Questions tagged [visibility-of-spacecraft]
questions about how visible spacecraft are, as seen from Earth or anywhere else, as seen by eye or by imaging systems.
66 questions
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Skywriting and advertising in space?
An article on 'skywriting in space' was in the Atlantic; https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/pepsi-advertisement-space/587608/ a while ago. Some discussion has been made here on Space ...
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1answer
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Will the Europa Clipper spacecraft be visible in 2026 when it flies by Earth again?
The Europa Clipper flight plan includes two gravity assists to get to Jupiter (which I can confirm is monumentally amazing that they managed to time it right) - one flyby of Mars in 2025 and then ...
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Trajectory of Launch
Where online are the anticipated trajectory of rocket launches shown prior to launches from Florida? This will allow ability to find launches in flight.
10votes
0answers
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Will Europa Clipper and JUICE be able to see each other?
Both will be in Jupiter orbit at the same time in the early 2030s, and both have sizable solar arrays and high resolution cameras- will either of them ever be close enough to spot each other? Mars ...
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Units of "pixels" in a research paper on digital streak formation for optical payloads
I am trying to wrap my head around how a single bright event might spill over and streak across pixels in a sensing array (CMOS) if your exposure time is high enough at some orbital velocity. In the ...
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4votes
1answer
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Could you see a probe or space ship with a DS4G ion propulsion thruster with a telescope? Would you need IR or UV?
I'm wondering what would be observable to an astronomer if one knew where to look for a distant space craft with a powerful ion engine such as a Dual-Stage 4-Grid (DS4G) electrostatic thruster. In the ...
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1answer
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Why is the sunny side of JWST's sunshield purple and covered with silicon?
After about 08:52 in Destin's Smarter Every Day's Why Are there Holes in the James Webb Sunshield? (Explained by My Dad) - Smarter Every Day 270 (linked below) ...
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Can we watch the object move towards the Moon and hit it this week at home? Will there be live telescope feeds?
I'm not even going to name the object because there's been some variability and excitement in its identification (DSCOVR 2nd stage, no not DSCOVR, it's Chinese, no not that Chinse rocket body, this ...
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1vote
1answer
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Why not add tracking features to upper stages? Has something like this ever been proposed?
The identity of the object that will hit the Moon in early March is still uncertain. Some of the story is in Why did we think that the object was gonna hit the Moon March 4th 2022? Who's been ...
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1answer
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Project Pluto asks: "Should high-flying space junk be better tracked? Perhaps by an 'official' agency of some sort?" What would it take to implement?
The identity of the object that will hit the Moon in early March is still uncertain. Some of the story is in Why did we think that the object was gonna hit the Moon March 4th 2022? Who's been ...
- 153k
2votes
1answer
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Has anyone in space beyond LEO seen or has anything photographed a non-pointer laser from Earth?
The two current answers to Has anyone in space seen or photographed a simple laser pointer from Earth? both describe small, low power lasers from Earth aimed towards the ISS in LEO. Here I'd like to ...
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1answer
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How "specularly" and therefore spectacularly will JWST reflect sunlight? Will we be watching for JWST flares?
JWST has a giant sunshield made from mostly parallel layers of metalized polymer film that are sufficiently tensioned so as not to touch each other, though I'm not sure how taut or flat they are: ...
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4votes
1answer
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Is there a website with launch paths/visible regions?
Last night's Space-X launch led to excitement from observers in locations that don't typically see the upper atmosphere effects, prompting a lot of questions about it and when other such launches can ...
2votes
1answer
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What would the James Webb telescope see if it looked at itself from Earth?
This question asks whether any ground-based telescopes can see the James Webb. The answer ("yes, but it's basically just an indistinct dot") is deeply underwhelming. If only we had a much ...
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1answer
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Where will the March 4, 2022 impactor hit the Moon? Will it be visible from Earth?
Wikipedia's LCROSS says: Centaur impacted successfully on October 9, 2009, at 11:31 UTC. The Shepherding Spacecraft descended through Centaur's ejectate plume, collected and relayed data, impacting ...
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