Detective Stew wrote:

laudablepuss wrote:

Entropy Stew wrote:

laudablepuss wrote:

Entropy Stew wrote:

MACH 18 CHAFF FIELD = WAY THE FUCK LARGER RADAR CROSSSECTION THAN NOT-BLOWNFUCKINGUP SPACE SHUTTLE IS THIS SO MOTHERFUCKING HARD TO BELIEVE YOU FUCKING GODAMN FAGGOTS YOU WILL ALL DIE IN THE GREAT CULLING DUE TO YOUR INSUPERIOR GENETIC MAKEUP I HOPE A PIECE OF NASA SHRAPNEL IMPALE YOUR GOAT YOU TUBES OF COCK OINTMENT

So you're saying a big chaff field going mach 18 would show up, but a single intact shuttle going mach 18 wouldn't. I find it hard to believe, but I'll concede that the one will look very different than the other on doppler radar. Anyway, surely actual weather radar images of normal shuttle re-entries must exist somewhere, right? I'd like to see one.

Here's a coincidence: my goat was recently impaled, although by me. But I was pretending to be an astronaut fucking a space alien. Don't even get me started on cock ointment!

ALREADY COVERED THIS

Stoo wrote:

2. A normal spaceflight would show up as a small red blip on this sort of radar, if it showed up at all (it's weather radar - it needs to detect weather systems, not individual aircraft).

I'll go furthur to say that these sort of radar signatures might even be filtered out as outliers, considering you never see blips from all the passenger airliners flying around on the evening weather report.

-/ES/-

Weatherman: There's a HIGHLY localized system heading west from New York at 300mph. Expected arrival is 6:00pm at Midway.

Did you just mention fucking AIRLINERS?

I mention airliners since they probably have a LARGER sized radar signature than the shuttle. You know why? BECAUSE IT'S LARGER AND MORE ANGULAR. LARGER = MORE RADAR WAVES RETURNED TO STATION. MORE ANGULAR = MORE RADAR WAVES RETURNED TO STATION. MORE RADAR WAVES RETURNED TO STATION = LARGER SIGNATURE.

Listen, jackass, I've backed off my initial thought (which was left with the added warning that I just don't know) that the breakup looked similar to a normal re-entry. What I am questioning now is your claim that the shuttle re-entering the atmosphere would appear as a tiny single dot or not at all on a doppler radar image. My reason for questioning this is because it's flying at however many thousands of miles per hour and causing massive shockwaves surrounded by a continuous fireball. Get it? Can you tell me why this wouldn't be the case?

Lets examine how doppler radar works so you know what I'm basing my assumption on:

1. Station broadcasts radar wave
2. Radar wave travels until it hits some
3. The wave is reflected back towards the radar station. Movement of the reflecting object causes a doppler shift in the waveform, the magnitude of which is proportional to the reflecting object's speed towards/away from the originating station
4. Station gets doppler-shifted wave back
5. The position of the reflecting object is pinpointed by calculating how long it took for the radar reflection to return after being broadcast. Speed of the object is gauged via the magnitude of the doppler shift.

Now, taking this into account, and the fact that SHOCKWAVES AND FIREBALLS ARE NOT RADAR-REFLECTIVE, a reentrant shuttle at mach 18 would reflect THE EXACT SAME AMOUNT of radar waves that a shuttle-sized aircraft in normal atmospheric flight would. The only difference would be the enormous doppler shift, and the doppler shift has NO BEARING on how big a signature is - weather radar uses the doppler shift to gauge wind speed through particle movement. CLOUD WITH MOISTURE = MANY MANY MANY RADAR WAVES RETURNED WITH SMALL DOPPLER SHIFT OVER LARGE AREA HENCE BIG FUCKING CLOUDSIZE GREEN SMEAR ON RADAR. SHUTTLE = FEW RADAR WAVES RETURNED WITH HUGE DOPPLER SHIFT = A SMALL RED DOT

-/ES/-