Quickbird first photos of the new satellite

2002/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Telekomunikazioak

It is located in an orbit 450 km from Earth, but its photos are so sharp that the football field line, the shadows of people or the new satellites in which the car can be distinguished.

The company DigitalGlobe of Longmonte sent another satellite last year but failed, but this time they have triumphed with the Quickbird launched in October. In fact, in February they began to receive the photographs.

The Quickbird camera can separate objects of 60 cm, while the satellite Icons, sent by Space Imaging Inc. in Denver in 1999, has a resolution of almost 90 cm.

As for the operation, the mechanism used by Quickbird is very similar to that of the photocopier, but this time the lens sweeps the surface.

There is therefore a resource that will help research in different areas. For example, more detailed details of coral reefs, studying the slow growth of the urban population, making better urban maps, or temporarily tracking the cracks in Antarctic ice can be taken.