[APML] OT: Satellite orbital taxonomy

[Matt BenDaniel <matt@starmatt.com>]

At 10:07 PM 5/22/2002, Paul M. Rybski wrote:
>     ...that was why this location was such a good one in which to park a 
> spy satellite.  To find a geosynchronous satellite, you park a telescope 
> at a specific altitude and azimuth, don't move it and make lots of 
> integrations.  During those integrations, stars will track through your 
> field and possibly ruin an exposure of a fixed target.  The more stars, 
> the better.  Couple trailing stars with a faint object moving 
> orthogonally to the stars and you create a spy satellite that is very 
> difficult to find.  Then add orbit changes to this motion and you end up 
> with a devilishly difficult object to find.  I know because I had to do 
> it and succeeded.  But not without a very large (2.7 meter aperture) 
> telescope and not without knowing the orbit of the satellite.  With that 
> same large telescope but without knowledge of the orbit, I would not have 
> had a prayer of finding this very faint object, even away from the Milky 
> Way plane.  Note that a US quarter ($0.25 piece) placed a geosynchronous 
> distance will exhibit a maximum magnitude of 18.  My object was fainter 
> than that most of the time.  However, during maneuvering, the object 
> could glint after sunset or before sunrise just like the object in the 
> photo under discussion...

Paul,

That's really interesting. That info isn't classified? Obviously not I guess.

When you say that the target was darker than a quarter, it must have been 
completely painted flat black (or even flocked), right? Was it solar 
powered? How can solar collector panels be made stealthy? Is that why you 
saw a glint?

Such satellites must have limited expected service life. Don't they use up 
their propellant to change orbit? How long will it take for a typical one 
of these satellite's orbit to decay?
--
Matt BenDaniel
matt@starmatt.com
http://starmatt.com


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