James Bond kinda stuff

[mmcirvin]

Though the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft looks a lot like a Russian Soyuz and uses similar principles, it's not an exact copy. It's larger and more advanced in several ways. One interesting detail is that the orbital module that provides living and working space for the crew is designed to remain operating in orbit after the astronauts have come home in the separate reentry module. Apparently, some of the unmanned test flights of the Shenzhou over the past few years also carried an electronic military intelligence module designed to operate for several months after the main mission was over.

I can't tell from the released photo whether Shenzhou 5 has the same ELINT package mounted on the fore end. It does have those big spy cameras. It's possible that they will continue operating after Mr. Yang comes home, though it does raise the question of whether they're digital or film-based (the latter would require some means of getting the photos back; film-based unmanned satellites would drop little reentry capsules-- I don't know whether anyone does that any more, and, probably, neither do you).

Comments

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

The US apparently still has that operational capability-- I know that my old professor's spaceprobe, Stardust, might've needed it. Stardust will be passing through the tail of a comet next year and sampling the tail (using aerogels to capture and preserve the dust) and return the samples in '06. The sample capsule will be landing in the Utah desert following a parachute drup, but one of the alternate modes discussed during the planning of the mission (in fall 1996 or so, when Prof. Brownlee was competing for the $200 million grant to fund the mission) was having a USAF MC-130E with nose-pincers capture the sample capsule in midair. Apparently pincer-equipped C-130s can capture anything on a tether, including people-- this can be seen in the end of "The Spy Who Loved Me" IIRC-- definitely one of the Roger Moore Bond films. At any rate, film was recovered from satellites in the same manner.

From http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/bookrev/peebles.html
"Closer to home were the equally experimental methods developed to recover the film as it returned to earth. First with specially configured C-119s and later C-130s, aircrews practiced and perfected techniques that resulted in a midair catch of the film-return capsule’s parachute. This method was successful only due to the flying skill of the airmen and their willingness to experiment with different methods of rigging the hook assemblies. On a few occasions, the capsule went into the ocean and was recovered by US Navy or US Air Force pararescuemen. During one such situation, the capsule landed in the water but wasn’t spotted until late in the afternoon. Two USAF pararescuemen floated with the capsule overnight in a rolling sea and were recovered the next morning cold and drenched but successful in their mission. Airmanship and sacrifice come in many forms."

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

But does anyone still do it? It doesn't stand to reason. Any nation that can afford a satellite and a rocket launch can afford a team of nerds who can locate, adapt, or invent from chalk-dust an optical system that'll work using mass-market CCD chips and send the data home.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking that there might still be a resolution advantage to using film, but I'd guess that the sensors available to any modern government are quite up to the task of hitting the limits imposed by diffraction and the atmosphere. And it's not as if the PRC would be behind anyone else in this regard, given that this is a mass-market consumer technology now and there's so much manufacturing there.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Another thing to consider is that recovery area is potentially inexact. It's one thing if you're the US and you can aim your film capsule to reenter in Utah, or if you're Russia and you have most of Asia at your disposal. China will do fine in that respect. But North Korea would require a friendly nation's help if it had an inexact reentry zone. (Well, if I were them I'd go for the ocean, and figure some dongle out so only NK can recover it, instead of the US Navy.) Even ESA-nations might not have the clout to perform a continental recovery and have to drop it off in a friendly south american nation, or Antarctica (again, obscurity required) since a good spy satellite might be in polar orbit. ESA has French Guyana, so that might be an option, but since we're not talking about a scientific package, it's best if you don't have to involve other nations.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

There's another sample-return mission currently operating, Genesis (http://www.genesismission.org/mission/index.html), which apparently is going to end with midair snagging of the return capsule. With luck this will prevent the space germs from making everyone's blood clot instantly.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I'll be drinking sterno and/or crying hysterically that day, just in case.