Altitude is influenced more by the mission equipment of the satellite. Imagery and communications are the primary missions of LEO satellites and the altitude of the satellite orbit depends upon the equipment that performs the mission. Communications satellites operate at orbits out to geostationary - the reason that the Iridium constellation operates at LEO is the intent to provide communication all over the globe. Different imagery sensors work better at different altitudes - the altitude affects how much of the earth below is visible to the sensors.
Frequently, more important than altitude is the inclination and right ascension of the ascending node at epoch - the two-line element set - which describes the orbit. This affects how much of the earth's surface is covered by the satellite and how often - which can be important in imagery. BTW, the new limit on resolution is 25cm (half of the previous limit) and the folks up in Denver currently have satellites with 41cm resolution and their new satellite may be capable of 25cm. My personal opinion is that, for the very reason that Owen cites of technology obsolescence, future satellites will move away from large satellites with many sensors to clusters of micro-sats moving together in communities with each micro-sat having a singular mission (kind of the Unix model :-) Ray Parks ________________________________ From: Friam [[email protected]] on behalf of Owen Densmore [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2014 12:18 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] [EXTERNAL] Re: iClarified - Apple News - Google Just Bought a Company That Says It Can Predict iPhone Launches From the Sky Does anyone know if there are particular altitudes for specific usages? 180 miles seems lower than other "low earth orbits" I've read about, but wikipedia notes that there are orbits even lower, 90 miles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit There must be a trade-off between satellite lifetime too, due to orbit decay. But given today's tech, a satellite older than a couple of years could be obsolete! -- Owen On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 10:40 AM, Parks, Raymond <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: 50cm ----- Original Message ----- From: Barry MacKichan [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2014 10:28 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [FRIAM] iClarified - Apple News - Google Just Bought a Company That Says It Can Predict iPhone Launches From the Sky Does anyone know what resolution it is "that until last week was illegal to sell commercially." I have a friend who worked for the satellite imaging company in Boulder (the name escapes me) and one of their potential customers ran a test of determining the progress (including the height) on the new symphony building in Seattle as it was being built. I think their resolution then was 1 meter. —Barry On 17 Jun 2014, at 10:04, Owen Densmore wrote: > My! Their satellites are quite "near earth", thus really high > resolution. > > Google paid $500 million for the company that puts satellites into > orbit >> 185 miles above the Earth. Within a few years, you might be able use >> Google >> Maps to check if you left a light on or if your car is in your >> driveway. > > > http://www.iclarified.com/41635/google-just-bought-a-company-that-says-it-can-predict-iphone-launches-from-the-sky > > Their capability is impressive: > > That's because by 2016 or so, Skybox will be able to take full images > of >> the Earth twice a day, at a resolution that until last week was >> illegal to >> sell commercially—all with just a half-dozen satellites. > > > The zinger is how they want this to not just be "data" but > "knowledge" > > "We're looking at Foxconn every week," Mr. Berkenstock says, because >> measuring the density of trucks outside the Taiwanese company's >> manufacturing facilities tells Skybox when the next iPhone will be >> released. > > > > -- Owen > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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