О буржуйских спутниках ДЗЗ

[instml]

Envisat services interrupted
 
12 April 2012

After 10 years of service, Envisat has stopped sending data to Earth. ESA's mission control is working to re-establish contact with the satellite.
 
Although this landmark mission has been in orbit twice as long as it was designed for, ESA hopes to keep the satellite in service until the launch of the successor Sentinel missions.

The first sign that there was a problem came on 8 April when contact with the satellite was unexpectedly lost, preventing the reception of any data as it passed over the Kiruna ground station in Sweden.

ESA's mission control team declared a spacecraft emergency and immediately called for support from additional ESA tracking stations around the world. A team of operations and flight dynamics specialists and engineers was quickly assembled.

In a concerted effort, the recovery team, which included experts from industry, spent the next days trying to re-establish communications with the satellite.

While it is known that Envisat remains in a stable orbit around Earth, efforts to resume contact with the satellite have, so far, not been successful.

As is standard practice, an anomaly review board is investigating the cause for the break in communications.  

Envisat has exceeded its planned life of five years by far. Since it was launched in 2002, this remarkable satellite has orbited Earth more than 50 000 times delivering thousands of images and a wealth of data to study and understand our changing planet, establishing itself as a landmark success in observing Earth from space.

As the world's most complex Earth observation satellite, Envisat carries 10 sophisticated instruments that have provided key information about our land, oceans, ice and atmosphere. Combined with data from the ERS missions since 1991, Envisat has provided precise measurements on climate change over the last 20 years.

More than 4000 projects in over 70 countries have been supported with Envisat data. Data in the archives will continue to be available for users.

A contingency agreement with the Canadian Space Agency on Radarsat will be activated in order to continue to serve some of the user requirements if the problem with Envisat persists.

Volker Liebig, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, said, "The interruption of the Envisat service shows that the launch of the GMES Sentinel satellites, which are planned to replace Envisat, becomes urgent."

The first of the new series of Sentinel missions for Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme is ready for launch next year.

The Sentinels will provide the data needed for information services to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQ2EHWP0H_index_0.html

[instml]

Спутник дистанционного мониторинга Земли Envisat, связь с которым была потеряна, находится на своей орбите

ПАРИЖ, 12 апреля. /ИТАР-ТАСС/. Спутник дистанционного мониторинга Земли Envisat, связь с которым была потеряна в воскресенье, находится на своей орбите. Об этом сегодня сообщило Европейское космическое агентство /ЕКА/.

По информации агентства, связь с космическим аппаратом неожиданно прервалась вечером 8 апреля. Тогда с борта перестала поступать телеметрическая информация. Пока попытки специалистов восстановить связь со спутником не увенчались успехом.

Научно-исследовательский аппарат Envisat был запущен в 2002 году. По оценкам специалистов, спутник уже в два раза превысил расчетный срок службы. Однако в ЕС рассчитывали, что он проработает на орбите до вывода нового аппарата Sentinel.

http://www.itar-tass.com/c19/391203.html

[instml]

Запуск первого спутника ДЗЗ нового поколения SPOT 6 будет осуществлен во второй половине 2012 года с помощью индийской ракеты-носителя PSLV. Соответствующее соглашение было заключено в апреле между Astrium Services и национальным космическим агентством Индии ISRO. Спутник массой около 800 кг планируется разместить на полярной орбите высотой 694 км. В ходе предстоящего запуска ракета-носитель PSLV выведет на орбиты еще несколько полезных нагрузок.

Astrium Services создает спутник SPOT 6 и еще один идентичный ему аппарат — SPOT 7 — на собственные средства. Общая стоимость работ, включая расходы на запуск, составляет около 400 млн долл. США. Спутник SPOT 7 планируется запустить в 2014 году и разместить в одной плоскости с SPOT 6 с разносом по фазовому углу на 180°.

Спутники SPOT 6 и SPOT 7 смогут вести съемку Земли с разрешением 1,5 м в панхроматическом режиме и до 6 м режиме многоспектральной съемки. Полоса съемки сохранится прежней как на аппаратах прошлого поколения — 60 км, но возможности использования спутников значительно возрастут благодаря способности управлять положением оптической системы в поперченном направлении в пределах 35° относительно направления в надир и в пределах 45°в направлении вдоль трассы полета.

Также ожидается, что SPOT 6 и SPOT 7 будут использоваться совместно со спутниками Pleiades-1 (запущен в декабре 2011 г.) и Pleiades-2 (запуск намечен на 2013 г.), способными получать изображения с максимальным разрешением до 0,5 м. Разнос между спутниками в такой системе составит 90°. Система позволит делать повторные снимки участков земной поверхности в течение одних суток и обеспечит беспрецедентные для коммерческих систем ДЗЗ возможности по ведению космической съемки в интересах коммерческих и государственных пользователей.

Эксклюзивными правами на получение и распространение на территории России данных с новых спутников SPOT 6 и SPOT 7 обладает ИТЦ «СКАНЭКС». Соответствующее соглашение со сроком действия до 2020 года было подписано с европейской компанией EADS Astrium в сентябре 2010 года.

http://www.scanex.ru/ru/news/News_Preview.asp?id=n165217136

[instml]

SPOT 6 создается на базе платформы Astrium AstroSat 500 Mark 2. Источник: Astrium Services



Построение системы из спутников SPOT 6 и 7 и Pleiades-1 и -2. Источник: Spot Image



Спутник SPOT 6 на завершающем этапе сборки. Источник: Astrium Services

[instml]

ESA Enlists Outside Help for Envisat Recovery Effort

PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) officials have solicited support from the U.S. Air Force and the French and German governments to determine whether Europe's Envisat Earth observation satellite, which stopped communicating April 8, is already dead or is still showing signs of life, ESA officials said April 13.

As of midday European time April 13, ESA officials had no explanation for why Envisat, in orbit since 2002, suddenly went silent.

In a press briefing, ESA's Earth observation director, Volker Liebig, said the agency in the coming days will be searching for recovery possibilities and is not ready to write Envisat's obituary.

"Our failure review board has been meeting many times since Sunday (April 8 )," Liebig said. "We have not much data on which to judge. We are trying to re-establish contact and in parallel to collect more data on the satellite's status — from ground radar images, from optical images from telescopes and also from satellites."

In addition to scrambling a global network of ground stations to track Envisat more regularly, ESA has received precise satellite-positioning data from the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center and confirmed that the satellite remains in a stable orbit, according to Manfred Warhaut, head of mission operations at ESA's Esoc space operations facility in Darmstadt, Germany.

The French space agency, CNES, is scheduled to take an optical image of Envisat when CNES's Pleiades high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite passes 120 kilometers under the stricken spacecraft on April 15. The French Spot 5 satellite also imaged Envisat as Spot 5 flew 90 kilometers over it, Warhaut said.

From the ground, the German government's Tracking and Imaging Radar, a 34-meter-diameter dish located near Bonn, took a radar image of Envisat that appears to confirm that the satellite has not broken apart following an in-orbit collision.

Warhaut said Envisat's stable orbit could mean the satellite is adrift because of the lack of minor course corrections it would normally have made since April 8. But he said it is too soon to confirm that this is the case. He said there is no confirmation that Envisat has placed itself into a safe mode that would assure its solar arrays are oriented toward the sun.

Liebig said the agency has tentatively settled on two likely scenarios for what happened. The first is a failure of Envisat's data-handling power supply, followed by a depletion of its batteries some 10 hours later. The sequence of events on April 8 lends credence to this, he said.

The second possibility is that Envisat's platform lost power for an unknown reason.

With a core body 8 meters long and a launch weight of 8,000 kilograms, Envisat is the largest nonmilitary satellite ever launched. Placed into low Earth orbit in 2002, the satellite on March 1 passed its 10th anniversary — more than double its expected five-year life.

But Envisat, which is equipped with 10 observing instruments, is doing more than just logging overtime. It is viewed by ESA and by the European Commission — the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union — as essential to providing data continuity as these two organizations prepare a multibillion-dollar network of Earth observation satellites as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, or GMES, program.

ESA officials in 2010 extended Envisat's mission to 2013, time enough to await the launch of the first GMES satellites, called Sentinels.

To squeeze additional life out of Envisat, ESA lowered its orbit to around 783 kilometers, thereby saving on fuel-using adjustments the satellite would have made otherwise.

Liebig said the agency had hoped to keep Envisat in orbit long enough to calibrate some of the instruments to fly on board the Sentinel-1 satellite, the first GMES spacecraft, to be launched in late 2013.

Envisat and Sentinel 1 then would be flown in tandem until mid-2014, providing about a year of dual data streams.

Liebig said ESA had activated an existing agreement with the Canadian Space Agency to use Canada's Radarsat-1 and Radarsat-2 satellites to fill some of the gaps in services resulting from Envisat's loss. Other Earth observation and meteorological satellites — ESA's Metop and the U.S.-French Jason 2 among them — can partly replace Envisat functions, he said.

In addition to Sentinel 1, the Sentinel 3 and Sentinel 5P payloads, to be launched between 2013 and 2015, together will provide a near equivalent to Envisat's instrument suite.

But ESA has been battling with the European Commission over the status of GMES and has gone so far as to threaten to postpone the Sentinel launch in 2013 unless the commission commits to operating the Sentinel satellites.

If Envisat cannot be salvaged, the 8-metric ton satellite — measuring 26 meters by 10 meters by 5 meters in orbit — will immediately be transformed from one of the world's most sophisticated environmental monitoring platforms into one of the largest and most fragile pieces of space garbage in orbit.

In its current orbit, a dead Envisat likely will remain in place for 100 to 150 years, according to ESA calculations. Unlike rocket stages in low Earth orbit, which are resistant to damage caused from collision with small pieces of debris, Envisat is as fragile as a heavily ornamented Christmas tree.

Envisat ground controllers performed a collision-avoidance maneuver in early 2010 to prevent a possible collision with a large rocket upper stage. ESA officials have estimated that there is up to a 30 percent chance that Envisat will collide with another piece of orbital debris before it is tugged into the atmosphere — assuming the global population of debris in low Earth orbit does not increase. Most orbital debris experts view this as a highly optimistic scenario.

Warhaut said ground teams have performed around a dozen collision-avoidance maneuvers for Envisat in its 10-year life. He said ESA had hoped to keep a minimal Envisat operating capability for several years after its retirement in 2014 to perform similar such maneuvers until its fuel ran out.

http://www.spacenews.com/earth_observation/120413-esa-enlists-help-envisat.html



Radar image of the Envisat satellite in orbit by the ground based tracking and imaging radar (TIRA). Credit: Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques.

[PIN]

Похоже, уже покойник...

[instml]

2012-04-16
Международные попытки спасти спутник ENVISAT

Специалисты Европейского космического агентства предпринимают попытки восстановить связь с крупнейшим в мире гражданским спутником ДЗЗ ENVISAT. Радиоконтакт с аппаратом был внезапно потерян еще 8 апреля в зоне радиовидимости приемной станции Кируна (Швеция). ENVISAT массой 8 т, оснащенный 10 датчиками ДЗЗ (в том числе радаром ASAR), был выведен на орбиту в 2002 году и вдвое превысил 5-летний расчетный срок эксплуатации. По планам агентства ESA предполагалось использовать КА ENVISAT до 2014 года, запуск спутника-замены SENTINEL-1 возможен не ранее 2013 года.

Помощь в наблюдении за состоянием спутника оказывают организации Франции, США, Германии, а также операторы оптических средств контроля и международной сети станций приема информации ENVISAT.

По оценкам специалистов ESA, вероятной причиной потери радиоконтакта с КА ЕNVISAT является неисправность электропитания бортовой подсистемы управления и обработки данных, которая привела к разряду аккумуляторов. Среди других возможных версий — столкновение спутника с некаталогизированным малоразмерным фрагментом космического мусора.

По данным средств радиолокационного контроля Стратегического командования США, спутник находится на орбите со стабильными параметрами, но детальные радиолокационные изображения космического аппарата, полученные с помощью германского наземного радара TIRA с параболической антенной диаметром 34 м, показали, что спутник не перешел автоматически в безопасный режим функционирования с наведением панелей солнечных батарей на Солнце, что ограничивает продолжительность его орбитальной работы. В то же время внешних повреждений корпуса КА ENVISAT по данным радарного наблюдения не отмечено. Для детальной оценки внешнего состояния спутника ENVISAT планируется использовать также его изображения, сделанные оптическими телескопами французских спутников PLEIADES и SPOT 5.

http://www.scanex.ru/ru/news/News_Preview.asp?id=n1151046

[instml]

2012-04-16
Завершена разработка оптической системы для GeoEye-2

Компания ITT Exelis завершила разработку и поставку компании Lockheed Martin Space Systems усовершенствованной оптоэлектронной системы для спутника ДЗЗ GeoEye-2. Система позволит получать изображения земной поверхности с высочайшим для коммерческих систем разрешением — до 0,34 м (в панхроматическом режиме).

По сравнению со спутниками ДЗЗ, эксплуатируемыми в настоящее время, GeoEye-2 будет иметь улучшенные возможности планирования съемки, увеличенное фокусное расстояние оптической системы для достижения более высокого разрешения, усовершенствованную подсистему чувствительных элементов, обеспечивающую повышенное качество изображений, и высокую производительность съемки.

Суточная производительность оптоэлектронной камеры GeoEye-2 в экваториальной части и на средних широтах составит 700 и 350 тыс. кв. км в панхроматическом и многоспектральном режимах соответственно (то есть около 3 тыс. «одиночных» изображений). При этом точность определения местоположения объектов на земной поверхности будет достигать 3 м (без использования опорных точек). В составе оптической системы используется трехзеркальный анастигмат (диаметр основного зеркала – 1,1 м) и два отклоняющих зеркала, что позволяет камере работать в панхроматическом и многоспектральном режимах одновременно.

Контракт на изготовление оптоэлектронной камеры для спутника GeoEye-2 компания GeoEye выдала ITT Space Systems (Rochester, шт. Нью-Йорк) в октябре 2007 г. В октябре 2011 г. бизнес ITT, связанный с выполнением заказов для аэрокосмической промышленности и министерства обороны, был выделен в самостоятельную компанию ITT Exelis, в составе которой разработкой геоинформационных систем и оборудования занимается подразделение Geospatial Systems, принявшее на себя функции ITT Space Systems. Еще одним известным проектом ITT Exelis в области ДЗЗ является создание оптоэлектронной системы для спутника WorldView-3, запуск которого намечен на 2014 год.

Компания Lockheed Martin Space Systems, выступающая головным подрядчиком работ по созданию GeoEye-2, выполняет сборку спутника на своих предприятиях в Sunnyvale (шт. Калифорния). Соответствующий контракт был выдан компании в 2010 г. Спутник создается на базе модернизированной версии платформы LM-900. К настоящему времени завершены установка на спутниковой платформе бортовой двигательной установки, а также ряда других служебных подсистем. Вывод спутника на орбиту планируется осуществить в 2013 году с помощью ракеты-носителя Atlas V. Запуск также обеспечит подразделение компании Lockheed Martin – Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services.

http://www.scanex.ru/ru/news/News_Preview.asp?id=n1591313

[instml]

DigitalGlobe Adding Infrared Capability to WorldView-3 Satellite

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Imaging satellite operator DigitalGlobe is adding a shortwave infrared sensing capability to its planned WorldView-3 satellite that will open up a host of new civil and military applications, the company said April 17.

The new capability will enable customers to pick up details that often do not show up in conventional visible imagery, Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe said in an announcement here at the 28th National Space Symposium.

"Shortwave infrared is really good at detecting differences between materials," said Walter Scott, DigitalGlobe founder and chief technical officer. In an interview here, he reeled off a variety of civilian and commercial applications for the data, including mineral exploration, vegetation moisture monitoring and water-resource management.

Scott declined to discuss the military and intelligence applications of shortwave infrared, which detects heat signatures. But he said civil and national security applications weighed equally in the company's decision to invest in the sensor.

DigitalGlobe's primary costumer is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which buys commercial satellite imagery on behalf of national security customers. The NGA in 2010 awarded DigitalGlobe and competitor GeoEye 10-year imagery contracts with a combined value of over $7 billion that require the companies to invest in new satellites and infrastructure.

Scott declined to disclose the cost of the eight-band infrared sensing capability, but said it would not appreciably affect the $650 million cost of the Worldview-3 program. That total includes the satellite, its 2014 launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket and other costs, he said.

DigitalGlobe is on the hook for the entire cost of the Atlas 5, built by Denver-based United Launch Alliance, even though the satellite requires only a fraction of the rocket's full payload-carrying capacity. Scott said DigitalGlobe is looking for a secondary payload whose owner would help defray the launch costs, but has made no firm decision to pursue that strategy.

WorldView-3 is being built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo. ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems of Rochester, N.Y., is supplying the main sensor, which will be capable of taking black-and-white pictures with 0.3-meter resolution — meaning objects of that size and larger can be detected — from an orbital altitude of just under 617 kilometers, Scott said.

The satellite will be capable of taking multispectral imagery at 1.2-meter resolution and shortwave infrared data at 3.7-meter resolution, Scott said.

DigitalGlobe directed Exelis to add the infrared capability to the WorldView-3 imaging camera about a year ago, Scott said.

Chris Young, president of Exelis Geospatial Systems, said the infrared capability is an additional sensor module that will be placed in the satellite's main imaging camera.

DigitalGlobe currently has three healthy imaging satellites on orbit: QuickBird, launched in 2001; WorldView-1, launched in 2007; and WorldView-2, launched in 2009. Each satellite is more capable than its predecessor, and together they collect about 1 billion square kilometers of imagery per year, or six times the land surface area of the Earth, Scott said.

Scott said the constellation provides revisit frequencies of two times per day, and in some cases three or even four times per day. The WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites have control moment gyros that provide a high degree of agility that increases flexibility and imaging frequency, Scott said.

http://www.spacenews.com/earth_observation/120417-digitalglobe-adding-ir-worldview3.html

[instml]

April 18, 2012 Updated
PALSAR-2 impulse response evaluation under vacuum environment

From March 5 to 9, JAXA conducted impulse response evaluation of the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-2) aboard Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) under vacuum environment in 6-Meter-Diameter Radiometer Space Chamber Building at the Tsukuba Space Center.
The impulse response evaluation under vacuum environment is to verify the PALSAR-2's performance and functions in a vacuum environment that is close to that in space.
PALSAR-2 is additionally installed with a new observation function called"Spotlight mode." Thus its resolution target is one to three meters, which is far better than its predecessor ALOS/PALSAR, whose resolution is about 10 meters. Also, the PALSAR-2 can enlarge its observation area by about three times so that it can quickly provide data with higher accuracy and increase observation frequency.

Gazing into Earth's Expression

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) is follow-on mission from the "DAICHI", which contributed to cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveys. ALOS-2 will succeed this mission with enhanced capabilities.
Specifically, JAXA is conducting research and development activities to improve wide and high-resolution observation technologies developed for DAICHI in order to further fulfill social needs.
These social needs include: 1) Disaster monitoring of damage areas, both in cosiderable detail, and when these areas may be large 2) Continuous updating of data archives related to national land and infrastructure information 3) Effective monitoring of cultivated areas 4) Global monitoring of tropical rain forests to identify carbon sinks.
The state-of-the-art L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-2) aboard ALOS-2, which is an active microwave radar using the 1.2GHz frequency range, will, in responding to society's needs, have enhanced performance compared to DAICHI/PALSAR. The PALSAR-2 is capable of observing day and night, and in all weather conditions.

Precise diagnosis of the earth using "L-band SAR" Japanese advanced technology

ALOS-2 will have a spotlight mode (1 to 3m) and a high resolution mode (3 to 10m), whilst PALSAR has a 10m resolution. It will allow comprehensive monitoring of disasters by providing users with more detailed data than DAICHI/PALSAR.
The observation frequency of ALOS-2 will be improved by greatly expanding the observable range of the satellite up to about 3 times, througe an improvement in obserble areas (from 870km to 2,320km), as well as giving ALOS-2 a right-and-left looking function, currently not available on DAICHI/PALSAR.

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/alos2/index_e.html

[instml]

March 1, 2012 – Happy 28th Birthday Landsat 5!

March 1, 2012: Happy 28th Birthday Landsat 5!

April 12, 2012 – Landsat 5 Captures MSS Data

Landsat 5 recently captured and downlinked Multispectral Scanner (MSS) images for the first time in over a decade. An MSS sensor first flew on Landsat 1 in 1972 and was aboard each of the Landsats 1-5. The MSS was powered down on Landsat 5 in the late 1990's, but the USGS recently turned on the MSS to determine the current state of the sensor. The USGS successfully downlinked raw data from the MSS for several successful passes in the past two weeks. Due to the length of its inactivity, much analysis and testing still lie ahead to determine the quality of the data, and the ability of the USGS to collect, process, and distribute the data. Therefore, MSS data distribution is by no means a certainty.



http://landsat.usgs.gov/mission_headlines2012.php

[instml]

Казахстан начал создание спутников дистанционного зондирования

Астана, 19 апреля /Синьхуа/ -- Казахстан приступил к созданию спутников дистанционного зондирования Земли высокого класса и уровня, сообщил в четверг председатель Национального космического агентства Казахстана Талгат Мусабаев.

"Один из спутников -- среднего пространственного разрешения, порядка 7 метров. И второй спутник -- высокого пространственного разрешения, порядка 1 метра. Это высочайший уровень техники, который имеют всего две страны в мире", -- сказал Т. Мусабаев.

http://russian.news.cn/science/2012-04/20/c_131539496.htm

[Дмитрий В.]

"Один из спутников -- среднего пространственного разрешения, порядка 7 метров. И второй спутник -- высокого пространственного разрешения, порядка 1 метра. Это высочайший уровень техники, который имеют всего две страны в мире", -- сказал Т. Мусабаев

Хм... США, ЕКА, Великобритания, Израиль, Индия, Ю.Корея, Россия... Почему две-то?

[KapYar]

Investigation on Envisat continues

Optical, radar and laser observations of the Envisat satellite show that it is still in a stable orbit. Efforts to regain contact with the satellite have been under way since 8 April, when it unexpectedly stopped sending data to Earth.
 
To determine if Envisat has entered its 'safe mode' – which would be a starting point for revival – the recovery team is drawing on every information source available.

Valuable help is coming from many European and international partners. France's new Pleiades satellite normally provides very high-resolution images of Earth, but is now focusing on Envisat to shed more light on the situation.

On 15 April, the French space agency CNES turned Pleiades to capture images of Envisat passing within about 100 km. This remarkable feat was possible thanks to the exceptional agility of Pleiades.

Flight specialists and engineers are using the images to determine the orientation of Envisat's solar panel – the satellite's power source.

If the panel is in a suitable position for sufficient exposure to the Sun, enough power is being generated to put Envisat into safe mode, and could allow for re-establishing communications with Earth.

Интересно. ЕКА использовало французский спутник ДЗЗ Pleiades для съемки поломавшегося Envisat с расстояния 100 км. Результат, по-моему, весьма неплохой.

[Yuri Ant]

Интересная статья по поводу разрешения спутников разведки:
http://www.newsru.com/crime/14jul2010/pedosearchgpsau.html

Вот цитата по теме топика:
"Вскоре в российское бюро Интерпола из Австралии пришел не только видеоролик с традиционной просьбой опознать "главных героев". К нему прилагались адрес того места, где, скорее всего, совершается преступление, и даже номер машины предполагаемых преступников."

[instml]

Журноламерство цветет и пахнет.

[Ded]

Разрешите высказать свою точку зрения.

КА ДЗЗ - это стратегические и, при оговорках, оперативные.

Тактическая информация устаревает слишком быстро при маневренных действиях. Полоса захвата порядка 15 км для разрешения 0.7 м это слишком мало. Если увидели колонну танков на марше - то где она будет через час?

[instml]

Тактическая информация устаревает слишком быстро при маневренных действиях. Полоса захвата порядка 15 км для разрешения 0.7 м это слишком мало. Если увидели колонну танков на марше - то где она будет через час?

- вынести колонну пока никуда не уехала
- иметь в своем распоряжении намного больше чем один спутник

[instml]

A Military and Intelligence Clash Over Spy Satellites

WASHINGTON — The nation's spies and its military commanders are at odds over the future of America's spy satellites, a divide that could determine whether the United States government will increasingly rely on its own eyes in the sky or on less costly commercial technology.

The fight is shaping up into the intelligence world's version of the United States Postal Service versus FedEx — a traditional government institution that must provide comprehensive services versus a more nimble private sector that is cherry-picking the most lucrative business opportunities.

In recent years, advances in commercially available technology have allowed private companies to develop satellites carrying high-resolution sensors and perform many of the surveillance tasks that were once the sole preserve of classified satellites owned and operated by the intelligence community. Two private companies already provide some of America's spy satellite imagery, at far lower costs than government-owned satellites, according to current and former government and industry officials and outside analysts.

But at the urging of senior intelligence officials, the Obama administration has proposed cutting the contracts for commercial satellite imagery in half next year — to about $250 million from $540 million — to help meet deficit reduction requirements, while bringing back more of the work inside the government, according to administration and Congressional officials and industry experts.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders on the Congressional intelligence committees are resisting the budget cuts and siding with the private companies and the military, which argues that it could not get as much imagery as it needs for combat operations without turning to the less expensive commercial technology.

"The debate is really between the military, which needs a lot of imagery but doesn't need the highly classified imagery, and the intelligence community, which wants to keep the capability to produce its own imagery," said Bill Wilt, a senior official with GeoEye, one of the private satellite companies.

In the midst of what observers in and out of government describe as an increasingly bitter turf war, the director of the National Reconnaissance Office, the secret agency that manages the nation's spy satellites, resigned Wednesday. Bruce Carlson, the director, issued a statement saying that he is leaving the reconnaissance office, which is part of the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, a spokeswoman for the office said.

Administration officials said his resignation was not related to the satellite fight. But Mr. Carlson was said to be an advocate for cutting the budget for the commercial satellite companies, and his departure occurred as the satellite industry and its supporters on the Congressional intelligence committees were gearing up to oppose the budget cuts.

Spy satellites are among the most expensive tools used by the intelligence community, dwarfing most other elements of the classified intelligence budget.

When the commercial satellite industry developed in the 1990s, it could not compete with the highly sophisticated sensing equipment flown by the government's spy satellites. But gradually, the gap between commercial satellites and the intelligence community's has narrowed.

American commercial satellite companies now produce images of higher resolution than they are permitted to sell publicly, and their only customers are United States government agencies or foreign governments, with American approval. Commercial satellites can show, for example, an image of a specific vehicle type or spare tire on a truck, while the more sensitive government-owned satellites can detect gun mounts or vehicle identification numbers.

The intelligence community uses even higher resolution imagery for tasks like monitoring the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, but the commercial satellites are adequate for almost all of the needs of the military. Military commanders, who need access to large volumes of satellite imagery for mapping and other daily uses in combat zones, have become big advocates of the expanded use of commercial satellite imagery.

"The technology of the current satellite architecture is pretty much at its limit, and the commercial satellites are producing just about the same thing at a much lower cost," said retired Gen. James E. Cartwright of the Marines, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The government's satellites are better, but the question is, What do you need? Most studies show that about 90 percent of what the military needs can be solved with commercial."

The military also favors commercial satellites because imagery from the intelligence community cannot be easily shared with allies. "The beauty of commercial imagery is that it is unclassified," said Walter Scott, chief technical officer of DigitalGlobe, a satellite company based in Longmont, Colo.

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, the two satellite companies with the largest contracts to provide imagery to the government, now have a combined total of five satellites orbiting Earth, and plans to launch more with financial support from Washington. The number of government-owned spy satellites now in orbit is classified, although the N.R.O. has announced that it is launching four satellites this year.

Industry officials say that General Cartwright, who retired as vice chairman last year after losing out on a bid to become chairman of the joint chiefs, was one of the biggest advocates inside the government of the increased use of commercial satellites. His departure gave more room to maneuver for his chief opponent on the issue, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence.

The intelligence community has proposed to increase spending on research and development for new government-owned satellites to meet the growing demands for imagery. But the N.R.O.'s efforts over the past decade to develop a new generation of satellites have been plagued with problems.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it focused on a program called the Future Imagery Architecture, which was criticized by the Congressional intelligence oversight committees for bloated budgets, and which eventually collapsed.

That was followed by efforts to build midsize spy satellites that would compete more directly with commercial satellites than the reconnaissance office's current fleet of large satellites do. But that program withered away after a panel created in 2009 by Dennis C. Blair, then the national intelligence director, recommended a greater focus on the use of commercial satellites.

Now, industry officials claim the decision to reverse course and slash the commercial satellite budget could leave military commanders in the lurch. Intelligence officials said the cuts would not have any impact on their ability to meet the demands for imagery from the military and the rest of the government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/us/politics/spy-satellite-clash-for-military-and-intelligence-officials.html

[instml]

Китайцы хотели купить обанкротившееся созвездие, но им не дали

U.S. Says It Blocked China's Attempt To Buy Bankrupt Satellite Imaging Firm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. State Department recently blocked an attempt by China to buy a fully functional European satellite imaging constellation because the spacecraft contained U.S. technology, according to a newly released government report.

The report, prepared by the U.S. State and Defense departments at the behest of Congress, did not identify the constellation, but a very likely suspect is the RapidEye system operated by a German venture that went bankrupt last year and eventually was purchased by a Canadian company. The RapidEye constellation consists of five medium-resolution Earth imaging satellites built by an industry team led by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Canada and Surrey Satellite Technology of the United Kingdom.

The report, which recommends sweeping changes to U.S. satellite technology export regulations to make it easier for U.S. space hardware makers to compete internationally, was released April 18. It recommends authorizing the U.S. president to remove certain classes of satellites and related components from the U.S. Munitions List (USML), a registry of militarily sensitive technologies whose exports are licensed by the State Department.

Requested by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, the report also recommends continuing the U.S. policy that bars exports of U.S. satellites and related technology to China, either directly or through third parties. "Recently, China attempted to acquire a fully functional, European satellite imaging constellation but was blocked by USML re-export laws due to U.S. technology being on the satellites," the report said. "As part of the Administration's recommendations in this report, this technology would remain subject to the USML."

During a press conference on the report at the 28th National Space Symposium here April 18, Lou Ann McFadden, chief of strategic issues at the Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Administration, declined to identify the satellite system, but noted that the company involved was going bankrupt and had an active constellation on orbit. The company sought, but was denied, State Department approval to re-export the USML technology that was aboard the satellites to China, she said.

RapidEye AG of Brandenberg, Germany, which launched its constellation of satellites in August 2008, filed for bankruptcy protection in Germany last spring. The company was purchased in late summer by Canada's Iunctus Geomatics Corp. of Lethbridge, Alberta, which continues to operate the satellites and market the imagery.  

http://www.spacenews.com/earth_observation/120420-china-attempt-buy-sat-imaging-firm.html