spy satellites

Have you ever been taking pictures of an entire country from space and thought, "you know what, this is ok, but I want to photograph the entire hemisphere at once,"? Well, with Raytheon's new 16-megapixel infrared sensor, you can.

Or, more precisely, the government can. Designed to work as part of a satellite, the sensor uses 4,096 pixel rows and columns to produce what the company calls, "an 'unblinking eye' over an entire hemisphere."

Using Google Earth, his own legwork, and a slew of amateur spies, Curtis Melvin has mapped out all of North Korea's secrets. Called "North Korea Uncovered", the project has pinpointed everything from nuclear facilities to restaurants, from anti-aircraft arsenals to a waterslide.

A typical scene from the conflict in Afghanistan, where for the first time space-specifically, more than one hundred orbiting military satellites-has been a centerpiece of the war machine: A soldier on the ground spots a Taliban target. With a lightweight, handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver known as a "plugger," he uses the constellation of GPS satellites to calculate the longitude and latitude of his mark and phones in the coordinates, via satellite, to an air base in Florida.