Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!David.Smith@CMU-CS-IUS From: David.Smith@CMU-CS-IUS@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: none Message-ID: <3501@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Jul-83 10:36:40 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3501 Posted: Wed Jul 27 10:36:40 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 1-Aug-83 04:43:14 EDT Lines: 13 I remember reading about the orbiting needle experiment in the NASA booklet "Space - The New Frontier" in around 1962-3. I forget the name of the project. The idea was to girdle the Earth with a ring of copper needles cut to the right length, and use it for reflecting radio communications. I think it was a Navy project. A few years ago, I read (I don't remember where) that the experiment had been carried out over the loud protests of radio astronomers. It was a failure, but turned out not to interfere with radio telescopes, either. The needles all burned up in the atmosphere in a few years. A ring of needles is just what we need to compete for space with spacecraft and skyhooks.