On 9/28/2015 12:09 AM, Bruce Johnson wrote:
>> On Sep 27, 2015, at 8:28 PM, Craig Berry<xxxxxx@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> >
>> >Sorry for being late to the party, but this exact scenario is portrayed in depth in Vinge's_A Deepness in the Sky_. The observers set up camp at the sunward Lagrange point, but also have smaller satellites closer in for global continuous coverage.
> Hack an existing satellite(s) with the coverage you want, tight beam to your relay or ship.
>
> This will require humint resources (aka PC’s:-)  to arrange a problem with the target satellites and get the contract for the fix.
>
> Fixing leo or even synchronous satellites will be much more akin to ‘Wichita Lineman’ than ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’…attaching a tap to the satellites might be the easiest way to avoid detection.

There are no artificial satellites around the planet which is, for all
intents and purposes, uninhabited except for what the ship is observing.

>
> Also subject of interest: what does orbital space around a civilized planet with a few thousand years of routine spaceflight look like?

I would think it depends on how the world developed.  If it developed
like Earth, I would suspect that after the first impact that caused a
major loss of life that there would be a push to "vacuum" the debris and
clean the junk out of the orbits (the stuff that hasn't already burned
up).  However, if it was a world where that was settled by a relatively
high tech society (TL9/10+), then I would think that things would be
relatively clean as you wouldn't be discarding boosters and parts of the
launch vehicle used to put an object into orbit.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not
living enough." - Me