Spaceship based telescopes

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Depends what you're trying to spot. Camouflaged facilities, probably not. Counting ships in a port and tanks or trucks in a parking area, very possibly.

Of course, the Hubble is not a spy satellite.

There is some anecdotal evidence that a lot of technology is rather similar, the optics are similar size, and NASA histories indicate technology transfer occurred between the Hubble and KH-11.

My current working option for visual light TV sensors based on this discussion at TL8 is:

Up to 16x magnification: weight = magnification/16.
Over 16x magnification: weight = (magnification/16) squared.

* You can then spend extra money to halve the weight, or take a big discount but double the weight.
* Assumes Tunnel Vision. Double weight for 120-degree restricted vision; 3x weight for human vision.

Thermal imaging sensors are about 4x heavier (effectively on level of telescopic vision worse.)

Night Vision are complex (Anthony has argued they should be much worse than GURPS portrays them; Kromm has disagreed, I think)
but probably 1-2x heavier? and costlier; I guess it mostly depends on the type of night vision

Thoughts?