41
votes
Accepted
Does the International Space Station get TV?
More or less.
While the ISS is below the satellites use for TV transmissions, it is passing by so fast that the coverage will be highly intermittent, meaning that you would be able to watch a ...
- 12.6k
16
votes
Does the International Space Station get TV?
@Antzi's answer is right, but I'll add some context as a supplement.
While Doppler (mentioned there) might or might not be an issue for an off-the-shelf commercial satellite TV box (I don't know) it ...
- 149k
8
votes
What was the point of the laser reflectors which were placed on the Moon with the Apollo landings?
However, the second link doesn't mention anything about the purpose of this being to verify that humans landed on the Moon. It goes on to mention the year "1962", which is before any humans had ...
- 165k
7
votes
Does the International Space Station get TV?
Can the ISS get the new digital air TV or satellite TV...
As far as Digital over the air TV is concerned, it's the same as old-fashioned TV in that both are transmitted from terrestrial transmitters....
- 17.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Could Beresheet's retroreflector array (still) be used?
The final impact velocity of Beresheet with the lunar surface has been estimated as around 1000 meters per second, comparable to the muzzle velocity of a rifle bullet. While the impact was glancing, ...
- 2,715
6
votes
Accepted
How soon after "The Eagle" landed did they first attempt to bounce a laser off the Moon? When did it first succeed?
Apollo 11 retro reflector was placed on the Moon on 21 July 1969, the first successful use of the reflector was on August 1 and 3 by the Lick Observatory.
Returns were observed on August 20, ...
- 48.4k
5
votes
Does the International Space Station get TV?
It apparently is possible to watch TV on the ISS. Here is a picture of three astronauts aboard the ISS watching a live transmission of a football game from the FIFA world cup in 2014:
You might ...
- 9,306
5
votes
Accepted
Why do the LAGEOS' satellites have four germanium corner cube reflectors out of over 400?
D.A. Arnold "Optical and Infrared Transfer Function of the Lageos Retroreflector Array", 1978, NGR 09-015-002 (P179) confirms that they're for infrared measurements, and adds some interesting info:
...
- 12.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Planetary Society's LightSail Spacecraft's corner cube reflectors; how large, and corrected for aberration?
LightSail 1
7 cubes: 4 X 10mm diameter + 3 X 12.5mm diameter
https://ilrs.cddis.eosdis.nasa.gov/docs/2014/Appendix_forILRS_Form_20141217.pdf
LightSail 2
On LightSail 2, they added more corner cube ...
- 1,256
3
votes
What exactly is a "Next Generation Lunar Reflector"? Difference in design and performance?
Because it's bigger? Otherwise seems to be a standard corner reflector. Upon googling I came across this which gives a good description of the differences between the original and TNG reflectors. ...
- 1,221
3
votes
How soon after "The Eagle" landed did they first attempt to bounce a laser off the Moon? When did it first succeed?
The first use of LIDAR to measure the distance to the moon was in 1962, around seven years before Apollo 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment#Overview
http://adsabs....
- 516
3
votes
Accepted
How will The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 Spacecraft's retroreflectors be used?
This is an answer to "what ground station are they planning to use":
Tracking LightSail 2 will be done by International Laser Ranging Service, or ILRS.
The ILRS consists of about 40 laser ...
- 123k
3
votes
Accepted
How will the corner cube retroreflector array be used on Sentinel 3B?
That is definitely the Laser Retro Reflector (LRR). They are used to provide very precise ranging information. The Sentinel 3 LRR is a hemisphere of 7 corner cube reflectors on the Earth-facing side ...
- 6,417
1
vote
Accepted
Could Schiaparelli's retroreflector array (still) be used?
Probably not. As mentioned in the comment by @OrganicMarble, Schiaparelli fell without propulsion or parachutes for several kilometers and left a "crater" or at least a significant depression in the ...
- 149k
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