[geeks] Starshine 3

[geeks at sunhelp.org]

"Fogg, James" wrote:

> I have some greott (sp?) 5mW laser tubes and supplies. I was wondering if
> that would be enough power to get a reasonably coherent beam reflected back
> to earth and still see it?


Theoretically, on a good night.


> What would be the chances of "catching" the bird
> with a laser and some amateur coordinates. It orbits at about 472km.


Mighty fscking slim without tracking equipment. Wouldn't be hard to
build the tracking system if we had the wherewithal. It's sort of
actually what I went to school for (mech eng + applied physics =
aerospace design). If you've got spare $$$ floating around, we could do
it.

How were you thinking to aim it by hand?


---sambo