I stand corrected, I was told by someone that it is a network of satellites which use radar to track the Satellites, thanks for the accurate information... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Josh R. Williams | ** JRW Satellite Page ** | | E-Mail: sponge@nebula.net | URL: http://www.nebula.net/~sponge/ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Location: Monroe, Michigan - United States of America | | Latitude: 41 deg 59' 29" N -- Longitude: 83 deg 27' 41" W | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Thu, 4 Jan 1996, Ted Molczan wrote: > Josh Williams asked: > > >Does anyone know any of the NORAD numbers for the NavSpaSur Satellites? I > >would like to track them but information is VERY hard to come by, also TS > >Kelso has told me that the project is NOT classfied, and that confused me > >even more. Maybe the satellites are not named after the project, which > >maybe the problem here... > > NavSpaSur stands for Naval Space Surveillance System. > It is not a satellite system. It is an Earth-based radar > interferometer system, used to detect and track satellites. > It consists of three stations which transmit a powerful > 217 MHz signal narrow fan-beam of radio waves across the > southern U.S.A. The fan can be thought of as a fence of > radio waves. When satellites cross through it, they reflect > some of the radio waves, which are then received by several > of six receivers across the southern U.S.A. The motion of > a satellite causes the reflected radio waves to be Doppler- > shifted. The amount of the Doppler shift will be different > for each receiving site because the relative velocity of > the satellite will be different for each site. By analyzing > a sufficient number of near-simultaneous Doppler shifted > reflections, the orbital elements of the satellite can be > determined. > > I know at least one radio amateur in the southern U.S.A. who > has received the reflections. In principle, hobbyists could > make use of the NavSpaSur system, if they could build their > own network of receivers and data reduction/analysis system. > > What little I know about this comes from Desmond King-Hele's > book, Observing Earth Satellites, ISBN 0 333 33041 2. > > bye for now > > > > > > >