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I find this kind of surprising. First off, I'd figure that NASA would set up a few UHF stations around the world in locations with decent internet access (frie
by furyg3 12y ago
I find this kind of surprising. First off, I'd figure that NASA would set up a few UHF stations around the world in locations with decent internet access (friendly countries or military bases), and route comms via that. Maybe you don't have total coverage, but at least you don't have to wait an hour before it's back over the US.
Secondly, there many more options available than TDRSS or UHF. Amateur radio enthusiasts frequently make contact with astronauts (2 meter and 70cm bands, IIRC). While that doesn't really solve the blackout problem, I find it hard to imagine that there isn't a lower-frequency radio which could maintain voice contact with the ISS.
- _delirium 12y agoI believe NASA does have a few UHF stations elsewhere, or at least used to. As of a 1998 document about the shuttle program [1], they listed 6 UHF air-to-ground stations, 3 of them in other countries. The U.S.-based ones were in Guam, Hawaii, and Florida; and the others were in Ascension Island (a British dependency halfway between Africa and South America), Bermuda (a British dependency off the east coast of Canada), and Dakar, Senegal. [1] http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-jsc-comm.html http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/s...
- jdmichal 12y agoJust a clarification: Bermuda is not really close to any major coastline, and certainly not the Canadian one. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bermuda/@31.2546129,-41.5200126,4z https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bermuda/@31.2546129,-41.52...
- toomuchtodo 12y ago850 miles (closest point is in North Carolina) isn't necessarily far.
- jdmichal 12y agoWhen someone says "off the coast", I would not expect 850 miles of distance. And, even more, when they say "off the east coast", I would not expect it to be almost directly south of the east coast. Those were the points I was attempting to relay.
- icw 12y agoOther more obscure methods of communicating with the ISS include the Russian Lira and Regul systems as well as the Japanese Ka-band dish on the external lab.