X 37B

[EL PIC]

WoW
X 37 B and Earth

 

[EL PIC]

What’s your view about the X 37 B ??
What would be your story on how it is and can be used ?
Speculation is always encouraged ..

 

[Hevach]

Being military and not NASA we can make some educated guesses and weigh what's more likely.

Unmanned long term missions where the added cost and weight restrictions for returning to earth are acceptable. Small size substantially limits deployment and capture, and it hasn't been observed to do either (there's no stealth in space - you can hide what something is doing but not where it is).

There's a few amateur astrophotography images of it in orbit with a cylindrical structure protruding from the cargo bay. That would suggest some kind of telescopy, and the military backing would in turn make earth observation more likely than sky observation. However it's smaller than a KH-11 or similar observation satellite, and again, what benefit of recovery? Imaging has not required returning anything to Earth for decades. Unless you suspect signals are compromised there's no benefit, and the continuing use of non-returning spy satellites suggests that isn't a concern.

Altogether this makes me think the foremost mission is materials exposure testing, in the vein of the old LDEF mission and the exposure racks on the ISS. Not using NASA as those missions do further suggests they are specifically materials or equipment that they don't want civilian (or perhaps more to the point foreign, particularly Russian) eyes on. Things like sigint receivers, spy optics, radar absorbing materials, cross section reducing geometry, and so forth. Things that in their final operational form might never return to Earth but in the development phase the engineers still want to put eyes on after spending a couple years exposed to space.

 

[Fire-Starter James]

What is the range of that thing? The Earth looks really far away there.

 

[billslugg]

What is the range of that thing? The Earth looks really far away there.

They say it can go as high as geosynchronous.

 

[COLGeek]

Lots of info and background here, by the way:

Boeing X-37 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[EL PIC]

I assume it contains an advanced Laser or other weapon ..

 

[COLGeek]

I assume it contains an advanced Laser or other weapon ..

To do what, other than take up space and consume power?

 

[billslugg]

There is no prohibition against weapons in space, only a prohibition against nuclear weapons. The Moon, but not LEO, is for peaceful uses only. The X-37b can carry whatever lasers it wants.

 

[EL PIC]

There is no prohibition against weapons in space, only a prohibition against nuclear weapons. The Moon, but not LEO, is for peaceful uses only. The X-37b can carry whatever lasers it wants.

Exactly !!

 

[Hevach]

I find a laser weapon extremely unlikely for two reasons:

1. Power. The Navy's anti-drone laser is 60 kilowatts, which is over 70% of the ISS's total solar panel power output, or three space shuttles worth of power cells, let alone the X-37b's systems. Which are technically classified but thanks to astrophotographers we know roughly how big it's solar panel is and we can make some predictions about how much battery or power cell capacity could be packed into it.
2. Heat dissipation. That same laser generates an immense amount of heat when fired , the primary challenge to lasers able to threaten larger targets is cooling. And that's in an atmosphere where you have a readily available, easily accelerated, compressible fluid to dump heat into. In space you can move it around a closed system but eventually needs to be radiated off.

Neither of those means it can't work, but that it can only use it very infrequently. It could also get away with a smaller laser because it's targets are defenseless and unlikely to even be able to detect the attack even as it's in progress.

However compared to a kinetic or explosive weapon, the craft could carry dozens of small rockets or thousands of bullets to accomplish the same effect more reliably and with a far superior ability to attack repeatedly if redundant systems keep a target functioning after a first strike.