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New Satellite Technology Opens Up Burma, Solves U.S. Crimes
by
findingDulcinea Staff
The 50th anniversary of the world’s first man-made satellite coincides with a revolution in satellite imagery that has cracked crime, sought lost planes, and breached the barriers of tyranny.
30-Second Summary
On Oct. 4, 1957, the USSR put the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit. Today, estimates put the number of operational satellites circling the Earth at around 900. Ordinary people make use of them every day, via telephones, televisions, radio, and global-positioning systems.
Normally, no one stops to think about the sophisticated devices in space that enable many of our mundane modern tasks. But recent advances in satellite imagery are helping to make the world more conscious of the technology that encircles it.
When the explorer Steve Fossett went missing in Nevada in September, satellite images made available on the Internet allowed the public to join the search for his plane, presumed to have crashed somewhere in the wilds.
USAToday reported in the same month on how U.S. authorities have utilized the satellite imagery application Google Earth to hunt for marijuana fields and property tax evaders.
A very different development is the use of satellite photography to confirm accounts leaking out of Burma of human rights abuses.
These new uses of satellite technology illustrate an argument put forward in The Economist of Sept. 27, in anticipation of the anniversary of Sputnik’s launch.
Back in 1957, the space program was a matter of outward exploration. But its results have been an unexpected awareness of our own home planet: “The biggest mental change wrought by spaceflight has been not an appreciation of the vastness of the universe, but rather of the smallness, fragility and unity of Earth.”
Normally, no one stops to think about the sophisticated devices in space that enable many of our mundane modern tasks. But recent advances in satellite imagery are helping to make the world more conscious of the technology that encircles it.
When the explorer Steve Fossett went missing in Nevada in September, satellite images made available on the Internet allowed the public to join the search for his plane, presumed to have crashed somewhere in the wilds.
USAToday reported in the same month on how U.S. authorities have utilized the satellite imagery application Google Earth to hunt for marijuana fields and property tax evaders.
A very different development is the use of satellite photography to confirm accounts leaking out of Burma of human rights abuses.
These new uses of satellite technology illustrate an argument put forward in The Economist of Sept. 27, in anticipation of the anniversary of Sputnik’s launch.
Back in 1957, the space program was a matter of outward exploration. But its results have been an unexpected awareness of our own home planet: “The biggest mental change wrought by spaceflight has been not an appreciation of the vastness of the universe, but rather of the smallness, fragility and unity of Earth.”
Headline Links: Satellite imagery's new applications
Google Earth is a boon to “cash-strapped police departments,” writes Daniel Terdiman for USAToday. The paper reports on how Wisconsin police traced a marijuana field using the free application. Also, there are apparently numerous instances of tax investigators discovering illegal property extensions using Google Earth. The limitations of this will be obvious to anyone familiar with the software: “The satellite photography in Google Earth is not live … In most cases, it varies widely from as recent as a few months old to a few years old.”
Source: USA Today
Within a week of explorer Steve Fossett going missing in the deserts of Nevada, on Sept. 3, members of the public were involved in the search via Google Earth and Amazon’s application The Mechanical Turk. Google released up-to-date satellite images of Nevada, and Amazon organized a collaborative search system using a strategy called “crowd-sourcing.”
Source: The BBC
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has used satellite photographs to monitor human rights abuses in Darfur and Zimbabwe, and most recently in Burma (aka Myanmar). The AAAS compared images from Burma's recent history with contemporary photographs to look for the destruction of villages and the expansion of military bases, evidence that might corroborate reports of crimes conducted by the military regime.
Source: Science Daily
Reference Material: The online resources
NASA’s “Satellite Situation Report” lists the man-made objects orbiting the earth. A satellite is any object that orbits another, and the vast majority of the nearly 25,000 satellites going round Earth are debris from spacecraft.
Source: NASA
Amazon organized a page, utilizing its Mechanical Turk application, to aid the search for Steve Fossett.
Source: Amazon
The basic Google Earth application is available free online. The designers describe Google Earth as “a globe that sits inside your PC.” By pointing at any place on the planet, a user can zoom in as if focusing on an area from a telescope mounted in space.
Source: Google Earth
The Google Earth blog hosts discussions on how to get the most from the application and covers the expanding number of ways it is used.
Source: The Google Earth blog
The American Institutes of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a group dedicated to the promotion of the advancement of space and air travel, has a lower estimate for the number of operational satellites than other sources. By only including those successfully launched satellites that the AIAA feels confident will still be operational today, the institute arrives a total of 587–597.
Source: The American Institutes of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The number of operational satellites is over 936, according to Space Weather, a site that monitors and reports on the effects of “violent transfers of matter and energy from the sun to the earth.”
Source: Space Weather
Related Links: Google Earth, uses and possible abuses
Were they to exist, mythical large creatures, such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, could be tracked using the “crowd-sourcing” technique that was applied in the search for Steve Fossett, argues Live Science writer Benjamin Radford. However, if these creatures cannot be found even with the aid of satellite technology, the skeptical Radford despairs of ever disabusing those who ardently believe in their existence.
Source: Live Science
Google Earth was in the news recently when a user scanning the San Diego area came across a naval building in the shape of a swastika. The navy claimed to be quite unaware that a symbol of race-hate was being projected into the skies from the base.
Source: The Guardian
This CNN video report adds further details to the story of the navy swastika-like construction. The building went up in the 1960s, and camouflaging it will cost the navy in the region of $600,000.
Source: CNN
Oct. ’05, then President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam expressed concern that high-resolution images of his country, provided by Google Earth, posed a security threat.
Source: Techtree
Aug. ’05, representatives of Australia’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor requested that images of the facility be removed from Google Earth for security reasons.
Source: ABC News
History: The space program 50 years on
The first satellite went into orbit exactly 50 years ago, on October 4, 1957, with the launch of the Russian Sputnik 1, an event which began the Cold War Space Race. The Economist considers the legacy of Sputnik: “Most of the satellites in orbit round Earth look down, rather than up, and the biggest mental change wrought by spaceflight has been not an appreciation of the vastness of the universe, but rather of the smallness, fragility and unity of Earth.”
Source: The Economist
Physicist Peter D. Zimmerman reflects on what the launch of Sputnik meant for the space race and, beyond that, to the development of international communications, accurate weather forecasts, and global positioning technology. Although Sputnik's success was a Cold War public relations setback for America, Zimmerman judges that “in all probability the Eisenhower administration was actually glad to have been beaten into space.” The United States was working on a satellite that would take photographs from above Russian territory. The U.S. government has been worried that the Soviets would “object to any satellite flying over their territory.” But since Sputnik went over the United States “the right of satellites to pass peacefully was firmly established before the first military spacecraft was launched.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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