Nanosatellites are tiny sats 1 to 10 kilograms in dry weight. The first models were developed to provide recon for CIA operatives.
Now, how do you think those will develop in Shadowrun, where LEO flights are commonplace?

I'm suggesting the following in alt.War, think that sounds reasonable?
All that for 5k¥ at 14R.

Forget nanosat, let's just jump strait to femtosat!
(between 10 and 100 g)

While the cost seems reasonable hardware-wise, even with the advances in space/launch technology I imagine launch-capable organizations are still few and far between, and they're going to try to wring more than a flat 1-2k out of customers for such a service; probably more on the order of 1-5k per kilo, with a minimum charge to cover "handling fees". Furthermore, the proliferation of private satellites means more stringent controls/legislation on orbits would be required. Fortunately for the mass market, EVO (and others) would be more than happy to "rent" you a safe, legal orbit for a small monthly fee, and the insurance premiums on accidental loss are quite reasonable....

Can you even fit a decent sensor and comm package into that with SR tech?

Sauder-Krupp, at least, is a major competitor of EVO in space. And there are a few more corps with their own space programs. Don't you think that'd reign in the prices?

Actually I don't think it would. The rocket-launched satellite market has a limited viable lifetime, with the upcoming inauguration of the Space Elevator, so I would think that the competitors would be happy to compete on "value-add" and settle for a share of a boutique market rather than squabble over price down to thin margins and "win" a market that doesn't have a long enough future in which to pay off the difference in per-unit revenue with volume.

I'm not quite seeing one elevator replacing all other methods of reaching the orbit.
Additionally, I'm not sure reaching orbit is even that expensive in SR, seeing as they have LEO passenger flights regularly.

From a technical standpoint, such cheap launches would only bring you into LEO (orbital period in the ballpark from 90 min to 2 h). A satellite that spends significant time over a certain area would need a far higher orbit, which costs far more to reach and spying from 20,000 km away obviously is a lot less effective than from 300.

Micro-/nano-/cube-/whatever-sats definitely would be an interesting addition, and since LEO flights and space elevators are considered given launching them would surely be available to anyone wit a bit of cash to spare. But if you want continuous observation of a certain spot, nothing beats hijacking an advertisement blimp

PS: As usual, Wikipedia delivers. Most entries don't list costs, but the payload difference between LEO and GTO should give you an idea.

In SR, you can launch Sattelites from every bigger Airport. See Sub-Orbital-Planes here.

No idea. They are, apparently, A Thing in the real world though. Wasn't able to find any examples however.

The only position that allows a satellite to be stationary above a given point on Earth is the geosynchronous orbit, at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers.

The first thing to understand is that there is no "sub-orbital altitude" properly speaking, only sub-orbital speed. Basically, orbiting is moving side-ward faster than you're falling downward. To each altitude, there is a speed that matches exactly the speed at which you should be falling toward Earth. The closer to the ground, the faster you need to go. If you move slower, you'll start spiraling toward the Earth. If you move faster, you will escape Earth gravity.

So in fact, every plane is a suborbital plane. Only the space shuttles did otherwise.

Because of atmospheric drag, it is currently not considered practical to orbit below about 150-200 kilometers. At such altitude, you need to move at about 7.8 km/s, orbiting the Earth in about 90 minutes. Geosynchronous orbit is defined at 35,786 kilometers, when orbital speed makes you circle around the Earth in 24 hours, which is about 3.1 km/s. If you're in GEO above the Equator, you will stay above the same point, allowing you to establish a permanent communication link.

Geostationary orbit is high. Even at speed of light, communications still require about 1/4 seconds to go up and back down. A spysat camera resolution is going to be 200 times lower in GEO than it is in LEO (so if the technology allows to, say, read a car's plate from LEO, it would barely spot the car from GEO). Since stationary orbit requires to be above the Equator, it also means such spysat will only get a lock-down view on target in the Equatorial region. If it's more north or south, it will get an oblique view, which will make it completely useless in cities where buildings will stand in the way (while LEO spysats can go around this as they fly over the target, usually north-south or south-north).
This also applies to launching and positioning the satellite. It usually takes as long as five hours to move a satellite into GEO (and 15 hours when launching from Baikonur, because of starting latitude).

In real life, geostationary position are allocated by the International Telecommunication Union and spaced so that signal broadcasted from and toward a satellite don't jam neighboring satellites. It's nearly impossible to maintain a satellite completely still, so they're actually allowed to move within a 80x80 kilometers "box". So, putting a satellite in geostationary orbit is not something done casually. Especially more given the unique property of that specific altitude, no one wants it to be cluttered with debris (though my take is that the level of space activity in Shadowrun suggests solutions were found to deal with them, if not eradicate them outright).

All these reasons, in addition to cost, makes a high altitude-long endurance drone (like a blimp) a competitive solution, unless the opposition has effective high altitude air defenses.

Now, if the aerospace corporations were to offer such service, those who have space stations would most likely stockpile a few of them in advance, and thrust thm into GEO from there, instead of scheduling a launch from the ground.

I agree with everything Nath has said, and based on that not only blimps, but also kites, gliders and autonomous solar powered planes are all more plausible in this context than microsats (for this purpose). A high altitude hybrid blimp (which is to say, receiving aerodynamic lift by facing into the hgih altitude wind and keeping station) will actually be very hard to spot from the ground. At 20km above the ground, a 2m blimp will subtend the same angle as a 1cm object at 100m. You can fit a lot of equipment on a 2m blimp.

Alternatively, a high altitude glider with solar panels, an electric engine to help it occasionally regain altitude, and intelligent software in a control electronics package weighing under 100g will have a loiter time measured in weeks.

Well, it's times easier to detect an object in the atmosphere with a radar. Below the ionosphere, at the very least.

Also, yeah, I see the point with GEO orbits, that's why in the text I suggest a thrust-corrected semistationary orbit and low sat lifetime. I feel that leaves sats a much more useful addition to the game than a proper LEO (with, say, a diceroll to determine if the sat is above you at the moment, or a need to track its orbital schedule).

A likelier bet in my book would be the space companies leasing time on established networks of satellites.

Sure, but I doubt that's a service that will be popular among runner troupes. Unless, of course, there are pirate constellations.

1.) What do you actually mean by "semistationary"?
2.) Thrust will not help the sat staying longer over a certain area, unless the thrust pushes the satellite into a geosynchronous orbit.

But look at it this way, LEO spysats definitely have their uses, else space wouldn't be full of them. You won't get real-time overwatch (except with an extremely strict schedule and ~5 minutes time), but 5000 bucks for an overhead map of an arbitrary place or a count of the enemy's staging area, updated every 90 minutes, still sounds like a bargain for militaries and high-end runners.

And a satellite that is geo-stationary and not in geostationary orbit is not in orbit at all, and is just going to come crashing down as it rapidly runs out of fuel.

Or is a blimp.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

Pretty much this. There are probably multiple satellite constellations made up of semi-disposable components that you lease or simply purchase derived products from. The only mechanical bit that needs to be answered is how this sort of thing figures into legwork.

Yeah, but what about gamism!

Of course LEO spysats have their uses, but they're launched by the bunch if constant coverage is required. I'm not exactly sure a SR player would want to track when his sat will be going overhead, or risk a roll to determine that.


It's just a question of getting access to those...

I guess this is one of those cases where ignorance would be a blessing


But considering how long the typical fight in SR lasts, "wait for the signal that sat coverage begins, then you have five minutes, go" still sounds like a good addition to some gaming sessions.

It could also add some good tension, timing a run for when satellite access is available. That's a method of pacing/ time control I haven't used on my players yet. Must remember it.

Another one I have done, is set up a facility that was under constant surveillance and uplink, except for a very narrow window in between satellites gaining LOS. For that brief window, the spyder and facility were all alone, no way to access outside help.

If you were so inclined you could get nearly ubiquitous surveillance of any point on the planet now, from commercial vendors (albeit sub-meter imagery and multi-spectral is limited). Shadowrun was written, and still written, largely under the assumption that such a thing was too far out into science fiction to explore. Hell, I wouldn't even call the surveillance stuff from Eclipse Phase's Panopticon all that great of a resource (although it's a start, mechanically).