The N in NORAD Stands for North America right?Quote:
Originally Posted by rondog
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The N in NORAD Stands for North America right?Quote:
Originally Posted by rondog
US Space command tracks everything larger than a basketball ABOVE 100 km altitude...
Yeah, but supposedly with their satellite network they can keep track of everything globally, to watch for missile launches and other sneaky things. Supposedly.Quote:
Originally Posted by KAPA
That one's already been played out. There's a pic floating around as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by 10x
I'm still betting that this thing ended up in the 'stans somewhere. It will surface again.
Honestly, US satellites aren't tracking every airline flight. There are tens of thousands of commercial flights every day. We do have resources that watch for explosions, missile launches, etc, but they would have nothing to do with a missing airliner unless it had a secret rocket engine onboard or it blew up in a spectacular fashion. Our satellites have much more important things to keep track of.Quote:
Originally Posted by rondog
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Originally Posted by TFOGGER
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Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
^^^ I think this is it. Yes, the satellites and sensors can track amazing detail, but they have to be looking at something specific. In general, I don't think they have enough resources currently to track every large object (ship, airliner, etc). For sure, a lot of intelligence resources are looking at things like missile launch locations and probably many sites in the bad actor countries...
Bingo. I don't want to go into more detail here, but I work in the satellite industry and you hit the nail on the head here. Our national defense resources are focused on a lot of things, but commercial flights over the South China Sea don't get much attention.Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlestack
There is a lot of interesting stuff to read on the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysi...nes_Flight_370
What I was getting at is, can't they use those satellite resources to look for debris on the oceans or crash sites in jungles? Seems like they could devote a little time towards that, but whadafukdoIknow.....
Don't forget that info like this comes from the same place as the completely silent firearm suppressors, full auto pistols with perfect accuracy, and politicians with a conscience - Hollywood.Quote:
Originally Posted by rondog
Yes, our imagery satellites have VERY good optics, but this comes at the expense of field of view. Why would we want to look at an image of a single plane (and be able to read the time on the pilot's watch) when we're much better served by an image of a flight line and the number of planes and their armament?
With regards to knowing everything, everywhere, it isn't going to happen. Too much info to analyze and most of it is worthless anyways.