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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
Here is a NASA report just added to the NTRS server in PDF format.
It's a 1966 NASA/Grumman study that uses a manned Lunar Module to deploy a 400-ft to 3000-ft solar reflector in a 6000 nm or 24 hr earth orbit. The reflector would be used to illuminate selected areas of the earth during the hours of darkness. This proposed program was called Project Able. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feasibility study of utilization of LM for Project Able. Volume 1 - Technical summary NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) NASA-CR-117546 , 19661212; Dec 12, 1966 Accession ID: 79N76171 View PDF File Document ID: 19790076663 Updated/Added to NTRS: 2005-11-17 34 pages http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1979076663.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Rusty |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
Rusty wrote: Here is a NASA report just added to the NTRS server in PDF format. It's a 1966 NASA/Grumman study that uses a manned Lunar Module to deploy a 400-ft to 3000-ft solar reflector in a 6000 nm or 24 hr earth orbit. The reflector would be used to illuminate selected areas of the earth during the hours of darkness. This proposed program was called Project Able. Any indication what the ultimate purpose was? I assume the national security classification indicates that it was for military or intelligence use. |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ftsolar reflector in earth orbit
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ftsolar reflector in earth orbit
Rusty wrote: I assume Project Able was for the benefit of the Defense Department. Through the years, the media and NASA have repeatedly stated, that U.S. civilian space program was totally in the open, unlike the Soviets. It's interesting to see NASA documents that were once classified or confidential, now being posted on the NTRS server, that disprove those statements. Hmmm.... I wonder what the report on DART will have stamped on it in a few years? ;-) I still like the LM-based military system that goes up to Soviet spacecraft and spray paints them black, via the "graffiti in space" attack technique: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/apolmcsd.htm Pat |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:10:34 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote: I still like the LM-based military system that goes up to Soviet spacecraft and spray paints them black, via the "graffiti in space" attack technique: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/apolmcsd.htm ....And when you think about it, the CLM (Combat LM) wouldn't have had to get -that- close to the target to do sufficient damage. It would have just had to let loose the paint against the flow of rotation enough to cause a gradual buildup on the target to the point where the thermal absorptiion would have done it in. Would have taken longer, but it would have improved our "plausable deniability" in the long run :-) OM -- ]=======================================[ OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* an obnoxious opinion in your day! ]=======================================[ |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
On 21 Nov 2005 08:54:34 -0800, wrote:
wrote: Any indication what the ultimate purpose was? To light up the ground at night. Numerous commercial and military apps... light up a disaster area, light up a battlefield. ....From what I recall of this one, the disaster area use was felt to be the best implementation, considering the total area of ilumination that such an array theoretically could have provided. OM -- ]=======================================[ OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* an obnoxious opinion in your day! ]=======================================[ |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ftsolar reflector in earth orbit
OM wrote:
On 21 Nov 2005 08:54:34 -0800, wrote: wrote: Any indication what the ultimate purpose was? To light up the ground at night. Numerous commercial and military apps... light up a disaster area, light up a battlefield. ...From what I recall of this one, the disaster area use was felt to be the best implementation, considering the total area of ilumination that such an array theoretically could have provided. One is forced to wonder what will happen now that this report has been made public. Will Nagin and the Dems start to berate Bush/Cheney/Haliburton for not having built Able to light up NOLA? -- "The only thing that galls me about someone burning the American flag is how unoriginal it is. I mean if you're going to pull the Freedom-of-speech card, don't be a hack, come up with something interesting. Fashion Old Glory into a wisecracking puppet and blister the system with a scathing ventriloquism act, or better yet, drape the flag over your head and desecrate it with a large caliber bullet hole." Dennis Miller |
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NASA PDF - Project Able - Lunar Module deploys up to 3000-ft solar reflector in earth orbit
In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote: To light up the ground at night. Numerous commercial and military apps... light up a disaster area, light up a battlefield. Or make the thing just a little bit flexible so that you can bow it into a parabolic dish shape and.... And what? The bad news is, the physics doesn't allow you to get a tight focus at a distance, because the Sun is not a point source. Inherently the best you can do is to make the light per square degree of sky, as seen at the target, equal to that of the Sun. A 3000ft reflector at a distance of hundreds of kilometers isn't going to fry anything, because it'll be a small fraction of a degree wide (vs. half a degree for the Sun). The light at the target will be a small fraction of normal sunlight. To fry something, you need to fill a sizable part of its sky with reflector. -- spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | |
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