[Laser] Re: Satellite Bounce, Why Not??

[Tim Toast]

Hi mike,
i think one reason why-not, is most people don't have the
tracking mounts that can track the satellites via software 
as they speed overhead. Or they don't have a beam
divergence small enough to put most or all of their energy
on the target. I bet it would also need to be done while
the satellite is in darkness, - not that THAT has stopped
the RF people of course, active tracking or not. If the
satellite has an active optical repeater, all bets are off
though :) 

True, it is a lot closer than the moon - about 1/1000th the
distance. And 1/100th the distance of the geo-stationary
sats. I think if they can get near 100km via cloud bounce, 
then they might be able to get 1000km as well with just a
bit more trouble. About ten times the more trouble? 
I know with cloud bounce, it helps if the transmitter
illuminates the clouds near the receiver, so the last
bounce is a much shorter distance than halfway between the
two stations. Something similar might happen when a
satellite is overhead one of the stations (the receiving
one). So at worst you might have to put up with one way
transmissions?
I'm watching the balloon rising and getting smaller. but
it's still there i think.


----original message from Mike Couture mike1 at mgte.com-----


Hi Tim,

Like the subj says, "Satellite Bounce". Why can't we bounce
laser beams off discarded boosters and various space junk
to communicate with our "pals" across the pond? Talk about
a "record". 

I have Franklin Antonio InstantTrack satellite tracking
program and was playing around with it tonight and realized
we have some "artificial" moons orbiting the earth ALL the
time. This is MUCH closer than trying to bounce a laser
beam off the moon 234,000 miles away, don't you think? 

Far out? Well, yes, but then that's why they pay us the big
bucks. As an example COSMOS 482 D is a highly elipical
booster that orbits the earth and at times both east
coasters and some Europeans can see the satellite at the
same time, alibet in the 2 cases I tried only for 8 minutes
but the el angles were good enough for a quick bounce for
sure. (details that can be addressed later) Right now I'm
just floating a trial balloon. What do you think?

Mike C.
Milton, FL

(feel free to put up on the Laser site, my ISP is still
banned and I've tried 2 other 'paths' to get my msg up but
still have to go through bellsouth and hence, the tag
follows)




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