They are watching you.
Ever feel that prickle across your neck, that ominous sensation of eyes on you, but you
can’t detect anyone around?
Well, although they can’t spot the culprit directly, your senses might be onto something.
The Earth is surrounded by eyes, studying you, tracking you, trying to understand every
aspect of your day-to-day life.
They are our own satellites, and there are hundreds of them.
And I don’t think we quite realise how good they’ve gotten.
There are satellites with mirrors the size of Hubble’s, not pointed at distant galaxies
to unravel their mysteries but staring down at you.
There are satellites that can see through clouds, and don’t care if it’s day or
night; they see just as clearly, either way.
In this age of information, where companies are pushing for more and more data, and governments
strive to keep track of criminals and threats, the thing that might be harder and harder
to find is privacy.
Are the benefits worth the cost?
I’m Alex McColgan, and you’re watching Astrum, and it is time to look out the nearest
window, and smile for the camera.
There…
Now: Do you want to see how your picture turned out?
In 1957, the number of artificial satellites in space first ticked up from 0 to 1.
Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviet Union, officially to practice their satellite deployment
methods and to send test radio signals through the atmosphere, but also to show the world
that they were winning the space race.
The world, however did not take long to catch up.
In 2007, 50 years later, there were 912 active satellites orbiting the Earth.
As a testament to how quickly the industry is growing, it took only 10 years for that
number to reach 1,778.
In 2022, the number hit 6,905.
And this number is set to grow.
The company SpaceX alone wants to eventually raise their number of active Starlink satellites
to a whopping 42,000.
In the next ten years, there could be hundreds of thousands of satellites from various different
countries and private organisations orbiting our planet.
Of course, not all of these satellites are there for observation.
Around half of the ones active right now are communication satellites.
But still, according to data collected by the UCS (the aptly named Union of Concerned
Scientists ), at the start of 2022 there were 1,052 eyes looking down on us.
That’s a lot of eyes.
And they’re getting sharper.
Let’s discuss spatial resolution.
This is a measurement of how many metres on the ground are represented by a single pixel
in a satellite-taken image.
The early cameras on satellites like Landsat 1 had a resolution of 80m, which is to say
a single pixel represented an 80x80m square – meaning you could almost fit an entire
football pitch in it.
This made them good for taking sweeping images of our planet at large, and perhaps for keeping
track of massive objects like clouds and weather fronts, but there was hardly the sense that
our privacy was at risk.
Now?
Well, see for yourself.
These full colour videos were taken by a Carbonite 2, a commercially available satellite that
captures an entire 5km swath as it passes by at 500km, in Low Earth Orbit.
The resolution for this video is 1m, which is good enough that you can pick out details
like the motion of waves on the sea, or cars driving along the road, in realtime – although
you might not be able to distinguish their make, and most likely not their drivers.
The advantages of such a video are obvious – transport officials can keep an eye on
traffic congestion, and it becomes easy to track the spread of urbanisation.
There are also numerous scientific benefits, which we’ll get into later.
But there’s one undeniable feature of such improved resolution that has made it very
interesting for governments around the world, and the main reason you might be worried – it
becomes easier for spy satellites to keep track of you.
Spy satellites have also come a long way.
Originally, when the CIA began their secretive Corona project (disguised as an innocent space
exploration program called Discoverer), satellite cameras were recording their images onto actual
film, which then had to be jettisoned and parachuted back down to Earth, where the capsule
carrying the sensitive data could later be recovered.
One of these capsules was actually the first ever man-made object to be recovered from
space.
It wasn’t the most efficient system, and spy satellites tended not to last longer than
a year before they ran out of film and capsules.
Now, everything is digital, significantly improving the lifespan of such satellites.
As for what they can see – well, for obvious reasons governments tend not to reveal how
good the resolution is on their spy satellites.
However, it’s interesting to note that the video I showed you earlier of the 1m resolution
satellite camera is not the best the market has to offer.
Other satellites boast 50cm and even 25cm resolutions, and some such as Umbra’s SAR
satellite claim to have reached 16cm.
And this is about as good as they are legally allowed to get; the United States has laws
in place that make it illegal to have satellites with better resolutions than that – although
companies are pushing for this restriction to be lowered, so that they can keep up with
a competitive global market that doesn’t always have such restrictions.
Take a note of that, though – this is not about capability.
True, the laws of physics put some constraints on us that make better resolutions difficult
to impossible without having a satellite fly close enough to the planet that atmospheric
drag will start to cause it to fall, or without making a light-gathering mirror so large that
it becomes difficult to launch them on a rocket.
However, it’s not accurate to say that spy satellites can’t get better resolution.
There are rumours of resolutions hitting at least 10cm resolution, perhaps even 1cm.
Rumours that were at least partially confirmed by the previous US President Donald Trump
by accident in a tweet he posted.
In 2019, Iran attempted a rocket launch that ended in failure.
Trump felt it was necessary to tell the world that the US government had not been involved
in sabotaging the rocket launch.
To prove his point, he included a photo of the damaged launch site, hoping to show that
there were no signs of foul play.
This may well have been true, but intelligence experts around the world were stunned at the
crisp detail included in the image.
After analysis, it was revealed that the image had to have been at least 10 cm resolution,
perhaps even better.
Let’s get a feel for what an image better than 10cm resolution might look like on a
regular high street.
This is the bit where you might need to wave to the camera.
This image is not a satellite image, but was taken by a plane flying over the town of Zurich.
However, it does reveal what a better than 10cm resolution image can show.
We are no longer on the resolution of making out cars.
Here, you can see the branches on trees, and even the colour of clothes on people.
You can see a lot of detail – can you imagine what a 1cm image might be like?
This represents technology that exists today.
In fact, better technology is now out there.
The satellite that took this is a Keyhole 11 spy satellite.
A Keyhole 12 already exists, which amateur astronomers have managed to image, in spite
of official pictures (naturally) not being released to the public.
We don’t know the resolution on this one, but it has dimensions similar to the Hubble
telescope, and one of the reasons Hubble used the mirror size that they did was because
they realised, they could use the same supplier as the US Department of Defence.
So there are potentially 11 additional Hubbles out there.
Imagine how much further we would be if they were used for science instead of spying?
We are also no longer in an era where cloud cover or night time can ensure privacy.
Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging is capable of piercing through clouds, as the technology
doesn’t collect visible light, but instead sends down a radar pulse and then times how
long it takes to bounce back.
Done enough times over a wide area, with some sensitive equipment to discern the different
times taken of different parts of the wave to return, SAR satellites can form detailed
physical models of the ground and can even simulate having a much larger mirror than
they actually carry.
Because they’re not reliant on natural light but are sending their own pulses, these types
of satellites can work during the night as well as the day.
So, with all of this, you likely are starting to feel a little worried for your privacy.
It’s unsettling to think that any time you step out of the house, eyes could be on you,
watching you walk or drive to your destination – seeing who you meet, where you go.
They’re probably not able to read your phone screen, but that’s not far off.
The cost to privacy feels huge.
If you live in a city like London, you may have been thinking this anyway with the number
of cameras around.
But even where there are no cameras, you aren’t safe.
However, it should be pointed out that satellites with decent resolution (although probably
not at the 10cm mark) can be extremely beneficial for studying our planet.
It’s hard to list the benefits in full, but they include: Weather monitoring.
Studies of our climate, including sea level rises, CO2 levels in our atmosphere, tracking
Aerosol emissions and seeing the current dimensions of the ice sheets.
Tracking surface temperatures, crop health, irrigation use, water quality.
You can even use precise satellites with cloud-penetration to see the hotspots on wildfires, giving firefighters
a better chance at tackling blazes.
Or, we can better understand hurricanes, atmospheric dust clouds, and other disasters.
In one incredible application, a NASA satellite intended to study cyclones was instead used
to track locust swarms across Eastern Africa, by mapping out the most fertile, water-rich
areas that locusts liked to lay their eggs in, or feed in during their juvenile forms.
In so doing, they helped reduce swarms in Kenya in 2019, which was incredibly beneficial
to farmers and the people whose food they supply.
Perhaps the bit that feels uncomfortable is if it seems like the people watching us do
not have our immediate benefits at heart.
Studying the planet feels like a positive and worthy goal, and accurate data is helpful
in that.
However, it’s also undeniable that businesses across the world would love to keep track
of where people are shopping, population trends, and other metrics that will allow them to
better sell to customers – which is a goal you’re less likely to want to sacrifice
your own personal privacy for.
Monitoring might help city planners to keep track of the flow of traffic on roads, and
get a better sense of where to build relief roads or other helpful interventions . Spy
and law enforcement agencies also in fairness do a lot of good – they stop terrorism,
and catch criminals.
But it’s scary to think that once the technology is there, if ever the government in possession
of it decides to use it for more invasive goals, there’s not much that can be done
to stop them.
At the end of the day, perhaps this is something inevitable that we all will simply have to
get used to.
It’s difficult to stop the flow of progress.
As long as there are advantages to better resolutions on satellites, people will want
to pursue developing them.
In any case, it’s at least good to know just how effective it’s all becoming.
Because then your decisions on the matter can be informed too.
You can decide whether this is something that makes you nervous, or something you aren’t
really bothered about; whether this needs stricter regulation through lawgivers or whether
it is a necessary cost to be paid for the ease and security of modern life.
Wherever you stand on this matter, best to put a brave face on.
Smile.
After all, you never know who’s watching.
The world can be a scary place.
Large scale issues like invasion of your privacy can be a big worry, but even on a more personal
level, local disasters can leave you anxious about the future, or interfere with your peace
of mind.
In such situations, finding someone who’ll listen can be life-changing.
Today’s episode is in paid partnership with BetterHelp, an online therapy platform that
can get you matched with a licensed, accredited therapist in just a few days.
By filling in a short questionnaire, BetterHelp can assess your needs and find you someone
who can give helpful, unbiased advice.
It’s all online, meaning you can call, message or video chat, at times that work around your
schedule.
And if you find that you’re not satisfied with the therapist you’ve matched with,
which can sometimes happen, you can switch to another with no fuss and no additional
cost.
Why not give BetterHelp a try while enjoying a 10% discount on your first month of therapy
by clicking on my link in the description below?
I highly recommend it.
Thanks for watching!
Want to know what else the military has up in space?
Check out this video here.
Thanks to my patrons and members for your support, if you want to also have your name
proudly listed at the end of all Astrum videos, check the links below.
All the best and see you next time.