[Laser] moon repeater

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:28:20 -0500

You might want to look at the Peacestar project web site:
http://www.thepeacestar.org.  The ultimate goal is to launch an Echo style
balloon satellite -- no reason you couldn't bounce your lasers off it!

(The Grosse Pointe Academy, my school, is a sponsor of the project.)

73,
Robert
KC8UCH

>-----Original Message-----
>From: WA4QAL [mailto:[email protected]]
>Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 9:14 AM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [Laser] moon repeater
>
>
>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
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