Re: An astronaut's eye view

on 9 Jun 2005 20:52:00 -0700, skearney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx sez:

` Henry Spencer wrote:

` > In article <1118209466.127965.294300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
` > <skearney@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

` > >It is ironic that the actual hardware that would distinguish the
` > >project, the cameras and panning units, might well be but a marginal
` > >part of the total weight.
` >
` > That's normal enough, actually. Particularly for small spacecraft, the
` > support systems that are essential to getting useful work out of the
` > payload often considerably outweigh the payload.
` >
` > > So do you think you could have a dozen camera platform with launch
` > >for under $20M?
` >
` > Depends very much on who builds it.
` >
` > Note that the MOST astronomy satellite <http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/>
` > cost under US$10M including launch.
` > --
` > "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
` > -- George Herbert |
` > henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

` Thanks for the information. So call it the ten million dollar
` question, do you think an 'earthwatch' satellite could ever be a
` commertial success?

It is possible that a market trajectory towards this sort of thing
is currently developing. Consider that Google now has a switch on
its Google Maps page which switches the map to a satellite view;
and though it currently only provides high resolution for parts of the
contiguous US states and a small smattering spilling over the borders,
and not by any means a real time image, they have announced intention
to upgrade both world resolution and timeliness in the future. In
response, Microsoft has announced their intention to develop a
similar service. Google's interface is rather clumsy, and their
projection is some variety of Mercator (? blech!), but it runs
off a simple browser interface. NASA's WorldWind has the most
beautiful interface, like a virtual floating globe, but while it
is freeware, it is a resident application which requires about
200MB initial setup which rapidly inflates from data caching fetched
from the net and will happily consume a couple of Gig on your machine.
As reference to these new tools becomes commonplace, one can imagine
the demand for closer to realtime imagery developing, and the players
are already staking out their positions in the competition.

By the way, I've been playing with both the current implementations
in the last month, and while Google's is fun for finding street
addresses in the US, WorldWind has a worldwide ultimate resolution
around 20m/pixel, and if your machine and IP connection are up to
it, it provides a wonderful virtual exploration tool for the world.

If the cached images in these systems were say less than six months
old, would there still be a large demand for live images? I don't
know. I guess we'll see how things develop.


--
==========================================================================
vincent@triumf[munge].ca Pete Vincent
Disclaimer: all I know I learned from reading Usenet.
.

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