Topic: Space - on May 3, 2012 at 9:44:00 AM CEST
Spy-High: Amateur Astronomers Scour the Sky for Government Secrets
As consumer telescopes and techniques improve, will there be implications for national security?
Earlier this year Iran's defense minister put the world on notice: His nation had developed the ability to "easily" watch spacewalking astronauts from the ground. The announcement was largely ignored, in part because it made the minister sound like a James Bond villain. The boast was also a bit anticlimactic, given that even amateur astronomers are already recording in detail what happens in low Earth orbit. Both the technology involved and the techniques used to observe satellites and even the occasional astronaut perched outside the International Space Station (ISS) are improving, much to the presumed chagrin of governments looking to keep certain on orbital activity confidential.
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