Timeline for Dramatic orbital spotlight feasibility and price
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 18, 2021 at 14:05 | comment | added | Ruadhan | @axsvl77 It'd be an amazing alternative to those daylight flares used when fighting at night.. Just bring the sun and use your regular gear, no need for nightvision or searchlights. | |
| Feb 18, 2021 at 13:03 | comment | added | Astor Florida | @Ruadhan NP. I heard about it for 30 seconds on the radio when I was a kid, and always wondered what happened to it. Somehow I remember it as the Russian response to the new deployment of stealth aircraft during desert storm. Not sure where that thought comes from! | |
| Feb 18, 2021 at 9:29 | comment | added | Ruadhan | Thanks for sharing this, I had no idea the Solar Reflector concept had actually flown, it gets written about a lot, but I'd never heard of Znamya till today. Really cool! | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 21:41 | comment | added | Lars H | @NuclearHoagie, in addition Earth's axial tilt helps. I remember that back in the 1990's a certain TV channel had to stop broadcast for maybe an hour after midnight, because (as it was explained) their satellite would then be passing through the umbra — presumably it didn't have enough batteries to keep the transmitter going. BUT this only happened a couple of days around each equinox (which made it noticeable as a deviation from the normal schedule). Most of the year the satellite passed "above" or "below" the umbra, rather than through. | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 16:58 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | @LarsH Good point. By my calculation, the angular size of the umbra at geosynchronous altitude is about 20 degrees, putting the reflecting satellite entirely out of commission for only about an hour a night. Although, the brightness will get progressively worse as you enter the penumbra, and you'll have issues focusing non-collimated light at that distance. | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 16:24 | comment | added | Lars H | @NuclearHoagie, that depends on the altitude. The only part of space where your satellite isn't illuminated by the sun is in the umbra of Earth, and close to Earth that is about Earth-sized, but at geosynchronic orbit distance its angular size is fairly small. | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 16:19 | comment | added | Onyz | @NuclearHoagie You could chain together mirrors from several satellites, and create a loop of light around the earth... maybe? | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 13:48 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | Since this relies on reflected sunlight, I think this only works at times when the satellite is illuminated but the ground is not, which limits the use of the system to just before dawn or just after dusk. There's no way you could get a perpendicular spotlight shining down at midnight using this (perhaps unless you're at a very extreme latitude). | |
| Feb 17, 2021 at 4:30 | history | answered | Astor Florida | CC BY-SA 4.0 |