DARPA to deliver new telescope to Western Australia

[Occulta]

The Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) is designed to track space debris and small objects and is ready to be delivered to the Harold E Holt Naval Communication Station in Exmouth, Western Australia, where it will watch the sky of the Southern Hemispher.

Full story here (http://tinyurl.com/lwawdzm)

Chris

[gary]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the link to the interesting story.

[Occulta]

:thumbsup:

Wonder if Rob MacNaught will get asked to join the team??

[gary]

Hi Chris,

The sentence in the story "In addition, it will be used by astronomers to hunt for
asteroids and supernovae" caught my attention and I passed the link onto Rob.
Maybe there would be the occasional comet in there as well.

With its strong links to US DoD and the scope being sited at the Harold E Holt base,
there is also the possibility of some cloak and dagger.

When China used a ballistic missile to blow up one of its old weather satellites
in 2007, not only did it leave behind 5000 pieces of space shrapnel but it sparked
a reaction from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates which lead
them to announce the space debris tracking station for Exmouth.

By blowing up their own satellite, China was obviously sabre rattling and telling
the world that they can just as easily blow up your satellite too. Some might
suggest perhaps the hidden part of the bill for all those imported cheap Chinese
manufactured goods.

One thing is for sure is the amount of junk in space that has to be tracked is not
about to get less anytime soon.