[Laser] moon repeater

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:14:15 -0500

Firstly, the environmentalists (and, probably the astronomers and 
planetary geologists) would throw a fit (possibly even justified).
Nextly, persuading NASA to do anything is almost impossible without
an excessive amount of paperwork and an incredible delay.  
Thirdly, I'm not real sure it would even work, since the glass
microspheres might settle into the lunar dust and be obscured.

Here's an alternate idea (just so I don't come across as 
throwing cold water over everthing).  What are the possibilities
of making either a hot air or Helium balloon out of the 
movie screen material (the kind covered with the 
micro-retro-reflectors) and sending it up?  Would there be
enough reflectance off of it to bounce laser signals off of
it?  Would this have to be done during the day, or could it be
floated at night?  I know the FAA has some rather stringent
rules on size and weight of balloons and their launch requirements,
but, since this would be just a balloon with no payload (other than
the envelope), it might qualify for a night launch.  Maybe.
Aiming might be a problem, but, then again, a simple sweep might 
be able to find it.  

Dave
WA4QAL

> Message: 2
> From: "Steve Bailey" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [Laser] moon repeater
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 10:30:07 -0500
> Reply-To: [email protected]
> 
> I suppose one could lobby NASA to explode a large package of glass
> micro-spheres [the kind used in highway centerline paint] over the lunar
> surface.    -ka1rxx