SPIDER: DARPA’s Program To Create A Web Of Miniaturized Spy Satellites

‘As if merely working on ways to create tiny satellites that can see every square inch of the the planet isn’t creepy enough, DARPA is funding a project that literally evokes a planetary web of surveillance: SPIDER.
Amid daily revelations of how our digital communications devices are being used against us by the world’s leading intelligence agencies, it is often overlooked at how quickly physical surveillance capabilities are accelerating.
In June I wrote an article entitled, “Low-Cost Micro Satellites are Spawning a Global Surveillance Arms Race” where I detailed the little-known connection between commercial imagery vendor DigitalGlobe and the also little-known U.S. agency GEOINT, as well as other smaller players contributing to the growing arms race of space-based surveillance. The result would be satellites “the mass of a pair of toasters,” that could collect imagery and automate searches as needed.’
Read more: SPIDER: DARPA’s Program To Create A Web Of Miniaturized Spy Satellites