Japanese government plans powerful information-gathering satellite
February 2, 2009 The Yomiuri ShimbunAiming to drastically beef up the performance of the nation's intelligence satellites, the government of Japan will embark on a research and development program in fiscal year 2009 to develop an optical information-gathering satellite that will have one of the world's highest resolutions.
The envisioned satellite will be able to identify objects on the ground with far greater precision than the most advanced commercial satellites, officials said Saturday.
The best among currently available commercial surveillance satellites is said to be able to identify objects with a diameter of as little as 40 centimeters.
The government program is aimed at surpassing the 40-centimeter resolution capability.
Although detailed capabilities of military satellites of foreign countries are secret, only U.S. satellites are believed to have a sub-40-centimeter resolution.
Under the R&D program for the ultra-high-resolution satellite, a demonstration satellite is scheduled to be launched in fiscal year 2012 to ascertain its performance in space, they said.
A full-fledged optical information-collecting satellite with the envisaged cutting-edge optical capability will be put into orbit in fiscal year 2014, officials said on condition of anonymity.
The program is designed to greatly boost the capability of Japan's intelligence satellite on the strength of the enactment in May of the Basic Law on Space, which empowered the government to utilize space for defense purposes.
Before the enactment of the law, information-gathering satellites were limited to nonmilitary uses because of a resolution in 1969 that restricted the utilization of space to peaceful purposes. Because of this restriction, development of a satellite utilizing a higher level of technology than that used for making ordinary commercial ones was forbidden.
The satellite, called Optical No. 5, is planned to be launched in fiscal year 2014.
The Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center, in charge of operating information-gathering satellites and analyzing their imagery, has incorporated 6.8 billion yen into its budgetary demand for fiscal year 2009 for funding research into the development of Optical No. 5. The research will focus on ways of enhancing the satellite's resolution and improving the brightness of images. In addition, 3.3 billion yen will separately be allocated for the development of the demonstration satellite, according to the officials.
Japan currently has four information-gathering satellites: two optical satellites, which take photos of ground objects by means of visible light using high-tech digital cameras; and two radar satellites, which use radio waves to collect data on objects, enabling them to "see" through cloud or in darkness. The optical satellites currently in operation have a resolution of about one meter.
After the constraints on space development were lifted with the enactment of the Basic Law on Space, the Defense Ministry announced a "basic outline for a space development strategy" on Jan. 16.
"By bolstering the performance of the nation's intelligence satellites," the outline said, "this country should further enhance the quality and quantity of image information that can be acquired by the satellites."
The higher the resolution of satellite imagery, the easier it is to grasp the status of other countries' military facilities as well as the aftermath of natural disasters and accidents, the ministry said.
Prior to the launch of Optical No. 5, CSICE is scheduled to launch in fiscal year 2010 a new type of information-gathering satellite, Optical No. 3, capable of identifying objects with a diameter of about 60 centimeters, the officials said.
___
(c) 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Visit the Daily Yomiuri Online at http://www.yomiuri … index-e.htm/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
-
Mission to mysterious Uranus
Oct 12, 2011 |
5 / 5 (7) |
22
-
Japanese space center facilities deteriorating from salt erosion due to nearby ocean
Jul 05, 2010 |
5 / 5 (2) |
2
-
STPSat-1 successfully completes extended mission
Dec 02, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
CU-Boulder returns $3M to NASA in satellite design, operation cost savings
Jun 17, 2008 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
0
-
Wireless World: Clandestine communications
Mar 03, 2006 |
4.6 / 5 (11) |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Calling function with no input argument
16 hours ago
-
Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
17 hours ago
-
Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
Feb 10, 2012
-
feed hold button on CNC lathe
Feb 09, 2012
-
RFAC in Fortran
Feb 09, 2012
-
dynamics 2/32
Feb 08, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)
The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.
10 hours ago |
5 / 5 (9) |
16
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. Theyre a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel such as an optical fiber o ...
Technology / Computer Sciences
19 hours ago |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
6
|
Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets
Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.
9 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
New power source discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
18 hours ago |
4.7 / 5 (30) |
8
|
Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
18 hours ago |
4.4 / 5 (13) |
24
|
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males
A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...
Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...
Could Venus be shifting gear?
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESAs Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...
Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West
(PhysOrg.com) -- The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other ...
Fool's gold may prove an unlikely alternative to overexploited catalytic materials
Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials ...