Re: Unidentified subject!
John Pike (johnpike@fas.org)
Mon, 10 Jun 1996 12:00:19 -0400
>I invite you to point your browser to:
>ftp://ftp.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/sat/images/cos2278r.jpg
These are extremely nice!!!
>Unfortunately, will not be releasing any spysat pix, however.
If you will not [and I understand that given your institutional affiliation
this might be more trouble than it is worth, to you], someone else should,
as this would be a most useful thing in helping us with our current design
study, viz
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/kh-12.htm
We are extremly eager to initiate a collaboration to this effect, and want
to talk turkey with anyone who might be interested. I am given to understand
that seekers of fame and glory would be rewarded by the successful
completion of such a quest No, there is nothing illegal or "disloyal" about
taking pix of these birds, the Russians (and just about every other
interested government) have been doing it for years, so about the only folks
who care about these thing who haven't seen pix of them are the folks who
actually paid for them, a situation that should be rectified. Given the
technical requirements for doing such a thing, it is not a matter of whether
someone is going to get their pix on the cover of a magazine, it is just a
question of who and when, so folks should start thinking about whether they
want to grab the brass ring, or let someone else take credit .....
>Unfortunately, Lacrosse was pointed at the Earth during it's 6/8/96 pass
>over us, and we were looking down the "barrel" of it.
Our current theory is that you were looking at something like
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/lacrosse.htm
though were are interested in getting a bit of actual data to support this
[well, actually we do have a *bit* of data, but not quite as much as in the
case of the KH-12, and every little bit helps].
>Maybe it was looking
>down the barrel of OUR scope! (errr... if it IS a telescope at all).
No, it is certainly not a telescope, but the bus is rather compact, and boxy
[perhaps even more so than we currently depict], so one might not be readily
able to deduce orientation [though your greater familiarity with its
physical appearance might lead you to a better informed and divergent
conclusion]. We are given to understand that the solar arrays are stealthy
at radar frequencies, so their optical properties might also be low
observable, and the antenna is most probably as we have depicted it, so one
might not really see too much of it at all.
____________________________
John Pike
Director, Space Policy & CyberStrategy Projects
Federation of American Scientists
307 Massachusetts Ave. NE
Washington, DC 20002
V 202-675-1023, F 202-675-1024, http://www.fas.org/