Very true. AND it's resolution is far worse that optical imaging. What does THAT tell you?

It tells me that I'd like to see the source for your claim about it being able to "read" a license plate on the moon.

I can't find it. It's probably still classified. I did manage to find the info on Cobra Dane, the radar that watches Russia. I've been to and actually seen this radar...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Dane



I was stationed in Attu, Alaska in 78, and this radar was on Shemya Island, 42 miles away. Any time we needed dental work we went to Shemya. We didn't have any dentists, but Shemya AFB did.
I learned about the one in Florida from these guys.

They said Cobra Dane could pick out a foil covered basketball, 7000 miles away, but that it was nothing compared to the one in xxxxxxx, Florida which could read a license plate on the moon.

I'd be surprised if Cobra Dane could detect that 7000 miles away. With the frequency range given that's a very long shot. That's the distance from London to Buenos Aires. And there's another couple of orders of magnitude with regards to the moon. The wavelengths required to get any decent imaging requires quite the huge fucking installation if you want enough accuracy to read a license plate.

Cobra Dane, which can see the foil covered basketball 7000 miles away....is huge. It's like 100+ feet tall. And similar dimension wide. Btw, Russia in like 7000 miles wide (east to west) Shemya Island was 100 miles from Russia.

As for the license plate on the moon radar... I only know of it from talk from the Cobra Dane guys. I even know what city it's in in Florida, and I can find anything about it.



Closet thing I could even find regarding ranging the moon was this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment


Accuracy of .25 mm... and they expect to get 100X the accuracy in 2020.

This post was edited by Ghot on Sep 3 2019 12:16pm

The lunar ranging info has been around for years, but it's measuring distance, not rendering imagery.

100+ feet tall isn't very big when you're talking about RADAR astronomy. I mean, you can do a lot of cool shit with phased array systems, but they have their inherent physical limitations. They're tied to the individual antenna sizes. Adding to that the placement of it in Florida makes it very unlikely to get any clear pictures due to atmospheric interference. If you want good imaging they'd have plonked it on top of Mt. Rainier. The license plate on the moon claim is likely just bragging by the Cobra Dane guys.

Even NASA's LRO, which doesn't have to get imaging through the atmosphere (which fucks with imagery in a very big way), only has a max resolution of 2m on the moon. ( http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/images/gigapan/ ).

Yes, and license plates are "stamped" out of a piece of metal, which would make the letters closer to you than the background. It's a "range" thing not a visual thing. I mean that's what radar is all about... range.


As for NASA's LRO....

The Air Force claims it is the only phased array radar that can track spacecraft in deep space, can detect an object the size of a basketball out to geosynchronous orbit, 35,700 km in space, and is the most powerful radar in the world.
Elgin AFB Florida.

Look guys... this was 40 years ago. 1978 to be exact. I tend to believe the Cobra Dane guys...they had some awesome shyt on that base.



/e But the real issue hear is Trump and his satellite photo. And like I was saying... it's a big nothing burger.

This post was edited by Ghot on Sep 3 2019 01:34pm

so the radar can pick up the 1/32" relief of a plate on the moon, in the 70s?

is that the tl;dr of the bullshit here?

None of it answers the question if he would have the same view on the situation if Barack Obama had done the same. I would, because I'm actually consistent.