ULA’s Atlas V rocket is theNRO’s preferred method for sending satellites into low-Earth orbit. Patrick H. Corkery / United Launch Alliance
Popular Mechanics: Space Junk Could Provide a Perfect Hiding Spot for Tiny Spy Satellites
Han Solo hid the Millennium Falcon in a cloud of trash, and the same method could hide satellites in low-Earth orbit.
As long as we've been launching spy sats into space, we've been trying to find ways to hide them from the enemy. Now, thanks to the small sat revolution—and a growing amount of space junk—America has a new way to mask its spying in orbit.
One of the emerging trends of the 21st century is the shrinking size of space satellites, and the hope of replacing large spacecraft with constellations of smaller ones flying in lower orbits. It’s no secret that the same pattern holds true for spy sats. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has not been shy about funding small sat launchers to loft payloads into space—payloads that could hide amid the thousands of objects now in low-Earth orbit.
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WNU Editor: There are thousands of pieces of junk in space. It must be hard to track everything 24/7. A perfect place to hide something.
2 comments:
Not necessarily hard to track, but hard to discern. especially in a timely matter.
High powered discrimination radars are expense and relatively rare. Their time is very valuable. Why waste time trying to identify the specifics of random space junk when you can focus on it when it starts moving weirdly.
There are obvious holes in the logic, but that has been the standard for years.
But there are now attempts to clean up space junk.
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