Google (News - Alert), the world's dominant search engine company, has interests in three different satellite areas, including a constellation of high-speed telecommunications satellites, imaging to update Google Maps and Google Earth, and putting up XPrize money for a lunar rover race. It's an impressive portfolio when viewed as a whole.

O3b Networks, Google's play into telecommunications satellites, is building a constellation of Ka-band satellites "with the speed of fiber" to deliver high-speed services to unserved and underserved areas of the world. Google was an initial investor in 2008, along with SES, Liberty Global (News - Alert), HSBC, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Allen & Company. When launched, the O3b -- "Other 3 billion" -- medium earth orbit (MEO) constellation is expected to provide up to 1.2 Gbps of bandwidth per transponder with round trip data transmission times to around 100 milliseconds.

Thales (News - Alert) Alena Space has started construction on 16 of the satellites, with another eight expected to be added later, and ViaSat will be providing ground station equipment, including antennas and data modems. The planned launch of the O3b service is scheduled for early 2012, and the company has initial plans to have 20 satellites in orbit by 2015.

Going through those shiny new O3b high-speed pipes will be plenty of data, including satellite imagery compiled in Google Maps and Google Earth. Google buys high-resolution color satellite imagery from commercial satellite companies such as DigitalGlobe and GeoEye (News - Alert); it even got a sponsor logo put on the side of rocket for the GeoEye-1 satellite launch.

There's no two ways about it; updating satellite imagery is a hard problem -- especially on a global scale. Taking imagery has to be carefully scheduled in advance, downloaded, and then shipped over to Google. From there, new images have to be compared with the human eyeball with what is currently available online to see if the pictures are better and of higher resolution; Google also gets higher-quality aerial photography from sources such as airplanes. Finally, the images have to be rolled out through a scheduled data base update. As a result, the satellite images found through Google Earth and Maps are typically no younger than six months old and could be up to five years old. Further, newer satellite imagery costs more to purchase; the newer the information, the more valuable the image. 

Several microsatellite companies see an opportunity for faster and cheaper imaging services to feed Google's demand for updated imagery. CNES's e-CORCE "webcam for Earth" would use a constellation of 13 microsatellites orbiting at 600 kilometers to deliver updated imagery of the entire Earth at 1 meter resolution -- within a week, every week. Building the system would cost almost $557 million and include 50 distributed ground stations to pump imagery straight into the Internet. If e-CORCE can raise the cash, CNES says the constellation can be in operation by 2014. Surrey Satellite (News - Alert) Technology (SSTL) believes it can map the entire Earth within three months at a resolution of 60 centimeters for a cost of $50 million, reported Aviation Week.

And, if mapping the world wasn't enough, Google has also underwritten the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. The first privately-funded team to land a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters over the surface, and send back images and data back to the Earth by Dec. 31, 2012, will win $20 million. Twenty-two different teams from around the globe are registered to compete and needless to say the returned imagery will end up on -- what else? -- Google Moon. One competitor, Rocket City Space Pioneers, is even offering a "ride share" program on its intended Falcon 9 launch vehicle for other competitors or firms wanting to put scientific payloads into GEO orbit, lunar orbit, or on the lunar surface.