Ground Control was a wonderful long-form article in Issue #13 of the Magazine. It shared a couple of themes with my recent post Agile Aerospace, on transformations currently underway in the aerospace and defense industry. I highlighted two of them in a letter to the editor, which was published in the following issue:
The original Cold War era reconnaissance satellites represented a revolutionary advancement in the quality and (geographic) depth of strategic intelligence collection. Camera-equipped, mass-produced drones and micro-satellites will democratize (and enhance) what was for decades the exclusive purview of governments by making near real time imagery available to anyone (think Google Earth Live).
Such a capability would rival the utility of GPS and unleash enormous economic gains, but if we are not careful to set boundaries on its use, potentially at great cost to freedoms and an expectation of privacy we largely take for granted now.
It’s worth a subscription for this three-part article alone. The worst thing that can happen is you get hooked and have to find more time to read.