Spy movies make satellite cameras seem like magic. Just a pinch of the screen allows the heroes to locate villains with clear feeds. In real life, space imaging is not nearly as good, or at least, it wasn’t until now. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences just invented a new satellite that can see details as small as 1.7mm from 100km. That’s 100 times better than any current satellite technology relying on traditional lenses.
Details as never before
A couple of individual innovations are at the heart of this movie-like satellite camera. First, the optical aperture is expanded from 17.2mm to 68.8mm, taking advantage of a 4×4 microlens array. Second, high-frequency lasers emit signals above 10 GHz. This allows for real-time data processing and even tracking of an object. A successful demonstration was done at Qinghai Lake by placing reflective prisms 101.8km away under clear weather conditions.
The idea of satellite cameras producing high-quality media is not new. For instance, Lockheed Martin reportedly achieved a resolution of 2cm from 1.6km away in 2011. Since then, many have slowly improved on this idea. Still, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ research made the biggest leap yet. However, weather conditions heavily affect the quality, so there’s room for improvement.
Eye in the sky
The potential uses of this satellite technology are vast. Unprecedented space observation, tracking wildfires and other natural disasters in real-time, and offering better support in hard-to-reach areas are just some of the positive use cases for this technology. However, it’s inescapable that no matter in whose hands it is, something at this level blurs the lines between observation and intrusion. The potential to have facial recognition from such a distance could spell disaster in terms of privacy.
Perfect satellite cameras might soon be a reality, as many concepts that were once only on movie screens might soon be. The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ new tech might mean we need to redefine how we look at the world and vice versa. It has the potential to do much more than just offer a sharper view. All the technologies we get are based on data, and with such a precise view, we are bound to discover new innovations, which I’m excited about.
YouTube: Chinese scientists unveil the world’s most powerful spy camera, which can identify human faces from space
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Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been taken by Nate Biddle.
Source: Sujita Sinha (Interesting Engineering)
