Live Controllable HD Space Cams for Everyone

Imagine you sent up a satellite with an array of video cameras, with the highest possible HD resolutions each, and with the highest possible optical zoom currently available.

Say this array of something like 50-100 cameras would all be independantly swivel mounted, and remotely controlled from earth.

You then link them to a web page where anybody can log in, pick a cam and maybe for a fee, get to control it for 5 minutes or so.

You could basically, weather permitting, zoom in on your own house or the latest volcano eruption, get a pretty good view.

This could be run as a business where everyone have to sign up and pay fee to use them, or with some other business model, but i am certain the generated profits would be huge, and maybe even after less than a year you would make profit, even if you pay for the construction, and sending this satellite into space yourself.


After awhile there would be many competing businesses sending up their own satellites with better cameras, lower fees etc, to accomodate the huge demand.

Who would NOT want to use it at least once? And then again whenever some major happenings on the earth is underway, to get the REAL unbiased truth?

Just think about it, why does not this already exist? Satellites have been here for many many years, and the camera technology as well.

reply to post by NeoVain


UFO footage would go through the roof!

Originally posted by galactictuan
reply to post by NeoVain

 

UFO footage would go through the roof!

Maybe so, but at least there would be no excuse for the blurry pics of balls of light anymore, since these cameras would be state-of-the-art, and be able to zoom in and capture every detail of these ufos. Be it a weather baloon or whatnot, there would no longer be any dispute.

reply to post by NeoVain


And that's why we don't have them. They don't want us to find the truth.

most people would like to use it once but how many would actually pay for it?

also one flaw.. what about the positioning of the satellite? how would that work, if i wanted to look at the uk and someone wanted to look at australia?

Originally posted by Heartisblack
reply to post by NeoVain

 

And that's why we don't have them. They don't want us to find the truth.

That is the same conclusion i came up with as well, since it would certainly be profitable and i am sure other people came up with this idea a long time ago as well.

You could zoom in on AREA 51 for example, that in itself would be a big no-no.

But what if some other country than the US sent it up, would they really have jurisdiction over space?

Originally posted by Misterlondon
most people would like to use it once but how many would actually pay for it?

also one flaw.. what about the positioning of the satellite? how would that work, if i wanted to look at the uk and someone wanted to look at australia?

You would of course have to wait until the satellite was over the intended target area, which it would be several times a day with current satellite speeds, since many of them orbit the earth several times a day. UARS for example, orbit the earth once every 91 minutes (last i saw)

With a close to equatorial orbit you could spot most areas of the earth several times of day.

Also, even if you do not pay to use it(to swivel/zoom the cam) anyone should be able to go to the site, pick any cam, and pick up on the current transmission to see what someone else is currently observing. That in itself would give it mass appeal even for non-payers.

I think it is a great idea.

But I think the US Govt. would say it is a national security threat and confiscate it. Or, manipulate the video feed in some way.

reply to post by Misterlondon


you would obviously have to wait for the satellite to pass over your location or when it is over your annex you can control it, but that would never work because how many people are on this planet? a hell of a lot, how many people live where you live? a hell of a lot, how many people where you live would want to control a HD camera on a satellite? nearly all of them.

It just wouldn't work.

or

you could have multiple satellites each covering a certain annex and because they all have been sent into orbit in a certain pattern and position.

You could switch remote viewing to a satellite that is within your range and when that satellite is no longer within the range that you want to view switch to the next satellite following behind it and so on and so forth.

that would be more likely to work but how much would it cost to do that

A HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY!!!

sorry for the capitals, just seemed like an appropriate time.

Peace

Originally posted by watchitburn
I think it is a great idea.

But I think the US Govt. would say it is a national security threat and confiscate it. Or, manipulate the video feed in some way.

Or just destroy it with no explanation whatsoever

reply to post by watchitburn


shouldn't keep secrets then

Buy HD camera, setup hot air balloon and here you go.

A really good thread! I already was in search of a website offering a real time view from space but of course didn't find anything, other than the ISS website (NASA website) which has some different cameras (on and off board) which is quite impressing. The cameras change after a while and the resolution is not the best tho:

www.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by ShadowZion
reply to post by Misterlondon

 

that would be more likely to work but how much would it cost to do that

A HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY!!!

Yes the cost would be big, but how much money would they not generate over time? even with a measly 5$ fee/5min each cam would most probably be fully booked pretty regularly, even with a queue system in place for each cam.

But lets say they are only used 50% of the time as a rough estimate, and the array has 100 cams.
That is 5$x100 every 10 minutes.
every hour would bee 500$x6, 3000$.
Every day 24x 3000$ = 72,000$
Every year that is 72,000$x 365 = over 26 million dollars. Each year.

A satellite has a lifespan of about 20 years. Could be longer if build to last and with some maintenance.
Each satellite would generate over a billion dollars.

And this is a rough estimate.

Originally posted by Dalbeck
A really good thread! I already was in search of a website offering a real time view from space but of course didn't find anything, other than the ISS website (NASA website) which has some different cameras (on and off board) which is quite impressing. The cameras change after a while and the resolution is not the best tho:

www.nasa.gov...

Yes i know those cams, they are pretty sad actually, you can see nothing on those low-res, unzoomable cheap webcams they mounted on that billion dollar space station.

Something far more impressive should be installed for that amount of money.

how many people are on this planet?

nearly 7 billion

how many people live where you live?

in london... nearly 8 million..
in the uk around 62 million

how many people where you live would want to control a HD camera on a satellite?

even if only 1% in the uk would.. whats that? ermm.. 620,000 people..

It just wouldn't work.

seeing as id have to wait up to 90 minutes for it to travel around the earth and queuing behind potentially half a million people, wanting to use 1 of 50 cameras, in a small time slot before it moves off again..

i would have to agree..


nice idea and would be awesome if it worked, but i think it would be virtually impossible.

If you could get a high quality NASA military grade weather balloon you could setup this thing and launch it extremely high into the atmosphere and that would give extremely good footage.

It isn't really that bad of an idea. Get a dozen or so HD cameras, mount them to a platform, set them up to just record to 64gb+ memory cards, insulate them from the weather/cold and launch it, allowing you to retrieve it later via GPS when the gases dissipate and it descends back to earth. If you installed a decent antenna on the bottom you may even be able to view it live, streaming via a connection.

I wonder how many UFOs would come and take a look at it? Especially with the flashing strobes that would be on it.

Could be longer if build to last and with some maintenance.

not sure how this would be achievable.. thats alot of moving parts on the system your proposing..

Originally posted by Misterlondon

how many people are on this planet?

nearly 7 billion

how many people live where you live?

in london... nearly 8 million..
in the uk around 62 million

how many people where you live would want to control a HD camera on a satellite?

even if only 1% in the uk would.. whats that? ermm.. 620,000 people..

It just wouldn't work.

seeing as id have to wait up to 90 minutes for it to travel around the earth and queuing behind potentially half a million people, wanting to use 1 of 50 cameras, in a small time slot before it moves off again..

i would have to agree..


nice idea and would be awesome if it worked, but i think it would be virtually impossible.

Hard to get a slot on one of the cams if the fee was only 5$? certainly. Especially if there was only one such satellite with a measly 100 cams on it as well..

That, my friend, is called Business opportunity.

If too many people want to use it at 5$, raise the fee to 50$. still too many? Raise to 500$. Still too many? Send up another satellite. Pretty soon you will be the richest man on earth.

Virtually impossible? Only for a man of small ambition, that choose to concentrate on the obstacles instead of the goal.

Originally posted by Dalbeck
A really good thread! I already was in search of a website offering a real time view from space

Slightly off topic, but if you want a real time view from space you can get a LOW resolution view from weather satellites.

www.geo-web.org.uk...
www.g4ilo.com...