Future spy satellites may unfold like origami birds, collecting image data along long, flat sensor arrays that weigh almost nothing. By replacing the bulky telescopic lenses that make today’s spy sats among the biggest and most expensive things in space, light-sensitive microchips promise far cheaper access to orbital imagery.
The array would be an inch thick.
That is impressive for satellites. But you could also put them on aircraft wings to make any non-stealthy plane a surveillance platform.
And on armored vehicles to increase situational awareness in addition to being a surveillance platform adding to the flood of data we must track and analyze.
Heck, blimps and--if they are cheap enough--free-floating balloons could have them.
Infantry could unroll these to help monitor their perimeter.
Could they be air dropped or fired by ground rockets to provide ground surveillance in an enemy's rear areas at key choke points?
And if you scale these up, how much will astronomy be advanced if these can replace traditional telescopes?
Just wow.
