Sunday, December 23, 2012

FOBS - Fractional Orbital Bombardment System

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24-3-6 Increasing Possibility of War in Space - Wendover > .



The Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) was a nuclear-weapons delivery system developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union. One of the first Soviet efforts to use space to deliver weapons, FOBS envisioned launching nuclear warheads into low Earth orbit before bringing them down on their targets.

Like a kinetic bombardment system but with nuclear weapons, FOBS had several attractive qualities: it had no range limit, its flight path would not reveal the target location, and warheads could be directed to North America over the South Pole, evading detection by NORAD's north-facing early warning systems.

The maximum altitude would be around 150km. Energetically, this would require a launch vehicle powerful enough to be capable of putting the weapon 'into orbit'. However the orbit was only a fraction of a full orbit, not sustained, and so there would be much less need to control a precise orbit, or to maintain it long term.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Космодро́м Байкону; Kosmodrom Baykonur) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to Russia.

The Cosmodrome is the world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches and the largest (in area) operational space launch facility. The spaceport is in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya. It is near the Tyuratam railway station and is about 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level. Baikonur Cosmodrome and the city of Baikonur celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the foundation on 2 June 2018.

The spaceport is currently leased by the Kazakh Government to Russia until 2050, and is managed jointly by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the Russian Aerospace Forces.

The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres (56 mi) east–west by 85 kilometres (53 mi) north–south, with the cosmodrome at the centre. It was originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s as the base of operations for the Soviet space program. Under the current Russian space program, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with numerous commercial, military, and scientific missions being launched annually. All crewed Russian spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.

Both Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur. The launch pad used for both missions was renamed Gagarin's Start in honor of Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pilot of Vostok 1 and first human in space.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Geosynchronous SAR satellite

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23-8-20 Xina's geosynchronous L-band synthetic aperture radar satellite - Binkov > .

GPS - Global Positioning Systems

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24-6-28 Disabling Ruscian GLONASS (GPS) satellites - Binkov > .23-8-3 The geopolitical space race – Tim Marshall - Ri > .Unexpected Ways Scientists Use GPS - SciShow > .


GPS - Global Positioning Systems ..

The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. Obstacles such as mountains and buildings block the relatively weak GPS signals.

The GPS does not require the user to transmit any data, and it operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. The GPS provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.

The GPS project was started by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1973, with the first prototype spacecraft launched in 1978 and the full constellation of 24 satellites operational in 1993. Originally limited to use by the United States military, civilian use was allowed from the 1980s following an executive order from President Ronald Reagan. Advances in technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to modernize the GPS and implement the next generation of GPS Block IIIA satellites and Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX). Announcements from Vice President Al Gore and the Clinton Administration in 1998 initiated these changes, which were authorized by the U.S. Congress in 2000.

During the 1990s, GPS quality was degraded by the United States government in a program called "Selective Availability"; this was discontinued on May 1, 2000 by a law signed by President Bill Clinton.

When selective availability was lifted in 2000, GPS had about a five-meter (16 ft) accuracy. The latest stage of accuracy enhancement uses the L5 band and is now fully deployed. GPS receivers released in 2018 that use the L5 band can have much higher accuracy, pinpointing to within 30 centimeters (11.8 in).

The GPS service is provided by the United States government, which can selectively deny access to the system, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 during the Kargil War, or degrade the service at any time. As a result, several countries have developed or are in the process of setting up other global or regional satellite navigation systems:

Thursday, December 20, 2012

ISS 2022+

22-4-13 Impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on International Space Station - Vox > .

ISS - International Space Station


Space Races - Tzu >> .

Geopolitics Podcast: Outer Space & the New Cold War
00:30 Russia-China Lunar Base Partnership
04:34 Cooperation in Outer Space: Private Players?
06:45 Democratization of Outer Space: other actors
09:43 Four Dimensional Geopolitics in the 21st Century
12:37 Return of the New Cold War


ISS - International Space Station ..
Tiangong LMSS - Chinese Space Station 
Warfare in Space ..

The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields. The ISS is suited for testing the spacecraft systems and equipment required for possible future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

The ISS programme evolved from the Space Station Freedom, an American proposal which was conceived in 1984 to construct a permanently manned Earth-orbiting station, and the contemporaneous Soviet/Russian Mir-2 proposal with similar aims. The ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian SalyutAlmaz, and Mir stations and the U.S. Skylab. It is the largest artificial object in space and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit, regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth's surface. It maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi) by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda Service Module or visiting spacecraft. The ISS circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.

The station is divided into two sections: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is operated by Russia, while the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) is run by the United States as well as many other nations. Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ROS through 2024, having previously proposed using elements of the segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK. The first ISS component was launched in 1998, and the first long-term residents arrived on 2 November 2000 after being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 31 October 2000. The station has since been continuously occupied for 20 years and 179 days, the longest continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by the Mir space station. The latest major pressurised module, Leonardo, was fitted in 2011 and an experimental inflatable space habitat was added in 2016. Development and assembly of the station continues, with several major new Russian elements scheduled for launch starting in 2021. As of December 2018, the station is funded only until 2025 and may be de-orbited in 2030.

The ISS consists of pressurised habitation modules, structural trusses, photovoltaic solar arraysthermal radiatorsdocking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. Major ISS modules have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets and US Space Shuttles. The station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: the Russian Soyuz and Progress, the SpaceX Dragon 2, the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Cygnus, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, and, formerly, the European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and SpaceX Dragon 1. The Dragon spacecraft allows the return of pressurised cargo to Earth, which is used, for example, to repatriate scientific experiments for further analysis. As of November 2020, 242 astronauts, cosmonauts, and space tourists from 19 different nations have visited the space station, many of them multiple times; this includes 152 Americans, 49 Russians, 9 Japanese, 8 Canadians, and 5 Italians.

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...