Perfect answer… and correct
Given an army of LiDAR drones with Starlink connections it might be possible. But privacy concerns would shut that down.
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RAM, not graphics card VRAM 
Yes, but then its without the G … GDDR stands for Grafic Double Data Rate Ram… so I had to assume that you are talking about VRAM 
And even when we are talking about main memory, then I also hope that a potential Ryzen 12 Ultimate will not relay on DDR5 which is also current tech 
Back to topic: I also think that for a flight sim a resolution of 1mm makes no sense. And the photogrammetry cities are already in quite high resolution somtimes down to 10cm…
Edit: a quantum computer will not be benefitial to general purpose calculations as needed for sims an their like. A quantum computer is only really good in handling quantum algorithms … there is no speed advantage for classical computer problems run on a quantum computer.
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It will make sense when the rendering power of computer hardware will be so enormous that there is no excuse anymore for bad graphics, low resolution, pop-ins, and other current gen videogame problems
I want to see the ants crawling at the side of the runway while checking if my airplane tires have enough profile left for winter landings, and if the wolfram filament of the light bulb has burned through if one of the lights is out…
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As long as you don’t want the ants nest where it is in real life, this can be handled proceduraly already … when you are doing your walkaround the engine will only render what you see → skip most of the world rendering, and modern enignes (see UE5 for example) caan handle that amount of data very well. So ants crawling along the well pressured tire (hopefully) is no problem
But jokes aside - I get your point, end we will come to this eventually, and then why just stop by ants - if there is enough computing power we can simulate world an atoms or even on subatomic particles … maybe …
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I agree, there will never be aerial imaging of the resolution OP is asking about on a wide scale. I do think with further development of AI imaging technology we’ll someday be able to fake something like that pretty well for simulation. Maybe not 1mm but much better than we have now.
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What else!
It will be extreem far into the future…
truth, probably after I have passed on…
i glad to see minds in the world, that exactly get what i said lol… ants it’s not limit, yeah, just simple of pixel… today pixel is 0.22(?) tomorrow (?) and idea about interface and even pc integrated in our mind all that more real than could be imagine… it’s all can grows not only in technic and nanotech. this is about mind… what if our mind can take much more than we think, and biologically evolution will about the mind, where people will not need any more pc or network for flightsimulator 3000 or whatever… cheez i so love music of 2525 but same so hate pessimistic view of that lol
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Better resolution of satellite images when hardware supports it would of course be great, but I would also like to see similar improvements in DEM.
Bear in mind that for most of us, our hardware and connection speeds will not support much higher levels of either at the moment.
The answer is “never.” The limitation here isn’t computing power, it’s the laws of physics. No optical system in existence or that could ever be built could resolve 1mm detail from orbit, and probably not even from a high-flying aircraft. It’s the same as when people ask, “Why can’t we use powerful telescopes to view the Apollo landers left on the moon (to refute the silly moon landing conspiracists)?” No telescope on Earth, or in Earth orbit (like the Hubble) can resolve enough detail at the moon’s distance to see the landers, and they’re several meters wide.
Who ever said the data capture method needed to be optical?
As you so deftly point out, with our current optical technology, it wouldn’t work.
Interestingly enough, DEM data is not captured optically to begin with, so, I’m not sure where this rant against optical information capture is coming from…
How about we get back the actual discussion, what would it be like to store and manipulate DEM and other data at a 1mm resolution? How much data is that?
The OP’s question wasn’t about DEM (elevation) data, it was about imagery. That’s why they asked about the possibility of 1mm resolution. Seemed pretty obvious to me.
You’re referring to mesh data, but that wasn’t the question.
Agreed it’ll never be 1mm (or need to be), but I do have this vision for one day a huge fleet of camera drones mapping the entire planet (sans oceans, of course) at very high resolution from multiple angles. In my lifetime? Maybe not. But crazier things are probably already happening, so who knows.
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The question just said resolution which can definitely mean DEM, as that is also measured in resolution using meters. I think it’s just as likely they meant DEM as satellite. Hopefully both continue to get better though.
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I think with improvements in AI up-scaling tech, the source data won’t need to be 1mm in order to be able to render accurately details smaller than were captured. Eventually I see real-time CG rendering being done like fractals in that the closer you zoom, the more detail is available but still sharp.
Same theory could be applied to DEM meshes.
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I wonder how much people walking around/driving would mess with that. “Citizens, please stay indoors for the annual LiDAR sweep” 
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i sure dem is included in the question:) sure this is about 3d 1mm so not only about textures and flat images. it’s about all earth as 3d object so dem is not overkill there:)
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Exactly what I was thinking. Just like Asobo uses Blackshark AI today, my expectation was this would be a part of reaching 1mm accuracy in imagery and DEM sooner rather than later…
As a general comment, as an engineer, it’s always better to figure out how to do it, than worry about what’s in your way…
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