Hi Robert,
Thanks for the info!
I have been messing with the LEO and MEO satellite industry since the late 1980’s and need to correct one of your assumptions. The coverage area for an Iridium beam is about 250 miles in diameter, not 60 miles.
Here is a quote from one of their resellers:
“Iridium’s constellation consists of 66 cross-linked operational satellites, plus seven in-orbit spares.
The satellites operate in near-circular low-Earth orbits (LEO) about 780 km (483 miles) above the Earth’s surface. There are 11 satellites in each of six orbital planes and their orbits “intersect” roughly over the north and south poles. The low-flying satellites travel at approximately 17,000 miles per hour, completing an orbit of the Earth in about 100 minutes. It is a function of latitude/longitude and beam coverage, but it typically takes about eight minutes for a satellite to cross the sky from horizon to horizon.
Each satellite can project 48 spot beams on the Earth’s surface. The size of each spot beam is approximately 250 miles in diameter and the satellite’s full 48-beam footprint is approximately 2,800 miles in diameter. All spot beams and satellite footprints overlap.
The large number of fast-moving satellites with multiple overlapping spot beams minimizes missed connections and dropped calls, since more than one satellite is usually visible from any place on Earth. The LEO satellite constellation also makes it possible for changing and multiple view angles to the satellite so that line of sight issues will be temporary as long as you have a view of the sky.”
There is a company in the Washington area that has the capability of finding any earth transmission to space called Interferometrics.
This company located Captain Midnight within a few miles using their technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Midnight_%28HBO%29
Thanks for the update Andy. Whether it’s 60 or 250 miles, after 5 or 6 pings you should still be able to calculate a pretty good ground track. Also, whether it’s 60 or 250 miles, the theory still stands. If anyone can shoot the theory down I would like to hear from them.
Andy, any thoughts as to why we have not heard from the Iridium folks on their efforts to reconstruct the ground track? Maybe no one has asked them to do it. Would take $.