Russia Launches Final Film Based Spy Satellite

[bwcolor]

As amazing as it sounds, Russia has for decades used film and multiple return pods for providing imaging. What will do when, even Russia... goes digital?

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/06/russia-surprise-soyuz-2-1a-launch-kobalt-m/

 

[Corran]

But, were they using Kodak film? 🙂

 

[FrankS]

Using tried, true, and simple technology. Kinda like the Americans spending big bucks to design a ball point pen that would work in zero gravity, while the soviets used a pencil.

 

[emayoh]

Some interesting reading. http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

 

[Huss]

This is their final film based spy satellite as they refused to partake in Lomography's latest Kickstarter campaign for the Astro Petzval lens.

 

[Rob-F]

They send the film down in a pod? You mean the satellite doesn't develop the film on board, scan it, and send the pictures to earth digitally?

 

[Keith]

I hope they used Tri-X ... if not what's the point! 😀

 

[B-9]

I actually have a book somewhere outlining the rigs they used,

Interestingly enough, each long reel is its own pod. Once exposed, it closes, and is sent hurtling back to the planet.

The Russians have it right, KISS, Keep it Super Simple.

 

[michaelwj]

They send the film down in a pod? You mean the satellite doesn't develop the film on board, scan it, and send the pictures to earth digitally?

I think they just store it in special capsules for re-entry. Nothing like up to date intelligence...

 

[x-ray]

I worked at Oak Ridge National Lab in the mid 70's. I had a Q clearance and we worked with a variety of very secret nuclear projects as well as other highly classified subjects. At the time I was there we had some of the processed film from one of the US's spy satellites. It too exposed large rolls of super thin and ultra high resolution B&W film and remember it being 5" wide. The film was fairly high contrast and had very low blue sensitivity since it had to shoot through miles of dust, moisture and crud. The film like the Russians was sent back undeveloped in a capsule and snared in a huge net pulled behing an aircraft. It seemed impossible but it worked. The amazing thing was the incredably detail. You could determine the type of cars in a parking lot.

Later when the US got into digital the resution even got better.

There was a commercially available aerial film from Kodak in the 70's that was a spinoff of this recon film. I used it for some of the research work we did at high altitude. I shot 70mm and 9" and if I remember correctly it was designated by the number Type 1515 aero graphic B&W. It was on a .25 mill estar base, again re callying from 40 years ago, and you could get about 200 frames in a 70mm cassette. We ran it In HC110 as I recall. It too was amazing.

 

[JoeV]

I still have a roll of the 9" aerographic film, haven't used it in a decade or more, it's Kodak Plus-X.

As for the urban legend about the Russians using pencils instead of ballpoints, that might have been true in the very early days of their space program, but they've used pens for decades.

These days I'd expect state-of-the-art space surveillance to use laser links to transfer data real time. And that implies a constellation of mirror relay satellites. I'm just hypothesizing here, but laser is more difficult to intercept.

~Joe

 

[Ko.Fe.]

.... What will do when ...

Both of us would have to stop drinking on Fridays.

 

[mfogiel]

The only reason I can think about for the use of film in this case, is that sending the images to earth via radio is out of the question due to risk of counterintelligence eavesdropping, while it is probably safer to throw a capsule with film down to earth than a capsule with memory cards.
Or perhaps Mr Putin is a Tri X nostagic too.

 

[Chuck Albertson]

It may not be the last film-based recon bird. The Russians have had problems with the Persona digicam sats, the first one fell short of the mark and the second has had problems on orbit, but may have produced overhead photos (degraded) used by the Russian government in the propoganda campaigns that followed the shooting down of MH17 last summer.

They did launch the Bars-M earlier this year, uses stereo digital cams for cartography.

 

[David Hughes]

Don't you just wonder what the Russians are reading about the West on their forums...

Regards, David

 

[leicapixie]

i guess if "one wants to do it right, one uses film".
i wonder where "They" get it processed?
Very interesting answers till mine.😀

 

[John E Earley]

Фильм навсегда

 

[Rob-F]

The only reason I can think about for the use of film in this case, is that sending the images to earth via radio is out of the question due to risk of counterintelligence eavesdropping, while it is probably safer to throw a capsule with film down to earth than a capsule with memory cards.
Or perhaps Mr Putin is a Tri X nostagic too.

OK. Let's think about this. Suppose the Russians want to know whether that white rose in Mr. Obama's rose garden is a Garden Party or a John F. Kennedy. So they send their satellite overhead to find out. We intercept the Russian's data transmission, and now we know as much as the Russians about which rose it is. But, so what? Barack already knew what kind of rose he had.

So, maybe there's not too much harm to the Russians if "the other guys" find out that the Russians found out what the other guys already knew about themselves. They would just know that we know that they know.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

It's difficult to believe it's a spy satellite, given the time lag. Mapping or surveying perhaps but spying means faster than real time to be any use...

Regards, David

 

[shimokita]

If you are interested in reading about the USA photoreconnaissance satellite program I can recommend "A Fiery Peace in a Cold War - Bernard Schriever and The Ultimate Weapon" by Neil Sheehan... like the time the film fell on foreign soil and was not returned ;-)

Casey