Viewing the Great Wall of China from space Re: Observability of solar satellite
Philip Chien (kc4yer@amsat.org)
Fri, 9 May 1997 11:44:40 -0400
>>2) It is said, but I am
>>not sure if it is true, that the only sign of human activity which
>>astro/cosmonauts have seen from space are stretches of the Big Wall in
>>China, which runs as a straight line over large distances.
blatant commercial plug follows -
check the current newstand issue (March-April) of "Satellite Times". The
"Final Frontier" column has an excellent history on the myth of the Great
Wall and astronaut visibility as well as an excellent article on Earth
observations by astronauts.
Modesty prevents me from mentioning the name of the author ...
Bottom line - the Great Wall is a fairly low contrast structure since it's
mainly made from native materials. In addition the Western 'image' of the
Great Wall is a very imposing large structure, but that's only true for the
Eastern most portion which is maintained for the tourists.
But it's important to note that there are much smaller artificial objects
which are visible to the naked eye from orbital altitudes, most obviously
airport runways.
Philip Chien [M1959.05.31/31.145//KC4YER@amsat.org]