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Post by evapodman on Aug 17, 2008 11:28:30 GMT -6
Ever since seeing 2001 I've alaways wondered about the size of the satellites and how they were boosted into orbit and other technical details.
I talked about this with Adam Johnson who has created the French and Chinese satellites and being with Locheed has access to a lot of of info about current technolgy and what can be done.
Therfore I have decided to created this thread where people can explore "what if questions" about the orbiting platforms.
My own opinion is that given the size of the satellites based on info from Adam that they had to be launched using a heavy lift rocket at least the size of a Saturn 1-B or a Russian Proton rocket and surrounded by an aeroshield.
Also they would be launched into a polar orbit similar to spy satellites that would put them over the same point of latitude in one complete orbit, i.e. an orbital peiod of one hour.
The American satellite was lifted into orbit using a cargo version of the Orion shuttle ( which someone has already done a model version of). It may have been launched from Vandenburg since this was the original site for miiltary shuttle launches.
On a little side note, in the Star Trek classic series the Enterprise went to Earth in the past to monitor the launch of a nuclear platform and met Gary Seven. In the 2001 universe could this have been the start of the orbital platforms seen in then movie?
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Post by lunadude on Aug 17, 2008 13:07:06 GMT -6
I totally agree with the polar orbit, for the military satellites. Polar orbits give full global coverage.
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Post by evapodman on Aug 18, 2008 15:34:12 GMT -6
Something else I have been thinking about. Some one proposed that the chinese satellite is really an energy weapon, possibly a particle beam generator designed to hit ground targets.
I think such a weapon would only be good against small hardened targets like missle silos or underground bunkers. Therefore I propose that the chinese satellite is really an anti-missile or anti-satellite satellite like in an SDI progragram.
I would be used against missiles in their boost phase when they are outside the atmosphere or against other orbiting nuclear platforms.
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Post by lunadude on Aug 20, 2008 10:54:47 GMT -6
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Post by evapodman on Aug 20, 2008 15:47:52 GMT -6
Cool! This the sort of stuff we need to see in this thread.
Although I would have imagined the French satellites being launched atop one of their own Ariane type rockets and unless that cargo bay is huge they seem to be undersized. Maybe they decided to sub-contract it oput to the russians.
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Post by Model Man on Aug 23, 2008 15:37:06 GMT -6
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Post by ajamodels on Aug 24, 2008 8:48:09 GMT -6
Interesting that a Soviet Space Shuttle is picking up a French Satellite! |
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Post by Model Man on Sept 4, 2008 12:12:15 GMT -6
The following blurb occured over in the german satellite kit thread, so I am reposting it here as it is relveant to the capapbilities of these satellites.
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From ajamodels:
There's alot of people out there who want to attach a scale to Sci-fi subjects, so to appease them: - all the satellite models kits are ABOUT 1/87th (HO) scale. the only vehicles in the movie that had a scale attached to them were the Discovery, EVA pod, and the Moonbus. All the rest were approximated.
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Post by evapodman on Sept 6, 2008 8:55:27 GMT -6
At a scale of 1/87 that make all the satellites freaking huge! We're talking about the size of the Skylab space station in size. That would definately reqire a huge booster to get it up into orbit.
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Post by Model Man on Sept 6, 2008 10:00:06 GMT -6
I should have also blurbed the following. odec.proboards83.com/index.cgi?board=kits&action=display&thread=67------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Research has shown these to be quite small, mostly in the 15 foot (or so) range. So, at this point my guess is they (referencing the un-filmed satellites Adam will be mastering) will be 4 - 6 inches long. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm thinking maybe the 15' was a typo. I was thinking that train boxcars were standard ~60' long. Don't remember how long an HO boxcar is, but it should be in the 6-8" area. If so, then the sats mentioned (and Adam could have been referencing the un-filmed satellites explicitly in that post and not including the 4 filmed) would be in the ~40' range for HO. At least, that's what my morning-adled brain is thinking. The overall sizes would definitely put limitations on their capabilities. The only real sat. I'm up on today is Cassini and that is only described as big as a 'small bus'. Galileo was similar? Ah memory! Why do you fail me now!!! |
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Post by evapodman on Sept 13, 2008 16:59:10 GMT -6
When I got home I put one of my little HO scale figures next to the French satellite and it was big!
In HO 1 foot is equal to 87 feet and a typical boxcar is in the 60- 70' range. The diameter of the french satellite looks like 15 plus feet.
If this is the size then a rocket on the oder of the Saturn V or the russian Proton would be needed. I don't know how big the US satellite is but I feel it is either smaller than the others or wasn't launched using a cargo version of the Orion shuttle.
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Post by sputnik on Nov 12, 2008 8:06:07 GMT -6
Interesting that a Soviet Space Shuttle is picking up a French Satellite! Dropping them off, actually. My fault, I'm afraid. I'm Sputnik, one of the authors of the "World of 2001" add-on for Orbiter, and the simple answer is...we (I) screwed up. We had the satellite meshes, but didn't know which went with which country. So, we guessed wrong. The next version will switch those around, and our primary reference is...this site! So thanks, everyone! We didn't have good scale information for the satellites, either. Ours are all designed to fit in the payload bay of an Orion III or Titov V, in some cases two (in one case, three) to a bay. Yes, the shuttles put them in polar orbit. If you haven't checked out Orbiter (http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html) or our "World of 2001" website (http://www.worldof2001.com), I recommend both. |
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Post by Model Man on Nov 18, 2008 1:31:11 GMT -6
Welcome aboard, Sputnik!
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