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On top of that isn't the lower resolution on earth more for military reasons than a technical one or is this not the case any more?

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Hasn't been really the case since french airbus started offering highres global imagery. If you have deep pockets, you can buy 30cm/px (i.e. order of magnitude better than this Mars dataset) images of pretty much anything.

I wonder if there's any sources for those images that aren't cough restricted. Could be interesting to play with, though maybe not worth paying for.

What do you mean, there are many resources that provide access to various satellite images. In general satellite imaging is not really that sort of hushhush industry it maybe was 50 years ago.

I read parent as looking for sources that provide access to hi-res satellite imaging, without them needing to provide access to their wallet.

I think the thread is referring to satellite pictures of more sensitive locations (like military bases, gov facilities, etc)

But I can imagine it all depends on jurisdiction. A Russian or Chinese satellite imagery company will have no problem publishing clear images of US military bases, while an American satellite company may have to comply with US laws prohibiting that.

And vice versa.

Ultimately if you cobble together imagery from multiple sources, you can probably get everything you want.

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