UK Plans Space Based Radar System 70
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the pings-in-space dept.
from the pings-in-space dept.
First time accepted submitter peepster84 writes "The UK government is to kick-start an innovative project to fly radar satellites around the Earth, with an initial investment of £21m. NovaSar-S would have a number of viewing modes that could enable it to perform a wide range of roles, from flood monitoring and land cover management to disaster mapping and maritime enforcement — notably ship tracking and oil spill detection."
The US already does this (Score:5, Informative)
The US has SAR in orbit for military and intelligence reconnaissance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill_(satellite) [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_(satellite) [wikipedia.org]
So does Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAR_Lupe [wikipedia.org]
Re:Is it allowed? (Score:5, Informative)
The US, Japan, Canada, EU, Germany and Russia all have or had satellite based radar systems some with very high resolution.
Re:Is it allowed? (Score:3, Informative)
Canada's got a couple too. (Score:4, Informative)
Canada's got two of them, with really imaginative names. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radarsat-1 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radarsat-2 [wikipedia.org]
Re:Space-based anti piracy tracking (Score:4, Informative)
Considering that it's illegal to have weapons on a civilian vessel, yes it does actually. That's why when they inspect a vessel and find weapons, they usually confiscate weapons, rather then wait for an attack.
Re:Space-based anti piracy tracking (Score:2, Informative)
That depends on the nation under which the ship is flagged (and possibly the crew's nationalit[y|ies]). The UK was recently considering whether we should allow specific vessels flagged as British, to carry small arms when travelling through Somali waters specifically to defend against pirates, but I don't think a decision has happened yet (or it's been quietly dropped).