Re: ATM RE: [RASCALS] Air Force lab reflects mirror technology

[Andy Saulietis <iss@pvtnetworks.net>]

At 09:32 AM 8/27/03, you wrote:7

>         My concern is where are they going to get the air pressure in the 
> vacuum of space to "push" the mirror into shape. I don't think it works 
> quite the same "124 miles above the Earth". If this is how this thing 
> works surely they have thought of that? What am I missing?

Weel, you could have a transparent membrane in front of the mirrored
one with gas pressure in between..keeping a constant pressure in space 
would not be
trivial..or..you could apply a small amount of thrust to 'gravity' load the 
membrane.
Does remind me of the proposal to launch balloons on wires on the moon for
over-the-horizon radio links..<g>

More interesting is the emphasis on using this technology for surveillance..
sounds like he's trying to con the DOD in funding the development. Anything
much larger than 48" in NEO is pretty useless because of atmospheric
turbulance which limits resolution to ~ 4" or so for ground objjects.
A bigger aperture would be needed on satellites at geo-synch altitude where
one could get continuous coverage of anything on the neaqr hemisphere..only
3 needed for global coverage.


Andy Saulietis
ISS Enterprises
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