Teledesic's satellites visibility
Bart De Pontieu (BDP@MPEPL)
Wed, 14 Aug 1996 18:07:56 +0100 (CET)
Hi SeeSat-ers,
I recently got a message with the following question:
>I am a computer science & engineering student, unskilled in the world
>of satellite reflections. I read your excellent introductory paper on
>Artifical Satellite Observing on the net, and I figured you might be
>able to answer this question. (If you're busy, please ignore it.)
>You have surely heard of the Teledesic project. A total of 840
>satellites will be launched and placed in low earth orbits (700 km)
>My question is simple: Will those satellites be visible to the naked
>eye even during daylight?
>(And how many of them can be seen at once from any given point on the
>earth surface? More than one I assume.)
The author of the message (d1dd@dtek.chalmers.se -he's not on SeeSat-L)
correctly guessed I'm busy right now. I figured perhaps someone on SeeSat-L
has already taken a look at this problem and can share his results with us,
as I think it may be interesting to all observers.
Also, does anyone know whether Teledesic's project is 'real' and not just a
marketing hoax ?
Cheers,
Bart
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Bart De Pontieu -- Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Garching
bdp@mpe-garching.mpg.de -- http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~bdp/satintro.html
Join us at Eurosom 2, Oct 19/20 1996 -- http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~bdp/eurosom.html
BWGS-coordinator -- Flash editor -- SeeSat-L administrator -- would-be-observer
"Life is like a jigsaw. You get the straight bits, but there's something"
"missing in the middle." -- XTC, "All Of A Sudden (It's Too Late)"
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