NovaSAR: UK radar satellite to track illegal shipping activity(bbc.com)
bbc.com
NovaSAR: UK radar satellite to track illegal shipping activity
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45523677
22 comments
I wonder what the 'refresh-rate' is of a scan, as in how many times a second/minute/hour is the image refreshed. I doubt such a wide area could be real-time. Guessing it's enough that it's possible to track and locate rogue ships.
https://www.sandia.gov/radar/video/index.html
These videos are pretty old, IIRC.
These videos are pretty old, IIRC.
It looks like a 580 km polar orbit, so any given point on the Earth will only be scanned twice in a day - once at night and once in the day.
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/104137237292473958...
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/104137237292473958...
For once, news about the UK Government tracking things that DOESN'T look like 1984.
What's the problem with "illegal shipping" anyway? Surely it's not worth launching a satellite just to stop the odd customs-evader?
What is this really for?
What is this really for?
I would imagine the illegal shipping activity they are mainly targeting is the bypassing of sanctions. For example oil being transferred between tankers on the high seas and then shipped into North Korea.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-russi...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-russi...
Illegal fishing is a big contender and is one avenue I think is sorely needed in this world of horrific natural/resource depletion and by-catch waste, despite what certain punters with an axe to grind (eg @mmjaa, below) may believe.
Illegal shipping is a small problem (~$100M?)
Illegal fishing is not - $10 - $23B annually in cost (2009)[1], destroys fish stocks, and contributes to slavery and human trafficking.[2]
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2646833/
[2] https://fas.org/irp/nic/fishing.pdf
Illegal fishing is not - $10 - $23B annually in cost (2009)[1], destroys fish stocks, and contributes to slavery and human trafficking.[2]
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2646833/
[2] https://fas.org/irp/nic/fishing.pdf
Many of you may remember past radar ocean surveillance satellites, perhaps most notably the Soviet US-A series of RORSATs:
http://www.astronautix.com/u/us-a.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A
http://www.astronautix.com/u/us-a.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A
FWIW Iridium already does the same thing on a global scale. Includes AIS and ADS-B tracking (tho both can be switched off easily).
That’s not really the same thing at all - listening for a deliberate transmission from a ship announcing its location is easy, required only an antenna, and can be done from a cubesat.
This is an active radar in space.
This is an active radar in space.
Why is it that basically every story coming out of the UK makes Orwell look more and more like a prophet?
Maritime law enforcement is a rather traditional role of the Royal Navy and hardly Orwellian. The radar-based satellite is arguably less worrying than the traditional US military spy satellites.
I don't remember voting for the UK to police my countries sovereign waters.
Fact is, the UK has no real place in the world if it isn't policing things such as the worlds oceans, or its finances. This is a role it has granted itself, un-democratically - one may even say, Imperiously...
Fact is, the UK has no real place in the world if it isn't policing things such as the worlds oceans, or its finances. This is a role it has granted itself, un-democratically - one may even say, Imperiously...
>Imperiously
We've even built a death star! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12169051/Massive-Dea...
No, really,
We've even built a death star! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12169051/Massive-Dea...
No, really,
Natural resources and the environment don't respect borders. All countries should be watching what others do to shared natural resources.
What's your proposed alternative?
For once, this is about tracking down illegal operations that would otherwise destroy this planet's most precious resource.
Please, take a look at this http://globalfishingwatch.org/ to get a grasp about what's at stake.
Please, take a look at this http://globalfishingwatch.org/ to get a grasp about what's at stake.
- some more detailed specs: https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missio...
- launch report & video: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/09/16/pslv-c42-mission-statu...