A Denver startup plans to launch what it says is the first commercial satellite able to snap images with enough resolution to pick out objects as small as one meter in diameter.
The Earth-imaging satellite, named Ikonos, is the product of Denver-based Space Imaging. Ikonos will produce the first commercially available images at such a precise resolution.
The company plans to sell the images to customers in a variety of industries, including urban planning, environmental monitoring, mapping, natural-disaster assessment, and telecommunications network planning.
"This is 25 times better than five-meter [resolution images]. Instead of just seeing buildings, you can see that there's a car there," said Mark Lucas, chief technology officer for Agis, a company that purchases high-resolution imagery for its image-mapping database.
To resell to commercial customers, the database combines space images with other remote-sensing data, such as temperature information. Lucas is looking forward to the sharper-resolution images from satellites like Ikonos.
Being able to zero in makes the difference. Until recently, one pixel in a commercial space image represented 28-square meters of the Earth's surface. Recently, that has come down to five square meters per pixel and, now, one.
This year, five satellites will be sent aloft to provide images that are 25 times more detailed than traditional space photographs.
Products created using Ikonos imagery will be available to customers about 60 to 90 days after Tuesday's launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The company says the satellites can distinguish objects as small as one meter in size, as long as they are well removed from other objects and have separate and distinct visual characteristics. Trucks, boats, tennis courts, and so forth are typically discernable, Space Imaging representatives said, because of their context within their surroundings.
High-contrast objects can also be seen. The company said white stripes in parking lots and crosswalks are visible in Ikonos' photos because of their white-on-black patterns.
One-meter imagery cannot discern individual people, the company said. But a large group of people -- like fans watching a football game -- would be visible.
