Amateur Astronomer Discovers Long-Dead NASA Satellite Has Come Back To Life (behindtheblack.com) 62
schwit1 shares a report from Behind The Black: In his hunt to locate Zuma, an amateur astronomer has discovered that a long-dead NASA satellite, designed to study the magnetosphere, has come back to life. IMAGE went dead in 2005, and though NASA thought it might come back to life after experiencing a total eclipse in 2007 that would force a reboot, no evidence of life was seen then. It now appears that the satellite came to life sometime between then and 2018, and was chattering away at Earth waiting for a response. NASA is now looking at what it must do to take control of the spacecraft and resume science operations. Zuma is the secret U.S. government payload that was launched by SpaceX earlier this month and reportedly lost. As for why Scott Tilley -- the amateur radio astronomer -- decided to have a look for the present of secret military satellites, Ars Technica reports that he apparently does this semi-regularly as a hobby and, in this case, was inspired by the Zuma satellite.
Interesting find (Score:5, Informative)
This is a very interesting find.
Apparently NASA will try to contact [satobs.org] the satellite using the Deep Space Network, and assess it's condition.
Right now JPL is in the process of digging up the 13-year old "owner's manual" :-)
Re:Night and day (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Special agent Jack Bauer will probably want to ask him is frequently asked questions of "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!?" and "WHERE ARE THE WMDS!?"
Re: Interesting find (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Imagine the thrill (Score:1)
So Zuma has been found... (Score:1)
Okay, I'm tired. I need sleep. (Score:5, Funny)
I totally misread the headline and thought WTF?
I first read the headline as: Amateur astronomer discovered long dead by NASA satellite brought back to life.
Re:Okay, I'm tired. I need sleep. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think we just discovered the oldest human fossil outside Africa.
Re: (Score:3)
Interesting stealth (Score:4, Funny)
So, you "lose" your stealth satellite and then suddenly find one that has been dead for over a decade...
It would likely cost very little more to add the functions of an old satellite to your new stealth satellite's capabilities and duplicate its signals. The real data could be getting sent by laser or other less detectable means. Just saying.
Re: Interesting stealth (Score:4, Insightful)
The defining characteristic of conspiracy theorists is that they never try to falsify their own ideas.
Re: Interesting stealth (Score:2)
Re: Interesting stealth (Score:2)
If you don't at least try to falsify it you can't possibly know that you're right.
he was thinking out loud (Score:1)
jeez man, he was thinking out loud, does he have to preverify check every thought before posting on here?
Then most posts would be dead boring, like this...
Had a thought, but its probly wrong... so I will abort my comment and just say...... :thumbsup:
Re: (Score:2)
The internet would be a better place if people thought about things before they posted them, yes.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The one they found isn't "stealth" if that's what's confusing you... the one they "lost" was. Detecting satellites that aren't pinging is ~impossible for now.
"It would likely cost very little more to add the functions of an old satellite to your new stealth satellite's capabilities and duplicate its signals" - oh, ok, you're crazy, I see. That's false in every respect, none the least of which is orbit.
Re: (Score:2)
The real data could be getting sent by laser or other less detectable means. Just saying.
The tech to do that reliably was only recently invented, in the last ten years in fact IIRC. So probably not. Just saying.
The reason things are kept secret is, *always* ... (Score:3, Insightful)
... that you will not like what you’d hear.
That is either because you want to oppress the bearer of the secret,
or because he wants to harm you.
Which might both be true at the same time, depending on the perspective.
I'd say it's pretty clear cut in everything related to spying though.
Because an enemy is just an ally you failed to win over.
Which might be, that he's not only a dick to you, but that you're just as much a dick to him, making you exactly the same. (Yep, including the "But my side is more righteous! And he did it first!” arguments. They all believe that.)
(Or it might be that they're mentally ill... like religious or following any -ism. But so might you. Because the problem with that state is, that one can't tell from the inside.)
In the end ... I'm just saying: It's a dick move.
Amateur Astronomer? (Score:5, Informative)
Before all the beards came of age we just called them Ham Radio Operators. They're always raising the level. Glad to see the name promotion and the hobby once again verifying how well spent the frequencies protected and allocated to the service are.
"Scott Tilley VE7TIL / VA7LF discovered a signal from the IMAGE satellite that NASA lost contact with in 2005"
http://www.southgatearc.org/ne... [southgatearc.org]
Re:Amateur Astronomer? (Score:4, Interesting)
He could very well be both. Many are. Generally amateur astronomers look at the night sky, focused on things beyond the Earth's atmosphere. We generally look in visible light. I did however, build a 12' satellite dish to make a radio map of the milky way (Hydrogen). I would call that amateur radio astronomy.
Some amateurs track satellites and compute their orbits in an attempt to identify them. To listen to their transmissions would require the skills of a HAM.
So, most HAM operators do not posses the skills to track and identify satellites. Most amateur astronomers wouldn't know what to do with a radio transmission from a satellite.
I think the two nicely overlap here.
TFS (Score:2)
In the sentence "decided to have a look for the present of secret military satellites", Ed should prolly change "present" to "presence".
Any slashdot space pirates? (Score:3, Interesting)
NASA has confirmed that IMAGE is alive (Score:5, Informative)
the episode from the life (Score:2)
of this amateur astronomer made me wonder what am I doing with my life?
Re: (Score:2)
Good Morning / afternoon / evening
It's a hobby for those that are into it, some people are real good.
this is a write-up back from 2006 that is still valid today.
https://www.wired.com/2006/02/... [wired.com]
while it's over my head the skills required
it's still a ton of fun looking at satellites and such
http://www.thehumanitystar.com... [thehumanitystar.com] that's the disco ball
satellite that went up a few days ago and in 41 days it
will be over my house. I hope to see it with my eyes
and then binoculars.
Oh Fuck everybody hide (Score:2)
This explains it (Score:3)
This explains what happened to me after the eclipse last summer.
Better link for those interested in TFA (Score:1)
Not sure why "Has come back to life" links to a 1 paragraph blog post, on a page begging for donations no less, than then links to the actual story: https://skyriddles.wordpress.c... [wordpress.com]