license required to photograph the earth???

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

NOAA has ssued an open letter to Google Lunar X Prize participants declaring that said participants may need to apply for a license from NOAA if their spacecraft will be sensing the earth by means of electromagnetic waves. with such loose wording, that would include radar for navigation, as well as photography.

 

For reference, here's a link to the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992.

 

I can see why you'd want to license radio stations and regulate bandwidth use for broadcasting purposes, but why would they require you to get a license to take photos of the earth????

[Boffin]

To prevent said images being used by parties hostile to the interests of the United States. Russia and China of course, can take as many pictures of the USA from space as they like...

 

 

Andy

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

To prevent said images being used by parties hostile to the interests of the United States. Russia and China of course, can take as many pictures of the USA from space as they like...Andy

 

Seems a bit like building a well-secured gate whilst failing to erect any sort of fence...

[smiller]

Interesting that we're getting to the point that private citizens have to be concerned with things like imaging the Earth from space. I doubt those who wrote the law envisioned that could happen so soon.

[Twisties]

Interesting that we're getting to the point that private citizens have to be concerned with things like imaging the Earth from space. I doubt those who wrote the law envisioned that it would take so long.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

If you would have asked me in 1970 I'd have told you that we would be colonizing Mars by now. I find space exploration has been agonizingly slow.

 

Jan

[smiller]

If you would have asked me in 1970 I'd have told you that we would be colonizing Mars by now.

Yeah, you and many others, including me. But by the 80's is was sadly apparent that we were going nowhere fast.

 

But I hear ya though... back in the 60's/70's my young self was wondering if I would ever actually go to Mars, rather than just hoping to live to see it.

[Urban Surfer]

If you would have asked me in 1970 I'd have told you that we would be colonizing Mars by now.

Yeah, you and many others, including me. But by the 80's is was sadly apparent that we were going nowhere fast.

 

But I hear ya though... back in the 60's/70's my young self was wondering if I would ever actually go to Mars, rather than just hoping to live to see it.

 

Foget mars. Let's fix the final drives.

[smiller]

Foget mars. Let's fix the final drives.

Hey, I'm also hoping to see a reliable BMW final drive in my lifetime.

[FrankT]

To prevent said images being used by parties hostile to the interests of the United States. Russia and China of course, can take as many pictures of the USA from space as they like...Andy

 

Seems a bit like building a well-secured gate whilst failing to erect any sort of fence...

 

+1

[ShovelStrokeEd]

I'd like to be a fly on the wall, in court, when NOAA tries to prove light is electro-magnetic. I suppose if you sent radiation down to "illuminate" the earth, you could be in violation. Not so sure about receiving reflected light. There is also a pretty good source of illumination about 63 million miles away that puts more radiation onto the earth in an hour than man has managed to produce in all our time on earth. I fail to understand their concern.

[Bud]

Interesting that we're getting to the point that private citizens have to be concerned with things like imaging the Earth from space. I doubt those who wrote the law envisioned that it would take so long.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

If you would have asked me in 1970 I'd have told you that we would be colonizing Mars by now. I find space exploration has been agonizingly slow.

 

Jan

 

Might have by now but the ISS drained all the money available.

 

Science and politics don't often play well together.

[Albert]

There is also a pretty good source of illumination about 63 million miles away that puts more radiation onto the earth in an hour than man has managed to produce in all our time on earth. I fail to understand their concern.

 

Hey Ed, who moved the sun? I feel hot already.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

I'd like to be a fly on the wall, in court, when NOAA tries to prove light is electro-magnetic. I suppose if you sent radiation down to "illuminate" the earth, you could be in violation. Not so sure about receiving reflected light.

 

Light (visible or invisible) is indeed electromagnetic radiation, as surely as microwaves or gamma radiation; all three differ only in wavelength.

 

Supposedly the rule applies to any spacecraft "capable of actively or passively sensing the Earth’s surface, including

bodies of water, from space by making use of the properties of the electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected, or diffracted by the sensed objects."

 

The source of the EM waves is irrelevant; the only issue is whether your spacecraft is detecting them after they've interacted with the earth. If so, they want you to apply for their little craptastic license...

[Bob Palin]

How are they able to claim jurisdiction? Especially if you are not over the US.

[Calvin (no socks)]

Are Aliens and UFOs expempt?

 

Does this picture make my Earth look fat?

 

 

[Scarecrow]

If you would have asked me in 1970 I'd have told you that we would be colonizing Mars by now. I find space exploration has been agonizingly slow.

 

Jan

+1

 

Yeah, and where is my flying car?