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Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

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Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#51

Post by noir_lord »

Swizec wrote: post #48
grkvlt wrote: post #45

Also interesting are the resolution targets, using sets of black and white bars at varying widths in both X any X orientation, to determine the spatial resolution i.e. how high frequency a component could still be imaged separately as lines, similar to TV test cards. These are discussed in various blogs [1][2] with some amazing picures. I think these were for both satellite imaging and spy-plane (U2 and SR-71 plus le…

Future archeologists are going to have so much fun with these. They're not gonna say it's aliens, but it'll def have been aliens.

It would be kinda fun to do these crazy scale things and have no reason to do them with the intention that our distant ancestors will be as confused as hell but then I look around at the modern world and think they'll no doubt think that anyway.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#52

Post by CoryOndrejka »

My dad was project photogrammetrist on Corona when he worked at Itek in the 60s. Lots of stories around focus and aiming challenges, since Corona was used to build maps of inaccessible regions of the world (e.g. Soviet Union ICMB sites). Focus targets gave high contrast, known images to detect what kind of focus problems were being encountered -- ranging from image smear from forward motion compensation failing or stretching the film; film sticking, stretching and/or lifting off of the focal plane; star camera inaccuracies; thermal distortion of camera, spacecraft, star camera, or film; etc. A few good books on Corona (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-histor...) and Itek (https://books.google.com/books/about/Spy_Capitalism.html) out there. Same teams worked on subsequent KH projects (Gambit, Hexagon/Big Bird/BMF), as well as Apollo and Viking camera systems.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#53

Post by Swizec »

noir_lord wrote: post #51
Swizec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Future archeologists are going to have so much fun with these. They're not gonna say it's aliens, but it'll def have been aliens.

It would be kinda fun to do these crazy scale things and have no reason to do them with the intention that our distant ancestors will be as confused as hell but then I look around at the modern world and think they'll no doubt think that anyway.

If you're into that kind of stuff, read Mark Lawrence's books. It's set in post-modern times where our civilization is known as The Builders. Complete with ghosts coming out of unintelligible machines and talking about how stupid everyone is these days.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#55

Post by toomanybeersies »

grkvlt wrote: post #45

Also interesting are the resolution targets, using sets of black and white bars at varying widths in both X any X orientation, to determine the spatial resolution i.e. how high frequency a component could still be imaged separately as lines, similar to TV test cards. These are discussed in various blogs [1][2] with some amazing picures. I think these were for both satellite imaging and spy-plane (U2 and SR-71 plus le…

Those tri-bar patterns are fascinating. I'd imagine that American surveillance equipment would be able to discern all but the smallest couple of squares.

They'd easily be able to read registration numbers on aircraft, probably almost be able to discern specific small arms (e.g. count the number of RPGs and AK-47s sitting on some tarmac somewhere). Amazing.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#56

Post by c0rtex »

okket wrote: post #13

The in the story linked movie about the Corona Project is an amazing document of history. https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.1678526

Same thing on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3bzHk_6yHM For those who like to watch at 2x.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#57

Post by initram »

Anyone know what's nearby there at about (32.92669, -111.922201)[0]? It looks like some sort of strip mine a few hundred feet to the north, so I assume it's related, but was just curious what it is. It looks like a painting!

[0] http://maps.apple.com/maps?ll=32.926699,-111.822201&spn=0.00...

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#58

Post by thwarted »

initram wrote: post #57

Anyone know what's nearby there at about (32.92669, -111.922201)[0]? It looks like some sort of strip mine a few hundred feet to the north, so I assume it's related, but was just curious what it is. It looks like a painting! [0] http://maps.apple.com/maps?ll=32.926699,-111.822201&spn=0.00...

Looks like some kind of debris pile, perhaps from the mine. The corners are angled like it's building up to an eventual truncated pyramid shape, and the one in the upper left looks higher, and "finished" compared to the other three. There's a similar pile that isn't laid out as a square just south of the mine, you can see the multiple layers getting smaller as it gets higher.

Re: Decades-Old Mystery Put to Rest: Why Are There X's in the Desert?

#60

Post by dsl »

dredmorbius wrote: post #18

The Corona project. A/K/A the KeyHole satellites. If my count is right, 135 satellite launches, though not all were successful. Fun fact: this was the early 1960s. CCD technology and IP transmission bitrates were a bit primitive[1], so the film cameras would eject capsules after they'd been shot, which would re-enter the atmosphere and be recovered, most through mid-air retrieval. The project was active from 1959 to…

KEYHOLE the compartmentalization for all satellite sourced intelligence products, not a specific program (like CORONA, CRYSTAL, TOPAZ, etc)
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