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The US has bases all over the world that are used to communicate with manned flights and deep space probes, and presumably these bases also have equipment for t
by DougWebb 16y ago
The US has bases all over the world that are used to communicate with manned flights and deep space probes, and presumably these bases also have equipment for tracking everything in orbit. Russia can cover a lot of sky from within their own territory, and they've got ships that are floating tracking stations, but probably not enough to cover the entire sky all of the time. Other countries probably don't either; they most likely share the US bases and don't get the 'track everything' data.
An interesting thought: anything that is orbiting is predictable. You don't have to watch it constantly to know where it is at any given time, you just have to watch it while it passes by and calculate the orbit. So the comprehensive tracking is only necessary for tracking things which are not following consistent orbits: either they've got the ability to shift their orbit, or they're not really orbiting at all but are in powered flight. Manned flights typically shift around until they get where they are going, and I guess if they're secret they may never settle into a stable orbit. Military satellites probably do the same thing, but they'd have a limited fuel capacity to keep moving around, and a satellite is an expensive device to fly for a few days/weeks and let burn up (now that we're not using shuttles to recover them.)
- icegreentea 16y agoIf you combine your two points together, you realize that to track anything with a non-changing orbit, you just have to have to detect it once. And since everything is strictly line of sight, if you've been overflown by a satellite (spied on), then you've also had an opportunity to track the satellite and now know when the next fly-over / where will be. What the US has the potential ability to real-time track every satellite around the entire world. In fact, we're pretty sure that that capability exists because they've also tracked everything in orbit larger than a screw. While the X-37 has the capability to make some countries nervous, honestly space does have its own (weaker) version of MAD. I mean, if anyone does something stupid, then the rest can ruin it for everyone. I mean, do you think the US would go about laying mines in space when Russia/China probably have (will have) the capability to knock down GPS satellites? I mean, everyone knows where they are, everyone has the capability to insert into the same orbit. The US would be beyond stupid to use the X37 for anything other than recon (spying!), or grabbing it's own satellites/payloads. Anything else would been as dumb as co-locating satellite launch sites with ICBM silos. Also, despite the lack of public information given out by the Air Force and government, it's entirely likely that the Chinese and Russians know a lot more about the hardware and its capabilities than Wired and the public. Spy agencies exist for a reason. Even amongst 'friends'.
- borism 16y agoAnyone can track anything (*that remains in it's orbit) from the comfort of their home: http://www.heavens-above.com http://www.heavens-above.com http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html