So we spent $713 million on LANDSAT 7 to compile 1100 images of Antarctica right? NASA could have invested in a high definition video of both earth and antarctica with a Highly Elliptical Polar Orbiting (HEPO) satellite, with an apogee 60,000km, perigee 1,000km. Currently we have 1 frame per hour video of our earth from DSCOVR at L1, geostationary satellites which match the earths orbit, and LEO satellites that can only view \~3.5 of earth from their field of view.

**This would be the first high definition video (greater than 1 frame p/hour) of both our entire earth rotating, and a full size video of Antarctica.**

I've compiled some rough mission costs with AI, even if it costs 10x or 100x, I am sure many people would appreciate it.

The first HEPO was 80 years ago, and the reason this hasn't been done when nasa has spent \~ $75-$100 billion on satellites in the last 20 years has made me a flat earther.

|Item|Target cost (USD)|Results|
|:-|:-|:-|
||
||||
|**Satellite bus**|$600k|\~16U–27U smallsat structure, power, avionics, thermal control|
|**Camera + optics**|$150k|Space-qualified 4K/8K imaging system, wide enough for whole-Earth/Antarctica views|
|**Attitude control**|$300k|Reaction wheels, star tracker, sun sensors, gyros; keeps Antarctica centered|
|**Onboard storage/computer**|$100k|\~2–4 TB radiation-tolerant storage + video processing|
|**Communications**|$250k|High-rate radio/antenna to download hundreds of GB|
|**Propulsion**|$500k|Thrusters, tanks, propellant and control hardware|
|**Solar/power system**|$200k|Panels, batteries, regulators|
|**Engineering + software**|$600k|Flight software, camera control, orbit/attitude software|
|**Environmental testing**|$400k|Vacuum, vibration, thermal, EMC testing|
|**Launch integration**|$200k|Deployment hardware, documentation, launch-provider integration|
|**Launch/rideshare**|$500k|Initial delivery to orbit|
|**Transfer to elliptical orbit**|$700k|Orbital-transfer vehicle or additional propulsion requirement|
|**Ground stations/operations**|$200k|Tracking, commanding and downloading data|
|**Licensing/insurance/admin**|$100k|Regulatory and mission overhead|
|**Contingency (\~15%)**|$700k|Normal aerospace contingency|
|**TOTAL**|**≈ $5.5M**||

Why Is There No High-Frame-Rate Footage of the Entire Earth?