3 ms·

Those are the clumps large enough to be seen by radar. The needles that successfully deployed came down in 3 years.

by wumpus 4y ago

shagie 4y ago
https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/ https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/ > On May 9, 1963, a second West Ford launch successfully dispersed its spindly cargo approximately 3,500 kilometers above the Earth, along an orbit that crossed the North and South Pole. Voice transmissions were successfully relayed between California and Massachusetts, and the technical aspects of the experiment were declared a success. As the dipole needles continued to disperse, the transmissions fell off considerably, although the experiment proved the strategy could work in principle. The successful MEO are still there - https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=37 https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=37
- wumpus 4y ago
  As I said, those are the clumps. The individual needles can't be seen by radar and have a high enough surface to mass ratio that they deorbited in 3 years instead of centuries.
  - panzagl 4y ago
    Occasionally NASA will do surveys of smaller objects, but I'm not sure how they would be able to tell if they're still up there since they're not regularly tracked- it's more like 'we scanned volume x and found y objects smaller than we usually track so we think there are z small objects up there overall'. Overall one of the more interesting bits of the 'hold my beer' phase of space exploration.
    - wumpus 4y ago
      Isn't that done by an Air Force radar at... Westford? I didn't think NASA had a radar for that purpose.
      - panzagl 4y ago
        The radar at Westford is a tracking dish, I think they used one of the bigger phased arrays for the survey I'm thinking of.
        wumpus 4y ago
        I didn't know NASA had a phased array suitable for such surveys, but of course it's not really my gig -- astronomer, we don't transmit much! I mainly know about the Westford dish because it's used for VLBI and VGOS. I looked for a big NASA phased array, and couldn't find one other than the SOAR proposal. I couldn't figure out if it was actually built or not. Seriously, I'm interested in the details.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]

Those are the clumps large enough to be seen by radar. The needles that successfully deployed came down in 3 years.

by wumpus 4y ago

Those are the clumps large enough to be seen by radar. The needles that successfully deployed came down in 3 years.

https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/ https://www.wired.com/2013/08/project-west-ford/ > On May 9, 1963, a second West Ford launch successfully dispersed its spindly cargo approximately 3,500 kilometers above the Earth, along an orbit that crossed the North and South Pole. Voice transmissions were successfully relayed between California and Massachusetts, and the technical aspects of the experiment were declared a success. As the dipole needles continued to disperse, the transmissions fell off considerably, although the experiment proved the strategy could work in principle. The successful MEO are still there - https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=37 https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=37

wumpus 4y ago
As I said, those are the clumps. The individual needles can't be seen by radar and have a high enough surface to mass ratio that they deorbited in 3 years instead of centuries.
- panzagl 4y ago
  Occasionally NASA will do surveys of smaller objects, but I'm not sure how they would be able to tell if they're still up there since they're not regularly tracked- it's more like 'we scanned volume x and found y objects smaller than we usually track so we think there are z small objects up there overall'. Overall one of the more interesting bits of the 'hold my beer' phase of space exploration.
  - wumpus 4y ago
    Isn't that done by an Air Force radar at... Westford? I didn't think NASA had a radar for that purpose.
    - panzagl 4y ago
      The radar at Westford is a tracking dish, I think they used one of the bigger phased arrays for the survey I'm thinking of.
      - wumpus 4y ago
        I didn't know NASA had a phased array suitable for such surveys, but of course it's not really my gig -- astronomer, we don't transmit much! I mainly know about the Westford dish because it's used for VLBI and VGOS. I looked for a big NASA phased array, and couldn't find one other than the SOAR proposal. I couldn't figure out if it was actually built or not. Seriously, I'm interested in the details.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]