Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!teklds!mrloog!dant
From: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque;1893;92-101;)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Info wanted on Atlantis "secret" military satellite payload
Message-ID: <4272@teklds.CAE.TEK.COM>
Date: 10 Dec 88 04:40:58 GMT
References: <12418@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Sender: nobody@teklds.CAE.TEK.COM
Reply-To: dant@mrloog.LA.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque)
Organization: Scalp Tonic Interdiction Agency
Lines: 20

Phil Karn writes:
>in darkness, which would make a visible light satellite rather useless. A
>radar satellite, on the other hand, doesn't care if it's night or day on the
>ground. (But I'm sure the solar power availability and thermal control
>problems this orbit presents gave Lacrosse's designers some real headaches.)

Isn't a radar satellite fairly easy to jam?  Of course, you don't want to
jam just the areas around sensitive installations so you'd have to put
many 'dummy' jammers all over the place.  And the jamming would make it
difficult to operate other transmitters anywhere near the same frequency.

Or perhaps the purpose is not to look at specific installations but to map
approach routes for cruise missiles.

---
Dan Tilque	--	dant@twaddl.LA.TEK.COM

 "It's our fault.  We should have given him better parts."
			-- Jack Warner on hearing that Ronald Reagan
			    had been elected Governor of California.