[atomic conspiracy]

Bruce is the Arch-Druid of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, aka GnawAn'Pis. He hits all the right notes for his luddite eco-wacky audience: "space pollution", militarization, corporate profits.

[ColoradoAce]

While I disagree with a bulk of the article.......there is a point to be made about space juck. It is really becoming a problem and must be addressed. Any thoughts?

[Leatherneck_MT]

"The time as certainly come for a global discussion about how we treat the sensitive environment called space before it is too late. "

I love how these nitwit no nothings use terms such as "Sensitive environment called space". The amount of DAMAGE we could to to space if we all got together and TRIED, wouldn't amount to a fart in a hurricane.

[_Jim]

We've all probably heard about the growing problem of space junk where over 100,000 bits of debris are now tracked on the radar screens at NORAD in Colorado as they orbit the earth ..

It's really time to put this old saw about 'tracking debris on radar screens at NORAD' to rest; space debris, including any earth orbiting object is actually detected and logged by this network:

US Naval Space Command Space Surveillance System, or NAVSPASUR for short.

Official website:

www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/spasur_at.htm

Plain language interpretation of above (including pictures of the approximately two mile long transmitting antenna):

www.zilker.net/~crossley/NAVSPASUR/how.html

The short story:

How NAVSPASUR Works

The transmitters all operate at 216.98MHz CW (continuous wave), and have phased-array antennae aligned perpendicular to the great circle of the transmitter sites, approximately north-south. This creates a narrow fan beam perpendicular to the Earth's surface. The Lake Kickapoo transmitters form the most powerful CW station on earth, at 768kW radiated power.

The receiver sites also use phased array antennae. The phased array elements are oriented perpendicular to the fan beam great circle (approximately north-south), and there are two such antennae separated along the great circle, approximately in the east-west direction. Separate but phase-locked receivers provide interferometric measurements between the two arrays. The receivers cover the frequency range 216.965-216.995 MHz, implying the expected range of Doppler shifts is +/- 15kHz.

Each receiver site can generate the two angular measurements to define a line from the receiver site to the point where an object passed through the beam. Measurement sets from two receiver sites can be combined to define the point where the object passed through the beam.

Using its north-south phased array antennas, each receiver can also generate the north-south angle change rate of an object passing through the width of the beam.

The time of arrival of a reflection is also measured, and also its Doppler shift. Combined with the north-south angle change rate, these data enable derivation of all three orbital velocity vector components provided the orbital body reflection is recorded by at least two receiving stations.

This network, or one like it, as descibed here:

www.spaceweather.com/glossary/nasameteorradar.html

can also be used to actually listen to meteor showers (actually, the doppler shifted reflected RF energy they reflect back to earth) ...

It is also possible to hear 'refections' using the NAVSPASUR system as desribed here:

Amateur Reception of NAVSPASUR Returns

It is possible to receive the return signals from bodies passing through the NAVSPASUR fan beam, given adequate equipment in an appropriate location.

The receiver must provide single-side-band mode, and cover the 216.98MHz frequency. A receiver reported to accomplish this is the ICOM R8500, but it seems likely that the Icom PCR1000 would be adequate, much less expensive, and more suited to integration into the system proposed below. Communications receivers and good quality scanners from other manufacturers provide equivalent performance.

[hinckley buzzard]

"Of course this means that after the taxpayer paid all the R & D, private industry now intends to gorge itself in profits."

I certainly hope so. Can't think of a more legitimate, democratic and socially responsible outcome.

[af_vet_rr]

The people like the Rutans of today, are the ones that made this country what it is (which many liberals don't like). We've seen how NASA has been run into the ground because of a lack of clear goals and politician/bureaucratic interference, and this reflects the government as a whole. Private corporations are where it's at - people risking their own money are going to make much smarter decisions than any government entity.

If liberals ran everything, we'd probably still be living in caves and grunting to one another about the harmful effects of this thing that is a reddish/yellowish color, flickers, creates pollution, and turns things into ash.

[Publius6961]

Three major issues come immediately to mind concerning space privatization. Space as an environment, space law, and profit in space.

This should have been the end of the article.
None are valid questions, except to the dyed-in-the-wool Fascist, in the political sense of the word (not in the sense that Bevis and Butthead talk radio uses it.

Earth "environment" is a bogus debate topic, doubly so "space".
Profit in space hurts whom? How? Redistribution and class warfare in a new clown suit. Space law has as much relevance as "internationa law"; in other words, none at all.

[anymouse]