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▲ ck2 5 hours ago

this should end well

or a whole new technology invented other than radio waves for data transmission

are any satellites using laser downlink yet or is line-of-sight too temperamental with weather and planes?

▲cheschire 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Let’s launch hard drives back and forth between earth and LEO. Like sneakernet in space.

▲GolfPopper 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

U.S. spy satellites were returning film payloads to Earth as late as 1986:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-9_Hexagon

▲a4isms 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That was the McGuffin for the 1963 book "Ice Station Zebra" (and the 1968 film adaptation). A satellite with pictures of every missile launch site in the US malfunctions and is knocked off its planned orbit that would overfly the Soviet Union, so the race is on to figure out where they would drop the film and prevent them from recovering it.

The story was based on a real-life incident in 1959:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_2

▲chris_va 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes reentering the atmosphere

▲saltcured 10 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The hard part is getting an IO card with built-in hardware decelerator

▲ErroneousBosh 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I have just decommed an old datacentre that we're moving out of and this is basically what my 30-year-old travel-worn farm truck Range Rover looks like right now.

▲pixl97 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Been there, done that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)

They'd drop their film back down to earth.

▲someonebaggy 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If they're heavy enough, it doubles as a space fountain.

▲ck2 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

railgun microSD

but seriously, the first spy satellites used to drop film rolls and they had a crazy way for the military to track and catch them via planes

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)

▲nefarious_ends 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

▲notahacker 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Laser links for satellites work fine, but if you're up against a 10 year old spy satellite or you're selectively jamming their SAR (radar imaging) or GLONASS positioning rather than their comms...

▲exe34 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Neutrinos

▲Kevcmk 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Gravitational waves

▲pixl97 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean isn't space X testing satellites with sat to sat lasers?

In that case you don't need to ground lasers, you just beam the data where you have unjammed communications with the cost of higher latency.

▲LorenDB 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

More than testing. That is their primary on-orbit link method for Starlink satellites as of 2.5 years ago: https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlinks-laser-system-is-beaming...

▲iwontberude 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲redsocksfan45 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]