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The Air Force doesn't suffer from the same kind of planning paralysis as NASA, so I'm assuming they actually carried out some kind of mission. It's not clear t
by tsotha 16y ago
The Air Force doesn't suffer from the same kind of planning paralysis as NASA, so I'm assuming they actually carried out some kind of mission. It's not clear to me what this thing is really good for, though. The payload bay is about the same size and shape as a coffin - far too small for the kind of sensors you find on spy satellites.
They might have some scheme cooked up for refueling spy sats, which would extend the service life and give them the ability to shift orbits more freely. Still... even then, would it really be cheaper than lofting a new one?
In theory they could fit a guy in there, barely. That might make some sense for repairs. Assuming you could find a good mechanic without a trace of claustrophobia. And assuming the flight profile didn't flatten him. Maybe some kind of teleoperated repair bot?
- die_sekte 16y agoI'm not sure whether this could carry someone. The spacecraft doesn't have to carry just the body, but also oxygen, heating systems, waste disposal, food, … Maybe you could fit someone inside, but that might just be the hardest mission ever flown.
- regularfry 16y agoYou could fold quite a large collapsing antenna into that sort of space, and reconfigurable orbits would make very high resolution SAR scans available virtually on demand. I can see that being extremely useful.
- mjb 16y agoSAR is indeed a great use for this kind of platform, but the equipment needed to do really high-quality work might be too bulky for this platform. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission equipment (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/images/photos/srtm_22_lo.jpg http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/images/photos/srtm_22_lo.jpg) certainly wouldn't have fitted, given the description of the available space.
- tsotha 16y agoThose SAR sats are the size of a bus.