I know quite a few here are interisted in all things spacey. And I'm interisted in how that can help us down here on earth.

Well a private company has launched a new Sat, GeoEye. This is now the best
(resolution wise) Earth focused Satellite floating around in space. Overtaking the IKONOS satellite, which has been taking pictures of you for just under a decade (Launched 1999)

The resolution of the imaging system onboard the satellite allows panchromatic images (sensitive to all colors in visible light and some ultraviolet light) of the Earth’s surface to be taken to a minimum of about 16.1 inches (41 centimeters) across. The best resolution previously offered by an Earth-imaging satellite was 23.6 inches (60 centimeters).

Just for Costing refrence; For a Pixel sice of 2.5 Meters on the ground. 230 square Km worth of Sat imagery (From SPOT-5), that was 2-3 years old, would cost roughly $30,000. You can imagine that 41cm would attract a significantly larger price tag.

Full Article

GeoEyes Homepage. It's worth checking out the gallery

pfft they got it facing the wrong way... we know what's down here on earth already ;D

but yer that's pretty cool.