They have mirrors on them that they adjust to reflect light away from specific observers
You can observe satellites in transit. They cast shadows. No mirror can do anything about this. Also, it's the sun, you can't reflect the "light away" on any meaningful level.
Like.. have you spent time thinking about how mechanically impossible this is?
as it's the only way to see them.
A satellite without a radio is useless. You can see all of them if you use something other than your eyes to look.
I'd really suggest you look at the book, it's pretty informative.
Yes you can visually observe these satellites in transit, the book talks about tracking the shadows, which is difficult for amateurs. The main method used was identifying them when light was reflected off the hull.. to counter this, they used mirrors to reflect light away from known observer locations on earth, as well as altering orbit, but altering orbit is less efficient as it affects the mission as well as limited manouvre capability over time.
They do have communication capability, from what I understood they communicate with other nearby NRO satellites which are known to the public and these satellites downlink to earth. There are communication dark spots, they are not able to be in constant contact due to orbit types. (Polar etc.)
You can observe satellites in transit. They cast shadows. No mirror can do anything about this. Also, it's the sun, you can't reflect the "light away" on any meaningful level.
Like.. have you spent time thinking about how mechanically impossible this is?
A satellite without a radio is useless. You can see all of them if you use something other than your eyes to look.
Exactly, unless some exotic (unknown to us) technology is in use
subspace
I'd really suggest you look at the book, it's pretty informative.
Yes you can visually observe these satellites in transit, the book talks about tracking the shadows, which is difficult for amateurs. The main method used was identifying them when light was reflected off the hull.. to counter this, they used mirrors to reflect light away from known observer locations on earth, as well as altering orbit, but altering orbit is less efficient as it affects the mission as well as limited manouvre capability over time.
They do have communication capability, from what I understood they communicate with other nearby NRO satellites which are known to the public and these satellites downlink to earth. There are communication dark spots, they are not able to be in constant contact due to orbit types. (Polar etc.)