Space Imaging.com Just Might Be the Ultimate Long Shot
It maybe be the ultimate long shot, but so much more as well. With the help of a little photoshopping and creative use of screen resolutions, you can now convince your friends that you are a superspy. Like all those scenes before us… “There, back, a little to the left… in more… there! Don’t you see it? In his left hand?”
Space Imaging’s vision is to be a 21st Century information company leading the growth of a new global earth information industry, which will use map-accurate and information-rich imagery to revolutionize the way people conduct business. It sounds great and it’s a lot of fun to tool around looking for some interesting shots of your backyard from space, but this is deadly serious business of the highest order.
This Colorado-based company’s goal is no small one – to better map, measure, monitor and manage the world we live in. This Orwellian business model grew with the launch of IKONOS, the world’s first one-meter resolution, commercial imaging satellite. Although the company swears that it has no government affiliation, that it is merely a privately owned company serving private citizens, business leaders and governments, it is actually a limited partnership with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Mitsubishi, Singapore’s Van Der Horst Ltd., Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., Europe’s Remote Sensing Affiliates, Swedish Space Corporation, Thailand’s Loxley Public Company and other international investors.
Regional affiliate business operations have been established in Tokyo, Japan (Japan Space Imaging), Seoul, Korea (Space Imaging Asia), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Space Imaging Middle East) and Ankara, Turkey (Space Imaging Eurasia). And with applications or “products” ranging from vector extraction, environmental analysis and assessment, tree and crop health monitoring, risk assessment, fire modeling, pervious/impervious surface analysis, natural resource exploration support, damage assessment, threat analysis, telecommunications analysis, transportation assessments and analysis, port modeling and analysis, airfield modeling and analysis, watershed assessments and urban facility monitoring, governments would have no interest whatsoever. Toss in the fact that the U.S. governement has the right to issue shutter control orders on the camera portion of the flying brick, to limit coverage over a particular area or restrict the distribution of imagery itself and you can understand why this company seems a little “Get Smart”.
The satellite may also not collect or disseminate imagery of Israel at a better resolution than what is generally available from remote sensing companies in other countries, even though they can. Weird, huh? The command link from the IKONOS satellite to the ground station is encrypted and authenticated, so we should all feel safe and secure. I especially like the photos of terrorist planes flying into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon… no wait – they seem to have ‘Before’ and ‘After’ shots, but alas perhaps those important pictures were ‘sold’ to ‘clients’ (‘clients’ who are, or were, not, repeat, NOT ‘defined’ terrorist nations) or who did not or would not violate U.N. trade restrictions.
The delivery medium is convenient and practical, on CD or DVD, and is generally sold based on a geographic area, with price points based on minimum purchases and, like a CoffeeCard, there is an incentive to buy more. A “Buy 10 Get 1 Free” sort of thing. Prices fall in the range of $18-55 per square kilometer, and outside of North America, prices range from $35-$200 per square kilometer with a minimum order of 100 square kilometers.
For Christmas, I’m going to get my mother a $20,000 color model shot of Mykonos. We’ll watch it over and over again that wonderous morning, and then probably never play with it again. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fall into the hands of my evil brother.
– John Fucile
