q6supvr
Hi,
Does anyone know the diameter of the high gain antenna on the ranger missions. I've recently seen a copy of RCA Family for May-June 1965 in which there is areport that teh AN-FPQ6 radar at Carnarvon, Western Australia,skin tracked Ranger 8 to a range of 10500 [10500] miles. My calculations show that to do so with a S?N of 3 dB would require that the S/C have a RCS of about 45 dB/m2-but the physical size of the S/C was nothing like that, that is if you disregard the parabolic antenna.
The otehr alterantive to the dish adding considerably to the RCS is thqat there was some sort of plasma cloud enhancement. Somewhere I've seen a report of such an effect, in regard to one of the Sputniks I think, but can't find any reference.
Does anyone know the diameter of the high gain antenna on the ranger missions. I've recently seen a copy of RCA Family for May-June 1965 in which there is areport that teh AN-FPQ6 radar at Carnarvon, Western Australia,skin tracked Ranger 8 to a range of 10500 [10500] miles. My calculations show that to do so with a S?N of 3 dB would require that the S/C have a RCS of about 45 dB/m2-but the physical size of the S/C was nothing like that, that is if you disregard the parabolic antenna.
The otehr alterantive to the dish adding considerably to the RCS is thqat there was some sort of plasma cloud enhancement. Somewhere I've seen a report of such an effect, in regard to one of the Sputniks I think, but can't find any reference.