El supersecreto proyecto X-37B ha vuelto a tierra tras una larga estancia en el espacio. Sobre este proyecto se ha desvelado poca información. Su apariencia es de un mini transborador espacial, y puede estar durante nueve meses en órbita.
La nave podrá portar modernos sensores que funcionarán gracias a baterias solares.
Estos sensores son una demanda de las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos para detectar amenazas de forma precoz.
Al parecer, por sus dimensiones el vehículo podría poner pequeños satéilites en órbita, capacidad que ha sido muy demandada por los comandantes del ejército, que hasta ahora necesitaban hasta tres meses para tener un satélite específico para la misión.
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The wonderfully sort-of-secret X-37B is back on terra firma after a long stay in space. Very little information beyond its appearance, dimensions and the fact that the Air Force is deploying it is known about the vehicle, which looks a lot like a mini space shuttle. The vehicle can stay in orbit for at least nine months.
It could take advanced sensors into space for testing and, probably, allow sensors to operate from the X-35B as a large, stable platform with an independent power source. That power source (folding solar panels) might free sensors from carrying batteries, which would make them much smaller and lighter and perhaps extend their operational life.
One set of sensors the nation desperately needs would be related to space situational awareness — small telescopes, infrared and other sensors. The X-37B might be ideally suited to this sort of mission.
The dimensions would appear to allow the vehicle enough cargo space to loft small satellites into orbit.
Combatant commanders have pressed hard to get the ability to deploy communications and electro-optical satellites over a theater with relatively short notice. With space assets, that probably doesn’t mean much less than three months. If my surmises are correct then putting an X-37B up at the first indicators of a crisis could give the US a flexibility it does not currently possess.
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