> Ms. Priest also cites an article in Novosti Kosmonavtiki that appears to > rely on orbital analysis: > If anyone has a copy of the article, I would be interested in a summary. > Ted Molczan A kindly correspondent has provided me with a copy of the original, which I read over lunch. In summary, the article is a compilation and summary of information already in the public domain -- SeeSat, sci.space.*, Richelson's recent book. As such, it is excellent, well written and very worthwhile -- it reminds me of some of the articles Maj. Andronov wrote for "Foreign Military Review" a decade ago. I'm going to try to get permission to provide an English translation to a public site, probably FAS or Globalsecurity. Some interesting bits that I didn't recognize as having come out earlier follow, in my somewhat loose translation: - In the 1980s, while the MISTY-1 satellite was being developed, the main threat to the stealth satellite was the USSR's space surveillance system -- the meter-wave radars that were called Hen House and Pechora in the West. The wavelength of these systems was around 1.5 - 2.0 meters, and so the dimensions of the [reflective stealth] screen [on the satellite] should be fairly impressive (6 - 10 meters) in order to ensure mirror [aka specular] reflection of the radio waves and to completely hide the satellite. The principle of mirror reflection presupposes orienting the mirror toward the illuminating radar at a certain angle. The angle of orientation of the screen [i.e., the mirror] can be calculated ahead of time, since the coordinates of all the stationary space surveillance sites are known precisely. - According to press reports, AFP-731 [MISTY] had a mass of 18-19 tonnes and was intended for electro-optical visual and radioelectronic reconnaissance. The mass seems too large in view of the uniquely high orbital inclination of STS-36 (62 degrees), and it seems more reasonable to estimate the initial mass of the satellite as 11-13 tonnes. Even[? - sic] if one proceeds from this conservative estimate and considers that in order to reach the operational orbit the satellite could expend 19-22% of the initial mass, the mass of AFP-731 in its operational orbit would have been a still impressive 8-10 tonnes, enough to accomodate an electro-optical system and ELINT equipment. The dry mass of the satellite (taking into account the needed expenditure of fuel for maneuvering and end-of-life deorbiting) can be estimated as 6-8 tonnes. - If one accepts that the light object USA-144 was launched from the MISTY-2 satellite, then one can imagine that the satellite itself is to be found in a similar orbit with an inclination of 62-65%, an altitude of around 3000 km and a period of around 2.5 hours.(3) - (3) For example, MISTY-2 and the decoy light object could operate in orbit with the same period, but in antiphase (the time of equator crossing differs by a half a period), which would disorient the operation of the Russian space surveilance system. [I have no idea why that should be disorienting, but an explanation might be interesting -- AT.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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