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Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#21

Post by mhh__ »

pengaru wrote: post #17
mhh__ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sarcasm? Even uBeam does work, it's just not very efficient

I have no doubts beamed-power is possible, I just assume it's effectively an energy weapon and the real magic is at the receiving end harnessing the power without getting destroyed. But if you aim it somewhere other than the receiver, it's a weapon, no?

I'm not convinced. I forgot the exact numbers but when I was trying to look at studies 5G alarmists cite* with an open mind some Energy Densities in question (being applied to animal subjects) were stronger than standing in front of one of those enormous ballistic missile tracking phased arrays (Which given the subject of this thread are also used for tracking satellites)

* My absolute favourite one was "Sleeping next to a mobile phone is correlated with lack of sleep" hmmm I wonder why

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#23

Post by azernik »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #18

Sat here in lockdown, I have just rewatched Matt Damon's The Martian and yes, we want to go up and out. I am so glad someone is still trying. I am also blown away by the American Federal budget - this is a classified military space program . How much does one of those cost ?!

Not sure, but I would imagine it's less than you'd think.

The spaceplane was originally a NASA project that DoD picked up after most development was done, and it launches from commercial rockets (eg they've used SpaceX rockets to launch these before).

I would assume that the payload (experimental sensors and components, most likely) are more expensive than the amortized-per-mission cost of the vehicle.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#24

Post by pengaru »

mhh__ wrote: post #21
pengaru wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no doubts beamed-power is possible, I just assume it's effectively an energy weapon and the real magic is at the receiving end harnessing the power without getting destroyed. But if you aim it somewhere other than the receiver, it's a weapon, no?

I'm not convinced. I forgot the exact numbers but when I was trying to look at studies 5G alarmists cite* with an open mind some Energy Densities in question (being applied to animal subjects) were stronger than standing in front of one of those enormous ballistic missile tracking phased arrays (Which given the subject of this thread are also used for tracking satellites) * My absolute favourite one was "Sleeping nex…

> I'm not convinced. I forgot the exact numbers but when I was trying to look at studies 5G alarmists cite* with an open mind some Energy Densities in question (being applied to animal subjects) were stronger than standing in front of one of those enormous ballistic missile tracking phased arrays (Which given the subject of this thread are also used for tracking satellites)

Thank you for implicitly putting me in the company of 5G alarmists.

We're not talking about 5G here.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#25

Post by jacobush »

awinder wrote: post #22

One day after https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/12617475806665523... can’t be a coincidence right

Someone hacked my computer - it looks like the president of the United States of America is posting some kind of ironic meme video about himself on Twitter.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#26

Post by azernik »

awinder wrote: post #22

One day after https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/12617475806665523... can’t be a coincidence right

Probably is a coincidence - these launches are planned and contracted far in advance, and Trump didn't seem to care last time one was launched during his administration.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#28

Post by monocasa »

HenryKissinger wrote: post #6

> Mysterious US military aircraft launches > Mysterious US military aircraft Journalists need to stop using adjectives like "mysterious" when writing about the X-37B. While the aircraft's technology and missions are classified, there is nothing mysterious about the existence of the plane itself.

Even as far as classified launches go, it's pretty mysterious.

Like one of the other more recent launches was Intruder 8, a pair of satellites used by Naval signals intelligence to detect ships using time of arrival from radio transmissions.

Compared to that, what's the new mission of the X-37B? I'd say it's pretty mysterious.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#29

Post by azernik »

mhh__ wrote: post #15
shockinglytrue wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the frequency and consistency of narrative with which it appears in the press, at this stage I'm convinced it's an empty UAV used entirely for some marketing purpose

It's spending months in space, I don't think it's for marketing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j56s46e97Lo Based on what this talk indicates, the US Government is doing some questionable (...) things in terms of signals intelligence in space. We probably won't know what X37-B is doing in space for years but I imagine they will have at least tried to do some big brother exercises. The US/Western Intelligence communi…

They're doing some questionable sigint things I'm sure, but you don't need reentry and reusability for that. The most likely use-case is for testing components to use in conventional satellites.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#30

Post by azernik »

shockinglytrue wrote: post #5
chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Did this mission not transfer to the new Space Force? If not, what kind of things are they doing?

Given the frequency and consistency of narrative with which it appears in the press, at this stage I'm convinced it's an empty UAV used entirely for some marketing purpose

Most likely is for component testing - would explain the secrecy, the low flight rate, and the long (2 years or so) mission duration.

EDIT: And, in fact, the one publicly-released payload I'm finding was a test of a new heat pipe.

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