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Amateurs Spy On US Spy Plane
arshadk writes with this excerpt from Wired's Danger Room: "The X-37B has generated intense interest, long before it ever left the ground. Boeing originally developed the 29-foot unmanned craft — a kind of miniature Space Shuttle — for NASA. Then, the military took over in 2004, and the space plane went black. Its payloads were classified, its missions hush-hush. ... You can even see the space plane for yourself: The X-37B is traveling in a slightly elliptical orbit more than 200 miles up, swooping from 43 degrees north latitude to 43 degrees south."
Of course there are other things which seem so much easier for the military (like sending what are basically space telescopes when the scientific community have to share just a few).
Something tells me those 'basically space telescopes' have more specialized purposes that make them not so useful to the scientists -- and the government deems national security a few notches in importance above providing scientists resources to make observations.
I suppose... private industry could pitch in and build more telescopes for the scientists, if there's money to be made in it...... E.g. renting out access hours to telescopes to professional (and amateur) astronomers.
If it's gold bricks, then they are measured in Troy tons which are lighter than standard avoirdupois units. Thus the ton of feathers would be heavier.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
A matte black satellite against the black background of space is going to be hard to spot.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
A Molniya orbit has the disadvantage that the apogee is over the area you want to watch. The X-37B seems to prefer being quite low; I do not believe you could construct a useful Molniya orbit with such a low apogee. At perigee it would be extremely low and quite fast, which means lots of air resistance.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
Like the SR-71, no information is worse than a little info -- So they released inaccurate info to sate the interested parties, best of both worlds.