Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 ...the idea of steerable reflectors in LEO to light areas during the night when required? I was just reading an article in the Houston Communist this morning about a Norwegian town that installed several large reflectors on a hilltop to put direct sunlight on the main street during the long winter period when the sun doesn't get up very high there. Reminded of discussions of placing large, steerable reflectors to beam down sunlight on areas below when light was needed at night. These would be very light material, not large constructions. Just a frame to hold mylar or similar light, highly reflective material. For some uses where you want some light all the time they need not even be steerable. You'd think DOD would have pursued this relatively easy concept as it would allow them to light up anywhere there was trouble or they needed to observe at night. Never heard of any real technical issues with the concept, but it's just never happened. Saturday musings... Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 We OWN the night; better to see when others can not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) Not so much when an airliner goes down in the mountains or when an hurricane strikes on the coast. After Ike, it was just DARK here for days. As to DOD, what about the simple psychological power of lighting up the enemies camp or night time movements? Dave Edited January 25, 2014 by Mallette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Better to light them up with tracers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Better to light them up with tracers Pretty poor military strategy compared to winning without having to fire a shot. See Sun Tzu, "The Art of War." Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Have a Masters degree in Armor & a nice translation of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) Have a Masters degree in Armor & a nice translation of the book Read it... Might prevent you from needing to use the armor. Actually, given the walking away from high technology over the past few years I rather wonder how much faith we can have in "owning the night" or any other technology at this point. Just in patent applications alone the shift to other countries over the past decade is rather frightening. That aside, consider the advantages for a lot of industries. Disney, for example, could use one that toggled between the location of Disney World Florida and the one in Japan to both greatly reduce power usage as well as light things nicely. Probably even cheaper if various businesses shared usage. Actually, a company could operate one "on demand" for whoever needed it if it was fully steerable. Compared to a communications satellite, this is easy, light, dumb technology. I remember how bright and easy to see Echo 1 was in 1960. It was 100 feet in diameter and round...which, of course, cause the light to be diffused in all directions. It only weighed 397 pounds at launch. Nonetheless, it was brilliant as it crossed the night sky. Dave Edited January 25, 2014 by Mallette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 t ... I was just reading an article in the Houston Communist this morning ... Pardon a West Coast question, but The Houston Communist? Is that a newspaper? I Googled it and found some Communist organizations down there, but not a newspaper ... I seen to remember someone raising the question as to whether if such a device malfunctioned, it would make Toasty Taters of New Jersey. I see you have the Hafler DynaQuad 4 channel passive phase recovery system. I used to have one that produced amazing effects, including the misperception that someone was rattling the windows behind me. It was pretty spooky late at night -- not a lot of light out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) Pardon a West Coast question, but The Houston Communist? A joke. It's the Houston Chronicle, but well left of Texas politics. Really doesn't bother me as I am left, right, and center when it comes to one thing or the other but many here refer to it that way. I seen to remember someone raising the question as to whether if such a device malfunctioned, it would make Toasty Taters of New Jersey. I suppose it's conceivable to build one of these as a cheap weapon. It's believed by many Archimedes set the Persian fleet afire in 216 BC using mirrors from the land. However, a flat reflector couldn't do this any more than a flat mirror. I suspect some degree of concave would be sensible to focus more light...but unless you had exactly the right and extreme concavity to focus precisely "toasting" anything would be impossible. I've been running DynaQuad since around 1975 or so and find a system without it to be rather dimensionless. Yes, you can get some rather startling effects. Just yesterday I was playing my 1965 Best of Louis Armstrong LP and he always appears very spookily to my left when he sings. Makes one look in that direction as it's very palpable. This is almost certainly a two mike, single point recording and my bet would be he was off to the left and there was a boundary wall there that returned a slightly delayed response that is, of course, out of phase. There's a few of us around. Neil (Dizrotus) is a new convert. Of course, the purists shout "processing!" but it is not. Simply sending existing information to where it should be. Of course, it is not accurate on highly mixed and multi-miked recordings...but then they are not "accurate" by definition as acoustic time/space events so that's fine and can be marvelous as with Parsons, Pink Floyd, Firesign Theatre (awesome!) and such. Dave Edited January 25, 2014 by Mallette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Dan Jenkins was a pioneer in satirizing newspaper names. (Went to Texas Christian so the legacy continues) Star-Telegram was the light and shopper. Morning news some of us call the morning snooze. Record Chronicle becomes the chronic record. Is this just a Texas thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 NO, the Atlanta Journal & Constitution is called Urinal & Constipation, et Cetera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxx Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Pardon a West Coast question, but The Houston Communist? Is that a newspaper? As Dave stated, that's a joke. Just like we in Dallas have the Dallas Morning Astonisher (News) or in Fort Worth the Fort Worth Startlegram (Star Telegram). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 We call our company magazine the "Snivelers Gazette." Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Boxx, read your Dan Jenkins. It's the light and shopper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Just like we in Dallas have the Dallas Morning Astonisher (News) or in Fort Worth the Fort Worth Startlegram (Star Telegram). When I lived there I referred to it as the Dallas Moaning Nudes. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Yet there were never nudes in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Dave I wonder if the snivelling gazette is as informative as the sky turd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxx Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Yet there were never nudes in it. If there had been, I would of found them..... lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Stay thirsty my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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