OT Iridium (Was: Re: classiccmp-digest V1 #615)

From: Jonathan Engdahl <engdahl_at_cle.ab.com>
Date: Thu May 31 15:30:38 2001

Facts about Iridium:

1: a satellite based global communications system, like having cell phone
towers in the sky.

2: the investors lost their shirts.

3: but the best part about Iridium, the part to really get excited about, is
"Iridium flares". Do a web search on that term. A couple times a day the
mirror-like solar panels will reflect the light of the sun to a location
with driving distance of where you are. Viewing is best just after sunset.
You can see a magnitude -8 (half the brightness of the moon) flash lasting a
second or two. It looks like an aircraft landing light pointed straight at
you. There is software available that will tell you the latitude/longitude,
time, and magnitude for the flares occurring in the next day or two in your
area.

Picture driving pell-mell 5~10 miles through the countryside with a kid or
two, computer and GPS on the dash, stopping at ground zero (in a parking lot
or in front of someone's house maybe), staring at the sky for 5 minutes,
then suddenly everyone's yelling "There it is", "I saw it". Lots of fun.
Great teaching opportunity.


I guess you could call Iridium a classic computer of sorts. Kind of hard to
get your hands on one, though. Are they 10 years old yet?


--
Jonathan Engdahl             Rockwell Automation
Principal Research Engineer  24800 Tungsten Road
Advanced Technology          Euclid, OH 44117  USA
Euclid Labs                  http://users.safeaccess.com/engdahl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Chase" <bdc_at_world.std.com>
To: <classiccmp>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: OT Iridium (Was: Re: classiccmp-digest V1 #615)
> On Thu, 31 May 2001, Chad Fernandez wrote:
>
> > What is Iridium?
>
> Wait a couple of years and I'm sure the answer will come falling out of
> the sky to you.  Or you can check their homepage: http://www.iridium.com/
>
> -brian.
>
Received on Thu May 31 2001 - 15:30:38 BST

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