4 ms·
> The US government literally spends billions of dollars to track things in outer space, and a bunch of amateurs can do basically the same thing There is a who
by jhayward 7y ago
> The US government literally spends billions of dollars to track things in outer space, and a bunch of amateurs can do basically the same thing
There is a whole lot of difference between an amateur being able, once in a blue moon, to track something and a military duty desk being able to track everything, all the time, and get it imaged/located/whatever in seconds to minutes, every time.
- dsl 7y agoThe X-37B also favors mobility over stealth. Many US spy satellites are virtually untrackable because of the Vantablack S-VIS paint they use, which reflects only .2% of the light that hits it. You have to literally look for the missing stars that should be behind it. Other sats make this even harder by hiding behind giant mirrors that reflect empty space from a 45 degree angle down to earth.
- adminu 7y agoI'd be interested in a source. I wonder how a giant mirror could persist in space without being shattered by debris and other elements hitting it from time to time.
- andbberger 7y agoI think you have to leave your preconceptions about what a mirror is at the door when it comes to spaceflight. Much more likely to be something like aluminized mylar than a silvered glass mirror that could shatter.
- daveslash 7y agoThis is a patent for stealth satellite technology. It's not a mirror, per-se, but it does demonstrate that there's interest in concealing satellites. Additionally, I'd expect that anything that could "shatter" a mirror would also be capable of shattering the entire satellite beyond operation; if we assume that statement is true, then the fact that so many satellites remain in service suggests that a mirror would also survive.
- daveslash 7y agoI posted my above comment late last night after a long trip... I neglected to include the patent URL. My apologies. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5345238A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US5345238A/en
- dsl 7y agoI'll have to dig in to my bookshelf once I get home. I believe it was in The Wizards Of Langley, but Google book search is failing me at the moment.
- yencabulator 7y agoHow often have the ISS solar panels been shattered, so far?
- baybal2 7y agoI doubt it will save them from detection in infrared