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Sure, but the point of those satellites is not to make a flash in the sky. The whole point of the disco ball is to dazzle.
by jvandonsel 9y ago
Sure, but the point of those satellites is not to make a flash in the sky. The whole point of the disco ball is to dazzle.
- dingaling 9y agoActually the older Iridium satellites were intended to make a flash in the sky. The three aluminium antennas were highly-polished for no other reason than visibility; free publicity. There were some thermal benefits but not significant. The later blocks of satellites have a different antenna design and do not reflect as much. A more sigificant astronomical impact of Iridium as a tangent, is that their transmissions on 1612 MHz interefere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl. In contrast a single 'disco ball' zipping around LEO for a few months is trivial.
- ceejayoz 9y agoDo you have a cite on it being intentionally polished to create flares? The new generation has a smaller, redesigned antenna, but I can't find anything on the original being a conscious design choice instead of just a side-effect of "we want to reflect EM as well as possible".