[OSM-talk] Satellite for OSM

[Morten Kjeldgaard]

On 23/09/2009, at 12.44, Robert Scott wrote:

> Very. Getting steady images from a balloon would be very difficult,  
> even with a gimbal. The payload swings like a pendulum. You also  
> wouldn't be able to control where the balloon went. You would have a  
> very hard time fighting against wind with an RC blimp.


How about hot-air ballons? They only fly under very low wind  
conditions, and although I've never been on one, I'm sure they don't  
swing all that much.

If it were possible to produce a cheap and light-weight little box  
with a gyro-stabilized gimbal containing a camera and a GPS logger, we  
might be able to persuade balloon skippers to take it along. The  
altitude these things fly is 3-500 meters (I estimate) and that would  
give extremely high resolution aerial photos.

-- Morten