Re: Area 51 security satellites


Message posted by gary on March 17, 2001 at 11:27:10 PST:

The USAF owns so much land in Nevada that they could do all the observing they need from video cameras on mountain tops. This would be better than any space based observation. That said, even the cameras near the front gate are pretty crude. For instance, they can't track a person by moving the camera with a motorized (sp) mount. That is why they have cammo dudes on hill tops and security choppers.

I had the oportunity to tour the "blue cube" in Sunnyvale, which has a mission of retriving data from military satellites. One of the rooms I was allowed to see was what I'll call the scheduling room. There are so many satellites in space that the DOD cannot monitor them 24&7. Rather, they have a control room that schedules when they listen to each bird. One would assume the satellites have data storage capabilities, so the ground station is getting a data dump of past events. Anyway, it seems unlikely they would park a bird over groom for security reasons. However, I bet they occasionally park a bird over Groon to use the flag exercises as a test of satellite military observation.

Those interested in tracking space based objects should check out
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Note that Base camp has a small observation hut, but it is unknown if they use it for checking out space based objects. It could be a "club" at the base.

I don't think we have enough Bay Area DLRers, but touring the Blue Cube can be arranged if you have a reasonably large enough group of people (around 8). They show you maybe 5% of the toys, but you do get to go into rooms that are basically bank vaults full of electronic gear. Yes, the doors have combination locks.

Getting back to area 51, Bald Mountain is said to be the observation point. They supposedly have cameras on the top, but the last spot where you can observe the top of Bald Mountain is about 2 miles away, which would make it hard to see a camera even with a telescope. The day that I managed to spook the camo dudes was a day when the top of Bald Mountain was in the clouds.

Attached link: what's that in the sky....

In Reply to: Area 51 security satellites posted by Skywatcher on March 17, 2001 at 8:08:36 PST:

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