Can't US government or CIA use Hubble telescope as a spy satellite to view high resolution images on earth?
2007-12-04 18:17:55 · 7 answers · asked by EraTH 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The Hubble is supposedly adapted from a spy satellite design, but its tracking system, and cameras and other sensors are designed for astronomy, not terrestrial spying. The CIA doesn't need to borrow the Hubble, they have their own telescopes and cameras designed specifically for spying.
2007-12-04 19:10:08 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You could. For about 0.1 seconds. Then the thermal radiation of the earth would have burned out the image sensor and the instrument would be blind.
Apart from that Hubble does not have the necessary control systems to image a spot that it is moving over fast (it is in Earth orbit and thus moves at 8km/s relative to a location below it). Instead it was built to look at the same coordinate in the sky for hours. And that spot is not moving at all (minus an unmeasurable parallax).
So the answer is no. And it's not necessary. The US government has 2m aperture spy satellites in orbit.
2007-12-05 02:35:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sure it can, but it would be a very expensive way to spy. The atmosphere puts a limit on how high your resolution could be. Much cheaper spy-sats can do just as good as the Hubble when taking pictures of the Earth.
2007-12-05 02:21:08 · answer #3 · answered by Roman Soldier 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is possible for Hubble to be used as a spy satelite but it wouldn't be so effective. Hubble is not designed to be used as a spy satelite but to bring the universe to us as possible. Hubble is designed to view distant objects in space and not objects a couple of Km below it. So far the telescopes that are there and being used as spy telescopes are good enough.
2007-12-05 10:21:39 · answer #4 · answered by Endeavour 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sure they could. They don't need to, as they already have several satellites very similar to Hubble devoted to that purpose. Google "keyhole".
2007-12-05 07:32:03 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
they already have their own and they have since the 60s
at least about 38 of them actually world wide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_satellite
why bother with a scope designed for other uses.
besides hubble wouldn't be able to focus on the earth like it can other, further, objects.
2007-12-05 02:45:13 · answer #6 · answered by Mercury 2010 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sure and why not?
2007-12-05 03:07:55 · answer #7 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋