Movie of spy sattelite doing the dissapearing act.

[William Gaatjes]

The US satellite lacrosse 5 recorded while fading.
There are it seems a lot of rumors going about this satellite.
According to observers, the satellite seems to have the ability to become very faint in a few seconds. Masking it self within the darkness of space.
Perhaps it can turn and it has one side that hardly reflects any light or disperses the light in such a way that the satellite looks much fainter. And it has one side that is very reflective and therefore very bright as to create the illusion of "cloaking". If you cannot hide it, use confusion... Nature uses this trick all the time...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxtUcQ5t1gA


A little bit of background information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_(satellite)

Lacrosse 5:
Launch: April 30, 2005
Platform: Titan IV-B
Pad: Cape Canaveral
Orbital apogee/perigee/inclination: 718 × 712 km @ 57.0°
Mass: 16,000 kg
Status: In active service
NORAD Number: 28646 (USA 182) 2005-016A
Notes: Lacrosse 5 appears to differ somewhat from the previous four satellites. As determined by amateur observers, there are subtle differences in its orbit and its color is somewhat whiter than the distinct red-orange tint of the earlier ones. Most strikingly, it sometimes fades from brightness to invisibility within the space of a few seconds while still in full sunlight. (The amateurs call this rapid fade its "disappearing trick".)

 

[BoomerD]

That's just a normal progression from the black helicopters.

 

[Triumph]

Probably still highly visible in the IR spectrum.

 

[pontifex]

so in the OPs video i can see it clearly the entire time. yes it fades a little, but it doesn't disappear...

 

[Matthiasa]

Yeah definitely fail.

 

[SonicIce]

guess it's not regular tumbling then? i've seen satellites that tumble or flare up but didn't know any could do it intentionally.

 

[tboo]

That's just a normal progression from the black helicopters.

And the black vans.

 

[William Gaatjes]

guess it's not regular tumbling then? i've seen satellites that tumble or flare up but didn't know any could do it intentionally.

I would think so too. Even if it is not done on purpose as a means of camouflage, the satellite has solar panels. Those solar panels are not 100% absorbing and should reflect a bit of light down to earth when under the right angle. I am guessing here to be honest.

 

[mundane]

..

 

[William Gaatjes]

I'm inclined to believe it is just changing attitude, perhaps displaying a smaller profile at certain angles. The intent may or may not be lower visibility to certain observers.

I don't know the domain that well, but I thought the reaction wheels used a fair of bit of juice for their mechanical operations, limiting how frequently you could drastically change orientation. Electrical subsystems are outside my ken.

It is a rare occurrence that i can play the language nazi, but i think you mean altitude. 😛

 

[mundane]

..

 

[William Gaatjes]

Sorry, I don't think you can play it here 🙂. There may be some embedded typos elsewhere.

Reaction wheels are basically large disks mounted somewhere within the satellite frame. An electric motor drives them, allowing the satellite to change orientation (attitude). Think of an aircraft's pitch (up/down), yaw (heading control left/right) and roll. For their function, go back to Newton's laws - (paraphrasing) each action has an equal and opposite reaction. You spin this wheel to impose some angular velocity on the frame itself. When you have directional sensors mounted fixed relative to the platform axis, you need to physically changes the view angle.

This is in contrast to any thrusters/jets the platform has. Those are used *much* more sparingly, since they rely on fuel/reaction mass in order to operate, and it's not easy to fill the tank back up in space 🙂.

Reaction wheels only change attitude, and not the satellite's orbit. Once you have a GEO satellite in a stable orbit, you don't want to change the altitude.

Ah, thank you for the explanation, i should have known it was to good to be true.

But still :

😛

 

[WelshBloke]

What would be the point of this?

If its in orbit wouldn't it need to hidden all the time?
Arent orbital paths fairly easy to predict? (so you'd know where it was whether you could see it or not). You'd have to not know it was there in the first place for it to be hidden.

 

[mundane]

..

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you look at it too long or try to catch it with a telescope, the FBI vans will start gathering at your house. You must ignore it and not show any knowledge of it's existence.

 

[Ichinisan]

[Post # 14]
... I should be thankful they have not yet turned their Sauron-like unblinking eye to my post.

[Post # 15]

Coincidence? :hmm:

 

[Red Squirrel]

:sneaky::sneaky::sneaky: I see you!

 

[William Gaatjes]

There is always room for levity. And hey, it's the weekend 🙂.

If you want to practice your grammar correction, do a search for posts by Nemesis (or is it Nemesis1?). Those will either make your day, or cause your head to explode.

I have enough grammar correction for a day while correcting my own posts.
Sometimes i find type errors weeks later when a thread has been revived by another poster or myself...
🙂

This could have been me :

There are some technically-inclined people on the forums who could likely tear apart my explanation, so I should be thankful they have not yet turned their Sauron-like unblinking eye to my post.

Ha !

🙂