Whats the strongest zoom picture of Earth from Space?

[ska invita]

Google earth zooms in pretty close, but surely its possible to zoom in even further than that....
Whats the most zoomed in picture that can be taken from space?
I remember reading a book published in the 70s that claimed the US had the capacity to zoom in to a rivet, but I dont know how true that is.

 

[moochedit]

Found this:

Can Satellites See You? Can You See a Satellite?

NOAA satellites have the capability to provide astounding views of the Earth. But many people want to know if these satellites can see them.

www.nesdis.noaa.gov

 

[The39thStep]

Google earth zooms in pretty close, but surely its possible to zoom in even further than that....
Whats the most zoomed in picture that can be taken from space?
I remember reading a book published in the 70s that claimed the US had the capacity to zoom in to a rivet, but I dont know how true that is.

Bless

 

[Reno]

In the 70s, the closest you'll get is Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of Ten.

 

[ska invita]

Bless

The third wave, Alvin tofler I think his name was

 

[ska invita]

Found this:

Can Satellites See You? Can You See a Satellite?

NOAA satellites have the capability to provide astounding views of the Earth. But many people want to know if these satellites can see them.

www.nesdis.noaa.gov

That's satellites though... They've got all kinds of super telescopes..Ive no idea

 

[TopCat]

Dont look up

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

£30tn space spy satellite foiled by a Sombrero...

 

[mauvais]

Lots of Google Earth data, most of the UK for example, is aerial not satellite. Look at somewhere remote and you'll see how good/bad commercial satellite imagery is.

 

[2hats]

Recent Advanced Crystal/Ikon electro-optical resolution (based off their current bus) is likely a few (5-10) cm under optimum conditions. Best commercial resolution is around 30cm but the limiting factor there is more a political choice than an engineering one.

 

[Crispy]

When Trump tweeted that spy satellite photo of the Iranian launch site, it confirmed the 10cm resolution, which is limited by the size of the mirror in the telescope and distortion in the atmosphere. The size of the mirror is limited by the diameter of common payload fairings on rockets (about 2.4m). They can't get any better unless they fly larger satellites on one of the upcoming super heavy launchers (SLS, New Glenn, Starship) which would allow mirrors over 6m wide. The resolution is inversely proportional to the diamter of the mirror, so you could expect 2.5x better resolution in the future (2.4cm theoretical, 4cm practical).

I suspect 10cm is more than good enough for spy work. The cost of a 6m mirror would be very very high.

 

[2hats]

The size of the mirror is limited by the diameter of common payload fairings on rockets (about 2.4m). They can't get any better unless they fly larger satellites on one of the upcoming super heavy launchers (SLS, New Glenn, Starship) which would allow mirrors over 6m wide.

There are, of course, alternative engineering solutions to that.


But for a regularly replaced long running series there are advantages to keeping things simple and consistent over time. Plus budgetary considerations.