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. Didn't somebody mention also mention here that there's a group which intercepts the stream? I believe the Smithsonian has an archive of the small amount of public material, and NARA has some of the classified stuff needing clearance for access.
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
At 02:17 PM 8/6/01 -0700, 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.
Didn't somebody mention also mention here that there's a group which intercepts the stream?
I believe the Smithsonian has an archive of the small amount of public material, and NARA has some of the classified stuff needing clearance for access.
From the date and the discussion of moonbounce in Bamford's latest, I'd guess that listening to deep-interior soviet radar would have been a target. (The US supposedly listened to them using earth-moon-earth path; you gain a lot by listening from the moon and sending amplified telemetry back.)
Bamford's book "Body of Secrets" has a lot of good discussion on moon-bounce work by the NSA. As Phillip wrote, two of the main applications were passive eavesdropping on Soviet communucations (though satellites later did a *much* better job) and very non-directional communications to/from spy ships. At 04:03 PM 08/06/2001 -0400, Phillip H. Zakas wrote:
John Young Wrote: [...] 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
participants (4)
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Bill Stewart -
David Honig -
John Young -
Phillip H. Zakas