Ed Cannon said, > Those images do leave one wondering how it could be > bright enough to be seen without magnification from > geosynchronous range. It and LES-9 were powered by > radioactive packages and have no solar panels. Also, note http://tinyurl.com/6qegp : "The MIT Lincoln Laboratory is involved in a program to demonstrate the technology necessary to deploy a highly survivable satellite communication system for command and control of the SIOP forces. The effort is based upon the use of two satellites (LES-8 and LES-9) carefully designed (both electronically and physically) so that detection of the satellite presence is extremely difficult." The passage quoted came out in mid-1971, well before the actual launch of LES-8/9 in March 1976, so some of the design requirements may have changed. OTOH, if the optical signature control expriment did indeed depend on the rumored plane mirror, orientation of the satellite would be critical, and likely cease to be possible once control of the satellite was lost. This is why I think it would be useful for someone to get a set of light curves for LES-8: If it does have a big mirror on it and is tumbling, then there should be both high, sharp maxima and deep minima. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Mar 27 2005 - 13:17:44 EST