Re: [GZG] Satellite imagery

[Tony Christney <tchristney@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sure, but my point is that there are other, more important reasons than
range that make geosynchronous orbits sub-optimal for recon satellites.
The fact that you are fixed above a given point is a big negative.
The fact that most of the planet is either at a bad viewing angle or
is completely occulted is also a big negative.
Long range is just another nail in the coffin, IMO.

Cheers,
Tony C.

On 10-Mar-06, at 5:40 PM, Eric Foley wrote:

> Well, the exact PSB you decide to use isn't really that important.  At 
> some point, one has to keep in mind that we're discussing a sci-fi 
> future where the problem of how to travel faster than light -- which 
> current physics holds to be either impossible outside of maybe the 
> outlandish theory of dropping through a singularity of some sort and 
> somehow managing to stay alive in the process.  I would tend to say 
> that if we're going to play game where this is not only a problem 
> that's been solved but is made a trivial element that we can abstract 
> into a given, it's a little silly to say that we won't also have 
> developed a way to build spy satellites that doesn't force us to still 
> use giant physical glass lenses in the telescopes.
>
> E
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <sipior@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <gzg-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 1:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [GZG] Satellite imagery
>
>
> > > So, if your target is at a fixed longitude, very low latitude, and 
> > > your
> > > optics are excellent, then geosynchronous orbits make sense for this 
> > > role.
> > >
> > > For Earth's orbit at the extreme end of the visible spectrum (400 
> > > nm) you
> > > would need a ~8.75 m diffraction limited telescope to get 2 m 
> > > resolution
> > > (which is pretty poor.)
> > >
> > > Maybe there is some way to PSB all these considerations (and any I've
> > > missed) away.  I just don't see them ;-)
> > >
> > > Cheers, Tony C.
> >
> > Gravitic lenses for light focusing. I think that was the PSB 
> > Traveller used
> > to explain how a ship-mounted laser could cut through another ship at 
> > five
> > light-seconds without an emitter 100 meters across ;-)
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > M.
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>
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