Google enters space with GeoEye, having already conquered Earth
By Dave Parrack
Google has pretty much done everything it could to conquer Earth. We’ve all heard of Google, we all use Google, and we all bow down to the greatness that is Google. So the search specialist company, which seems to be broadening its horizons greatly of late, is moving onwards and upwards – quite literally.
Google is now ten years old, and to celebrate its birthday, the search engine giant has launched a campaign to conquer outer space, having already obliterated its many enemies on Earth. Okay, so I made most of that up, but Google is one of the partners involved in the launching of GeoEye-1, an Earth-orbiting satellite that will be providing those of us left with our feet on the ground with high resolution images of our fair planet.
The GeoEye-1 satellite is part of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s NextView programme, which is designed to give the most up-to-date, relevant, and accurate intelligence for the purpose of national security. Imagery is a big part of that mission, and the GeoEye-1 satellite is basically a giant US-owned spy in the sky.
According to Reuters, the satellite launched on Saturday from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will take approximately 45 days for the satellite to be set in the right orbit, and for the camera to be calibrated correctly to beam images back to Earth. Once it does, GeoEye-1 will take images that are .41 meters resolution in black and white, and 1.65 meters resolution in colour.
Google is one the partners in the project, and will be utilising the images captured by GeoEye-1 for the Google Earth and Google Maps applications. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were at the launch to see the rocket emblazoned with their company logo shot in to space.
At its simplest, this latest development means that users of Google products will soon have access to much more detailed images than they currently have. But in the bigger scheme of things, it’s yet another example of Google taking over the planet. What odds on Earth being renamed Google in a couple of decades time?
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