VENUS Satellite, The Next Eye in the Sky 100
Erica Campbell writes "According to IsraCast, Israel and France are working together on a
new micro-satellite called VENUS, which is supposed to be far more advanced then present satellites. VENUS, which will be launched in 2008, will carry a unique Super Spectral Space Camera, and will have an advanced plasma-thruster engine for propulsion.
From the article: 'The Israeli-French project will allow farmers to better treat their crops, fisherman to locate large quantities of fish in mid-sea and will also vastly increase the ability of the scientific community to study and monitor the flora and fauna in many areas around the globe.'"
For known satellites maybe (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe more advanced than presently known satellites. I'm sure the government's don't release all the data...
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It's only for helping the farmers right? (Score:3, Interesting)
And all of this for crop surveillance? Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I think our good friends at the NRO are going to get some competition from... ahem... "friends and allies" or something like this. Even if I am just being paranoid, the military potential is there, and don't forget that SPOT (European space imaging project, led by France) has been denounced often by the USA as a "dual-use" project...
Fish Location may lead to Fish Extinction (Score:4, Interesting)
There is already a threat of illegal fishing [unobserver.com] on the high seas, I only see this as being detrimental to the ocean environment.
This article states, 'Over half of the global fish stocks are already fully exploited, and 25 percent are overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion.'
A better use would be to locate and protect certain species from depletion.
But the real question is, does anyone care? Or will they only care when it is too late to do anything about it?
Re:This is just funny, it had me laughing. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it's funny to think "oh suuure... it's for farmers and fishermen".
It's a whole different thing to let go of the humor and objectively state "we all know what it's really for".
I don't know what it's for. I don't know satellites and satellite designs, so I would ask questions such as:
- what kind of equipment do different types of spy satellites carry?
- what kind of orbits do they use to maximize the results of their missions?
- how heavy are they due to the kinds of equipment they have to carry?
- do these satellites in question fit the profile of anything we've described above?
Ok, if you have evidence or some observations about the nature of satellites and how you think this might be more than it's being touted as, let's see it so we can all make a better decision.
Otherwise, no, we don't "all know what this satellite will be used for..."