I recently came across the following, which is found on p.30 of "Semi Annual History of the Directorate of Space, Period of 1 January 1971 - 30 June 1971" The paragraph, originally classified SECRET, was declassified on 10 March 1996. According to a correspondent who, to my amazement, knows about such stuff, the DoS was a component of the office of the USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Development (also known as DCS/D and later DSC/R&D), who was the Air Staff officer in charge of advanced development in the Pentagon.
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"The MIT Lincoln Laboratory is involved in a program to demonstrate the technology necessary to deploy a highly survivable satellite communication system for command and control of the SIOP forces. The effort is based upon the use of two satellites (LES-8 and LES-9) carefully designed (both electronically and physically) so that detection of the satellite presence is extremely difficult. The satellites would use satellite-to-satellite communications links and would permit two way communications between aircraft and surface forces on a global basis. The anticipated launch of LES-8/9 is in September 1974."
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"So that detection of the satellite presence is extremely difficult" is consistent with a rumor I'd heard earlier, that one of the two LESes was equipped with a plane mirror intended to send the line of sight of a terrestrial observer out into starry space.
It also represents the fifth or sixth confirmed or reasonably believable report of low-observable satellite studies, technology development efforts or actual programs stretching from the early 1960's to ca. 1990.
: I recently came across the following, which is found on p.30 of : "Semi Annual History of the Directorate of Space, Period of 1 : January 1971 - 30 June 1971" The paragraph, originally classified : SECRET, was declassified on 10 March 1996. According to a : correspondent who, to my amazement, knows about such stuff, the DoS : was a component of the office of the USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for : Development (also known as DCS/D and later DSC/R&D), who was the : Air Staff officer in charge of advanced development in the Pentagon.
: "So that detection of the satellite presence is extremely difficult" : is consistent with a rumor I'd heard earlier, that one of the two : LESes was equipped with a plane mirror intended to send the line of : sight of a terrestrial observer out into starry space.
: It also represents the fifth or sixth confirmed or reasonably : believable report of low-observable satellite studies, technology : development efforts or actual programs stretching from the early : 1960's to ca. 1990.
Were you familiar with some of the patent history? IIRC about 1971 was the filing datae for #6,107,952 titled "Crossed Skirt AntiRadar Screen Structure for Space Vehicles". I don't recall the inventor bu the assignee, according to my notes, is TRW. In the late 60s there were two systems patented that used "a plurality of overlapping biconvex lenses", one of them was inflatable. There were a couple of other patents cited, but I didn't look at them.
Dr. Keel of the University of Alabama sent me this interesting note in response to the LES-8/9 post. As his current Usenet access seems to be read-only, I'm posting the note for him, with his permission.
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This may tie into a story circulating in the astronomical community about the time I started grad school (1978), that the DoD had commissioned some astronomers (I seem to recall Texas, maybe Arizona) to take money to assist in developing cameras (this was pre-CCD) with the only string attached being that they had to use them a few times in trying to detect orbiting objects at supplied positions. The rumor was that the DoD was pleased with the results. Somehow I got the impression that low-observability measures included very elongated satellites in nice radial gravity-gradient orientations for minimal cross-section when closest, high parking orbits when not in intense use, and very dark surface colors (speculation at one point was that they were not only dark but had the residual colors of red dwarf stars).
sjfor...@Bayou.UH.EDU (Steven James Forsberg) wrote:
> : It also represents the fifth or sixth confirmed or reasonably > : believable report of low-observable satellite studies, technology > : development efforts or actual programs stretching from the early > : 1960's to ca. 1990. > Were you familiar with some of the patent history? IIRC > about 1971 was the filing datae for #6,107,952 titled "Crossed Skirt > AntiRadar Screen Structure for Space Vehicles". I don't recall the > inventor bu the assignee, according to my notes, is TRW. In the late > 60s there were two systems patented that used "a plurality of > overlapping biconvex lenses", one of them was inflatable. There were > a couple of other patents cited, but I didn't look at them.
In article <8s64ks$5h...@Masala.CC.UH.EDU>, sjfor...@Bayou.UH.EDU (Steven James Forsberg) wrote:
> Were you familiar with some of the patent history? IIRC > about 1971 was the filing datae for #6,107,952 titled "Crossed Skirt > AntiRadar Screen Structure for Space Vehicles". I don't recall the > inventor bu the assignee, according to my notes, is TRW. In the late > 60s there were two systems patented that used "a plurality of > overlapping biconvex lenses", one of them was inflatable. There were > a couple of other patents cited, but I didn't look at them.
Looking around a bit more, I found what appears to be a reissue of LockMart's basic patent on the HAVE BLUE/F-117 stealth technology, #5,250,950: http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=USRE036298__ .
The figures and much of the discussion use HAVE BLUE or something a lot like it as an illustration of the stealth design approach. Interestingly, though, both the original patent and the reissue start out with, "A vehicle in free space or air, with external surfaces primarily fashioned from planar facets."
But, if you look at #5,250,950, only aircraft-like applications were described. Those remain in the reissue, but a good many paragraphs describing general applications have been added. These would apply to non-airplanes and seem to have been censored in the original release of the patent.
