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How could the keys be recovered? I don’t understand how this action is the only choice to prevent them being captured? The most conspiratorial part of my mind

by cududa 5y ago

How could the keys be recovered? I don’t understand how this action is the only choice to prevent them being captured? The most conspiratorial part of my mind thinks the projectile coated the debris in some isotope they have tracking capabilities for to build a “safety” use case for Soyuz

akiselev 5y ago
Recovering enemy satellites was one of the design goals imposed on the US Space Shuttle program by the Air Force. The shuttle ended up flying to the Hubble telescope to fix/upgrade it half a dozen times, though obviously they kept it in orbit rather than recovering it. The DOD probably has a replacement for the shuttle that does the same thing. I seem to remember a DARPA program over a decade ago
- alangibson 5y ago
  The DOD actually wanted to be able to do it in a single orbit. Like a smash and grab in space. Would have been amazing if they pulled it off.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  DARPA’s spacecraft became the x-37B, which probably has fuck-with-satellites capability via robot arm but a rather paltry 4 ft by 7 ft payload bay (The shuttle had 15 ft by 60 ft !)
  - akiselev 5y ago
    > but a rather paltry 4 ft by 7 ft payload bay IIRC there's a scaling limit with modern military/spy satellites on two axes: radar cross section and thermal output both grow with volume and make the satellite easier to target in a real conflict (which is ostensibly what many of them are for). The big ones like the satellite NRO donated to NASA with the 2.4 m diameter mirrors are easy to disable and AFAIK there's not much point recovering them anyway. The ones used for telecom with recoverable military encryption keys tend to be much smaller. For example, the 2nd gen Iridium constellation satellites are 30x40x70 cm.
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    What the x-37B lacks in payload volume, it more than makes up for in endurance: why temporarily bring a satellite to earth when you have weeks or months to remotely tamper in orbit?
  - thuccess129 5y ago
    Does the X-37B have the carrying capacity for the computer to replace the broken down one on Hubble and the humanoid bot surgical arms and hands to make the installation in place on orbit?
    - idontwantthis 5y ago
      No.
- emkoemko 5y ago
  didn't the shuttle also take a satellite back down and then they launched it back into orbit?

by cududa 5y ago

akiselev 5y ago

Recovering enemy satellites was one of the design goals imposed on the US Space Shuttle program by the Air Force. The shuttle ended up flying to the Hubble telescope to fix/upgrade it half a dozen times, though obviously they kept it in orbit rather than recovering it. The DOD probably has a replacement for the shuttle that does the same thing. I seem to remember a DARPA program over a decade ago

alangibson 5y ago
The DOD actually wanted to be able to do it in a single orbit. Like a smash and grab in space. Would have been amazing if they pulled it off.
jazzyjackson 5y ago
DARPA’s spacecraft became the x-37B, which probably has fuck-with-satellites capability via robot arm but a rather paltry 4 ft by 7 ft payload bay (The shuttle had 15 ft by 60 ft !)
- akiselev 5y ago
  > but a rather paltry 4 ft by 7 ft payload bay IIRC there's a scaling limit with modern military/spy satellites on two axes: radar cross section and thermal output both grow with volume and make the satellite easier to target in a real conflict (which is ostensibly what many of them are for). The big ones like the satellite NRO donated to NASA with the 2.4 m diameter mirrors are easy to disable and AFAIK there's not much point recovering them anyway. The ones used for telecom with recoverable military encryption keys tend to be much smaller. For example, the 2nd gen Iridium constellation satellites are 30x40x70 cm.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  What the x-37B lacks in payload volume, it more than makes up for in endurance: why temporarily bring a satellite to earth when you have weeks or months to remotely tamper in orbit?
- thuccess129 5y ago
  Does the X-37B have the carrying capacity for the computer to replace the broken down one on Hubble and the humanoid bot surgical arms and hands to make the installation in place on orbit?
  - idontwantthis 5y ago
    No.
emkoemko 5y ago
didn't the shuttle also take a satellite back down and then they launched it back into orbit?