dollars people would gladaly pay to see if their wife is cheating, companies could see what their competitors are up to, celeberties exposed etc.. the possibilities are endless

Already been done, IKONOS. But it would be useless for tracking an individual person and trying to look at secret military instillations. Not to mention that big international corporations have had, and continue to have so much more at their disposal for corporate espionage, think major government assets.

I would imagine a system such as this would be extremely difficult to manage privately, without it being government or corporate owned. For a single person to own, I just think that the cons outweigh the pros in this situation.

But it would be cool to have a spy satellite.

Shattered OUT...

If you have enuf money and are willing to spend it, it should not present a major issue. The key is MONEY and the will to spend it.

Double post, please delete.

[edit on 7-8-2006 by northwolf]

It would probably be easier and cheaper to bribe a Russian (or American) General to get you the pics you want

its an open secret that the CIA and FBI spy for corporate interests in the USA.

there were trade talks a few years ago, and bugs, devices, etc were found inside foriegn residences and rooms.

The CIA hires out to whoever can pay the bill or has the connections. why take the risk of something going wrong when the US government can take the blame

If I was a high ranking member in the military and someone informed me that there was a private satellite viewing our troop movement in Iraq. I would give the order to shoot it down. It's not like a country is going to get angry, just some poor billionaire who wasted so much of his money.

Well some things would be off limits. For instance since I support my troops and live in the US I wouldnt let anyone look at things like troop movements etc.. however if you wanted to see what cars are at your house or something like that it will be a few hundred dollars.

The military tracks satellites which are in orbit around the earth, accordingly they are aware when something is over a particular area. Most likely if anyone wanted to use a commercial satellite to view US troop movements the company wouldn’t allow it, the US would have asked them no to allow such a thing. And trust me there are incentives for complying, one incentives is that your satellite wont be jammed and or damaged.

Originally posted by warpboost
I was wondering if someone will ever build a private commercial spy sattelite? Would you even be allowed to?

To put a standard communications sat in orbit is a very expensive undertaking - somewhere north of 250 million USD (not including insurance); a topographic surveillance sat costs a little more depending on optics (I believe IKONOS has 1 meter resolution, you can call that a "spy sat" if you like, but it's not);
That said, to fly a real spy sat that has better than 5 cm resolution optics and has real time imaging is easily going to cost way over 500 million USD, and could easily cost 1 to 1.5 billion USD depending on optics and "other" technologies.

Also you must consider the actual flight to orbit - who is going to put it up? Ariane? Russian Federal Space, Japan Aerospace "JAXA"? Loral launching out of Vandenberg's Complex-2 West? etc...

Also, seeing that this is a "spy sat", how secret do you want to keep the fact that this is a hi-res ISR payload? Because somebody with the organization you use is going to have to know the functionality of the bird and if you think "they" are going to keep it a secret from their controlling government, you would be mistaken.



[edit on 8-8-2006 by intelgurl]

Yes the current IKONOS satellite does have a 1M resolution however the IKONOS Block II will have a .27M resolution which for a commercial satellite is pretty good. Like you said though it depends on what you want. I doubt a private entity could launch/operate a "true" spy satellite (~.04M res.) in total secrecy. But I think it is reasonable for a private company to launch/operate a satellite with a resolution of .15+M with some governments knowing about it. And that’s fine as long as your goal wasn't to spy on anything and everything in total secrecy.

[edit on 8-8-2006 by WestPoint23]

A satelite with the capability of true 'spy' capabilities would push the edge of commercial technology. You'd have to privately contract with leading defense contractors (for God-Knows how much) with restrictions on what you are allowed to have (unless you want to go build your own.... which is one hell of an endeavor). You might be lucky enough to get 2 centimeter resolution. Considering that spy satelites in the mid 60s could read postage stamps.... you're lightyears behind the military.

That's good enough to identify aircraft sitting out on the lawn somewhere...... and with the correct electronic systems - you could alter orbital patterns without the use of consumable fuel - using pulse-ion thrusting. In theory that could work.... not sure if it's been tested ever before....... but I find it rather ridiculous that our satelites run out of fuel to maneuver when there are some concepts out there that remain largely unexplored..... where is the good old R&D .... it's been lost in recent years, it seems.

Originally posted by northwolf
It would probably be easier and cheaper to bribe a Russian (or American) General to get you the pics you want

Yes, imagine that we in a (hypotetical) war scenario in the east could ask for sattellite coverage from the Russians.