Word: coppers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Four hundred million copper wires are now circling the globe in a polar orbit at an altitude of 2300 miles. These "needles" are part of Project West Ford which began in 1958 when it was first suggested by Mr. Walter E. Morrow of M.I.T.'s Lincoln Labs. Morrow planned to place a belt of copper wires above the earth in order to provide a jam-proof, fail-proof, destruction-proof communication system...
...October, 1961, the first attempt to orbit the copper particles was made. However, the package designed to disperse the copper "needles" into the required belt failed to operate properly and all the Air Force got for its money were four or five useless clumps of wire floating around the earth. But two weeks ago Lincoln Labs was given its second chance, and seems to have succeeded. The dispenser package was mounted piggyback on another Air Force satellite and launched into orbit...
After careful checking to be sure the "needles" package was in proper orbit, radio command was sent to the satellite, activating its dispensing mechanism. Within a day, 50 pounds of copper wire were strewn in a large cloud about the dispenser. As time passes, this cloud will disperse evenly to form a orbiting belt of "needles" roughly five miles wide and 25 miles thick. At present the belt is about 11,500 miles long, and is spreading around the globe at the rate of 1000 miles...
Each of the copper wires is .7 inches long and .0007 inches wide. When the dispersion process has ended, there will be roughly 50 wires in every cubic mile of belt. Despite the small size and low density of these wires, their ability to act as individual dipole antennae should make it possible to bounce signals of a specific frequency off the belt. According to J.A. Kessler of Lincoln Labs, theWest Ford experiment is operating on schedule and the results of wave propagation and actual communication experiments have been "quite good." If the "needles" program succeeds, the Air Force...
Scientists are concerned with West Ford for three reasons. First, the copper wires may interfere directly with the observations of optical and radio astronomers. Furthermore, the present West Ford effort is indicative of the American belief that the sky belongs to Uncle Sam. Thirdly, scientific projects run in the name of national defense are not subjected to the rigorous and open evaluation given to other research projects...