Even the most advanced spacecraft cannot see car license plates. On December 24, Milana Elderova, General Director of the commercial operator Roscosmos for space imagery of the Terra Tech company, spoke about this.
The myth that spacecraft can shoot in any conditions and distinguish any detail from orbit, including the model and number of the car, the text in the newspaper, and the like, has spread through Hollywood films. However, in real life, the Legion devices from Maxar will have the best shooting resolution – 29 cm per pixel, which are scheduled to launch in 2021.
“The license plates cannot be discerned with such a resolution, but it will be possible to see individual trees, determine the type of car, see congestion points on beaches and squares as separate points,” RIA Novosti quotes Elderova.
She noted that the cost of such ultra-high resolution images starts at 10 cents per 1 square km of shooting. This is the most expensive type of shooting and, accordingly, the most profitable for operators.
Earlier, on November 28, it became known that the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation proposes to deploy a new Russian orbital service station, which will be able to monitor the entire surface of the Earth. For this, the station is planned to be raised to an altitude of 400 km with an inclination of 98 degrees.