[OSM-talk] Satellite for OSM

[Cartinus]

On Monday 18 May 2009 02:38:10 Matt Amos wrote:
> > But you have to
> > either store some non-trivial part of it on the satellite (that is not
> > as easy as on earth where you can buy some server with RAID and plug
> > it into wall) while the satellite does not have direct visibility of
> > the earth contyrol center where it can relay stored images (and then
> > you have some means to transmit large amount of the data while the
> > satellite flies over the earth control center) or have multiple ground
> > stations or bunch of another satellites that relay the continuously
> > transmitted data.
>
> i have to assume that qinetiq have some way of solving this.

That satellite is specifically designed to work with mobile ground stations 
that are somewhere "near" the area that gets photographed. 

It's designed to give military commanders in the field answers to questions 
like: What does it look like "right now" on the other side of that mountain? 
Without that information having to go through some intel department "back 
home".

The current satellite is just a proof of concept. They'll need 4 of them to 
get to once a day coverage for the whole world

So they didn't really solve the problem, but avoided it.

-- 
m.v.g.,
Cartinus