Target practice for long range missiles and space based weapons would be my guess.
The Doomsday Machine ?
Christo !
Roads to no-where funded by Obama’s stimulus.
I find it interesting that (especially the second pic) the lines are perfectly straight despite the hills and valleys of the terrain. First thought was photoshop...
I was thinking about this yesterday, here’s my hypothesis:
I think the patterns are there to provide satellite positional information in the event other means of obtaining positional coordinates are unavailable. For instance a space based skirmish of some sort, or EMP related something or other, take out GPS capabilities.
The patterns could be read from orbit by an onboard computer, and their unique shape would provide a 360 degree, optical fix that could be read, like an iPhone reads one of those oddball square bar-codes.
Which incidentally, those shapes appear similar to.
/tinfoil
Consider, two of the sites (one not completed?) are bordered by an enclosing, nearly perfect rectangle. Engineering types love regularity and boundaries. (I know, I are one!)
At the resolution available on google maps, the marks appear to be cleared land, similar to that around the runways of the nearby airstrip. If you were testing a vehicle, you'd want (initially) a fairly well defined path, something that wouldn't confuse it's optical sensors/processing algorithms. You'd only want to deal with terrain. (at first)
Speaking of terrain... Note that many of the (apparently) cleared swaths follow (approximately) terrain features, while other seem to cross significant terrain.
So, maybe a training/test ground where they are trying to "teach" an autonomous navigation system to cross rough terrain while holding to a basic course line?
Of course the next question is, why? Why would the most populous Country be developing un-manned systems? It would seem they could get as many drivers as they wanted. Well, maybe supply isn't the problem, maybe the environment they are headed into is. Say, north, in the winter? If you were going to head north into Siberia after natural resources, if you were going to ensure your supply lines with minimal need to support the vehicle operators themselves... The only question is, will this be a commercial undertaking, or a military one?
Long/Lat coord.?
Mongolian Death Worm alert! Them boogers are getting smarter!
..war is war.....taking up time trying to figure out foolishness is time distracted from something serious...
Maybe the ‘patterns’ are the weapon...
A “QR code”? Maybe it’s an app. :-)