 
Keep an eye on SpaceDev subsidiary Starsys. The company delivered the flight solar array, rotational drive and control electronics for the WorldView-1 mission; the new satellite for digital mapping giant DigitalGlobe. These are the guys behind the awesome coolness that is Google Maps Satellite View (although MSN Live Maps has been giving them a run for their money lately.)
The new array creates 3.2 kW of energy hooked up to a 100 Ahr battery. Starsys’s technology provides low disturbance actuation, allowing spacecraft images to be captured at the same time that the solar arrays are being pointed. They’ve already been commissioned for the next satellite — the WorldView-2 mission in ‘08 — and will use their array to help power the new camera with a resolution of 0.5-meters. WorldView-1, launching next week will be able to pinpoint objects on the Earth at three to 7.5 meters, or 10 to 25 feet. Using known reference points on the ground, the accuracy would rise to about two meters. Nobody is safe; including your children, that illegal marijuana field in your backyard, or the secret route to your favorite fishing spot. Hit the jump for more.
