Xref: utzoo sci.space:4226 sci.crypt:750
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sdcsvax!sdcc6!calmasd!jnp
From: jnp@calmasd.GE.COM (John Pantone)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.crypt
Subject: Re: satellites
Keywords: resolution
Message-ID: <2619@calmasd.GE.COM>
Date: 15 Jan 88 22:46:52 GMT
References: <873@uop.edu> <2166@umd5.umd.edu> <4910@well.UUCP> <1952@netsys.UUCP> <1988Jan12.180815.685@sq.uucp>
Organization: G.E.- Calma R&D, San Diego, CA
Lines: 23

In article <1988Jan12.180815.685@sq.uucp>, msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader) writes:
> I'm not saying that people CAN be spotted by satellite, only that it's
> not as easy to dismiss as one might think.

Thank you Mark.

O.K. - I've finally reached saturation.  As a certifiable old-fart who was
around during the Cuban missle crisis (1962) I can guarantee that an object
as small as an automobile and/or truck was plainly visible by sattelite in
'62.  I'm quite confident that you could have made out the make of the car
or truck - even in the crummy newspaper photos they were showing at the time.

Even if technology hasn't progressed since then - seeing a person is surely
possible - since those photos were released publicly I can imagine that they
had better ones which they kept secret.  I can't even begin to believe that
a sattelite would have trouble resolving a person-sized thing. (Image
enhancement, long-baseline effects, microwave imaging, etc.)


-- 
These opinions are solely mine and in no way reflect those of my employer.  
John M. Pantone @ GE/Calma R&D, 9805 Scranton Rd., San Diego, CA 92121
...{ucbvax|decvax}!sdcsvax!calmasd!jnp   jnp@calmasd.GE.COM   GEnie: J.PANTONE