John Young Wrote: Don't overlook what is reportedly happening on the back side of the moon. The URL for an IF-mooncam was posted here a while ago. The stream is encrypted but with weak crypto -- the crypto-processor is 1968-9 vintage. The cam is part of a data package placed on the dark side in a classified operation. Signals bounced off a reflector stationed at the very edge of the moon's profile.
What else is being done there remains to be disclosed.
Two applications I've heard of: 1. Here's an excerpt from a US Navy press release: "Jim Trexler was Lorenzen's project engineer for PAMOR (PAssive MOon Relay, a.k.a. 'Moon Bounce'), which collected interior Soviet electronics and communication signals reflected from the moon." URL: http://www.pao.nrl.navy.mil/rel-00/32-00r.html 2. On another site: "...The new Liberty was a 455-foot-long spy ship crammed with listening equipment and specialists to operate it. The vessel's most distinctive piece of hardware was a sixteen-foot-wide dish antenna that could bounce intercepted intelligence off the moon to a receiving station in Maryland in a ten-thousand-watt microwave signal that enabled it to transmit large quantities of information without giving away the Liberty's location.* *The system, known as TRSSCOMM, for Technical Research Ship Special Communications, had to be pointed at a particular spot on the moon while a computer compensated for the ship's rolling and pitching. The computers and the antenna s hydraulic steering mechanism did not work well together, creating frequent problems." URL: http://www.euronet.nl/~rembert/echelon/db08.htm phillip