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In 2012 the NRO turned over two satellites to NASA [0] for research purposes. The scientists who have examined them (they have not been launched yet) described
by chiph 6y ago
In 2012 the NRO turned over two satellites to NASA [0] for research purposes. The scientists who have examined them (they have not been launched yet) described them as being better than Hubble even though they are comparable in size (designed to fit in the Shuttle bay). Given the unlimited funds available to them, I expect they're a decade ahead of industry.
The NRO is probably going for larger lenses in future satellites to increase their field of view. Could they use a series of smaller sats orbiting in a cluster to form a virtual lens, much like the multiple mirror telescope in Arizona [1]? Maybe.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_Office_space_telescope_donation_to_NASA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_O...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMT_Observatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMT_Observatory
- walrus01 6y agoTo clarify what they turned over were lens and optics assemblies that are a sort of cousin to the hubble space telescope's structural body and lens, not whole satellites. No power systems, no control electronics, no batteries, no comm systems, etc.
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoProbably. At least it works for RADAR in [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraSAR-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraSAR-X & [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TanDEM-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TanDEM-X edit: optical [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel-2 but with rather low resolution.
- namibj 6y agoThere are proposals[0] for mirror-fleet based exoplanet detecting and imaging, as well as for resolving the purported 20 km neutron star seen/known as the Crab Pulsar. But accurately controlling such a swarm seem like a still-untested concept. [0]: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Olivier_Lardiere/publication/228590727_Hypertelescope_imaging-_From_exo-planets_to_neutron_stars/links/56095f5a08ae1396914a120c/Hypertelescope-imaging-From-exo-planets-to-neutron-stars.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Olivier_Lardiere/public...