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Why NASA Launched Millions of Tiny Copper Wires In Orbit

Posted by samzenpus on from the up-up-and-away dept.

coondoggie writes "Imagine 500 million short copper wires — no longer than the tip of your index finger — floating in space creating what amounts to an antenna belt that could be used to send messages and conduct other space communications research. That would describe the 1960s era Project Space Needles or Project West Ford as it was sometimes called that NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last undertook in 1963 which saw the blasting of millions of those copper hairs into space. NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office this month did a 'Where are they now' look at those copper wires and said that after 50 years, some of them indeed still make up a small amount of orbital debris."

10 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. dup by slew · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://slashdot.org/story/13/08/13/2022222/cold-war-plan-tried-to-put-a-copper-ring-around-the-earth

    1. Re:dup by worf_mo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Today must be Alzheimer's Day, the previous story was a dupe, too.

    2. Re:dup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Today must be Alzheimer's Day, the previous story was a dupe, too.

      Copper may play key role in Alzheimer's disease

      August 19, 2013|By Melissa Healy

      Copper, including trace amounts in water that passes through copper pipes like these, appears to cause a cascade of events that feeds the progression of Alzheimer's disease, a new study says.
      New research finds that copper in amounts readily found in our drinking water, the foods we eat and the vitamin supplements we take likely plays a key role in initiating and fueling the abnormal protein build-up and brain inflammation that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

      link:http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/19/science/la-sci-copper-alzheimers-disease-20130819

    3. Re:dup by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Today must be AIzheimer's Day, the previous story was a dupe, too.

    4. Re:dup by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      French toast please.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    5. Re:dup by gatzke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Back in the day, a story wasn't a story until it hit slashdot at least three times, a trupe.

      I still remember seeing a story duped on the front page just a couple of posts between the two, like the "editors" didn't even look at the site.

  2. Look up "Window" from WWII RAF tactics by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The RAF screwed up Nazi radar with "Window", which is the precursor of the NASA Project West Ford:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_(codename)

    --
    I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    1. Re:Look up "Window" from WWII RAF tactics by dargaud · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just made me waste 2 hours on wikipedia. Proud of yourself ?

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
  3. Re:More junk. by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, NASA spends millions every year monitoring debris (more commonly knows as space crap) and are worried that even a flake of paint can damage a space station because of its speed, and they deliberately put debris (crap) into space. Well done NASA.

    Do what I say not what I do.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. Re:More junk. by tinkerton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and they deliberately put debris (crap) into space

    Past tense. They put the copper in space 50 years ago.There's nothing hypocritical about it. The situation has changed. Attitudes have cahnged