X-37B landed Friday

So, Jim -- what's the mission of this thing?
--
Jay Honeck
Port Aransas, TX
Pathfinder N56993


On Dec 4, 6:09*pm, wrote:
Mark. wrote:
On Dec 4, 1:54*pm, wrote:
Mark. wrote:
On Dec 4, 9:26*am, "Mark." wrote:
http://news.discovery.com/space/secr...ds-in-californ...

"Shrouded by darkness, the military’s miniature space shuttle -- a
unmanned robotic craft -- returned early Friday from a trial run in
orbit that spanned 224 days."

---
Mark IV

"Rather than hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells like the space shuttle
orbiters, the X-37B is powered by gallium arsenide solar cells with
lithium-ion batteries."

WHAT DID THEY JUST SAY? *Now they're
using solar cells and lithium-ion batteries?!

Who predicted that?

Since spacecraft have been using solar cells and rechargable batteries for
about a half a century now, it would be hard to say who predicted such a
thing.

Though your dim little mind probably thinks they are running the engines
of a spacecraft with electricity.

OPERATIVE PHRASE:

"Rather than hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells like the space shuttle
orbiters,"

(other reply is ari-troll, not me)

---
Mark IV

It is a military project, which means the goals, conciderations, design
contraints, economics, and everything else has little in common with a
civilian project.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Jay Honeck wrote:
So, Jim -- what's the mission of this thing?

The offical mission is to "demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space
test platform for the U.S. Air Force".

http://www.af.mil/information/factsh...asp?fsID=16639


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

On 12/4/2010 9:44 PM, Jay Honeck wrote:
So, Jim -- what's the mission of this thing?
--
Jay Honeck

That's a leading question - which you will not find answered definitively.
The vessel has however changed orbit several times, so exercising the
ready reconnaissance mode is a fair bet. Another likely objective
was to find how long it was reasonable to expect a mission to last.
There was a suggestion of "up to nine months" at one point.
Then there's the "check out the other guys' satellites."
(Yep, the military DOES watch the movies - including Bond, James Bond,
and the satellite that swallows satellites.)
Last but not least, porting a high power laser weapon into orbit for trials.

Brian W