© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
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At the height of the Cold War in the late 1950s, all international communications were either sent through undersea cables or bounced off of the natural ionosphere. The United States military was concerned that the Soviets (or other “Hostile Actors”) might cut those cables, forcing the unpredictable ionosphere to be the only means of communication with overseas forces. The Space Age had just begun, and the communications satellites we rely on today existed only in the sketches of futurists.
Nevertheless, the US Military looked to space to help solve their communications weakness. Their solution was to create an artificial ionosphere. In May 1963, the US Air Force launched 480 million tiny copper needles that briefly created a ring encircling the entire globe. They called it Project West Ford. The engineers behind the project hoped that it would serve as a prototype for two more permanent rings that would forever guarantee their ability to communicate across the globe.
The project itself was a virtually unqualified success. Though the first launch ended in failure, the second launch went without a hitch on 09 May 1963. Inside the West Ford spacecraft, the needles were packed densely together in blocks made of a napthalene gel that would rapidly evaporate in space. This entire package of needles weighed only 20 kg. After being released, the hundreds of millions of copper needles gradually spread throughout their entire orbit over a period of two months. The final donut-shaped cloud was 15 km wide and 30 km thick and encircled the globe at an altitude of 3700 km.
The West Ford copper needles were each 1.8 cm long and 0.0018 cm in diameter and weighed only 40 micrograms. They were designed to be exactly half of the wavelength of 8000 MHz microwaves. This length would create strong reflections when the microwaves struck the copper needles, in effect making them tiny dipole anttennae each repeating in all directions the exact same signal they received.
The first attempt at remote communications using the West Ford belt was made on 14 May, 4 days after the launch. At this point, the dipoles had not completely spread out to fill their entire orbit so they were much more densely spaced than in their final configuration. Using two 18.5 meter microwave dish antennae, Project West Ford engineers managed to send voice transmissions between Camp Parks, California and Millstone Hill, Massachusetts. The voice connection was described as “intelligible” and was transmitted at a data rate of approximately 20,000 bits per second— about the speed of a 1992-era telephone modem. But as the needles continued to disperse to their final cloud, the data rate dropped off significantly, so much so that by June 18th only 400 bits per second could be transmitted. On July 2nd, the experiment was terminated. At this time, the tiny needles were spaced about 400 meters from each other.
Despite its technical success, the ultimate goal behind Project West Ford was never attained. Serious scientific opposition to the project sprung up almost immediately after it was first proposed in the late 1950s. Though West Ford’s cloud of dipoles was carefully designed to return to Earth within a few years of its launch, a fully-functional cloud dense enough for robust communications might be a permanent fixture of Earth’s orbit.
Because of the great distance between the tiny needles, the West Ford belt was visible only in the first few days after launch when the spacing was much smaller. A denser belt intended for permanent communications would probably not have been visible except by very powerful optical telescopes. But, at radio and microwave frequencies, the final dipole clouds may have become scars on the night sky, forever obscuring the universe beyond.
However, it may not have been the opposition from prominent scientists that finally killed Project West Ford’s dream. By 1963, communications satellite technology had become more and more capable. Compared to those sleek products of Space Age technology, the relatively low-tech West Ford dipole cloud was an unsightly dinosaur. However, the West Ford engineers remained convinced of the feasibility of their endeavour, and largely blamed the end of the program on the opposing scientists rather than flaws in their own technology.
Most of the West Ford dipoles re-entered Earth’s atmosphere sometime around 1970, according to theoretical and observational evidence. The needles slowly drifted down to the Earth’s surface, unscathed by re-entry because of their size. Some consideration was given to recovering one or more of the dipoles in order to learn more about the space environment. Calculations showed that as many as five dipoles would have landed per square kilometer in the high Arctic. But the exceptional cost of recovering these tiny needles from the haystack of billions of tons of Arctic snow killed off any practical attempts at recovery. Back in space, the failed 1961 spacecraft and some larger clumps of the 1963 dipoles remain in orbit like so many other pieces of space junk, silently carrying the long-dead hopes of this nearly forgotten experiment.
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what if some of those needles would hit something altering their orbit. i know they probably took it in their calculations when they did this but would the needles if there’s enough cause any real damage to nearby satellites if this did happen?
As small as they are I would imagine that they would just bounce off.
I wonder if they could be set in geosynchronous orbit, possibly around a satellite, to disrupt radio or satellite transmissions of an opposing country?
pseudosanity said: “I wonder if they could be set in geosynchronous orbit, possibly around a satellite, to disrupt radio or satellite transmissions of an opposing country?”
oh no! i wouldnt be able to chat with my canadian terrorist freinds!
Would those chats include pie recipies? Cause we don’t need those canukleheads getting their hands on our secret apple latice formulas.
pseudosanity said:
“I wonder if they could be set in geosynchronous orbit, possibly around a satellite, to disrupt radio or satellite transmissions of an opposing country?”
america wouldn’t want to disrupt an opposing countries satellite signal. we intercept those transmissions and learn valueable information about opposing countries.
canada, we are listening, we know all your dirty secrets
pie
I think that it would be cool to have a ring around Earth. I’m tired of Saturn and Jupiter always flaunting there fancy rings at us. Wernstrum!!
Could any astrophysist (or amature or even pseudo astrophysist) explain why the needles weren’t affected by reentry? No comprendo.
3.1416
white_matter said: “Could any astrophysist (or amature or even pseudo astrophysist) explain why the needles weren’t affected by reentry? No comprendo.”
They were too small, maybe?
P.S.: Canada is watching back…
“Back in space, the failed 1971 spacecraft and some larger clumps of the 1973 dipoles…”
I think you meant 1961/63
This is the coolest project I’ve never heard of. I have to wonder what the impact of this would have been had it been realized. Any yahoo with a microwave dish would be able to broadcast long distances around the earth without having to hook into expensive satillites.
Very interesting. I grew up near Millstone Hill. It’s located in Westford, MA. (So if anyone was wondering where the name came from… :-)
white_matter said: Could any astrophysist (or amature or even pseudo astrophysist) explain why the needles weren’t affected by reentry? No comprendo.
Basically, their large surface area/weight ratio gives a rather small terminal velocity; small enough to prevent burning up.
Much obliged.
SparkyTWP,
Thanks for the correction, we’ll get it fixed.
…great…that’s all we need is more space garbage. Some day, before we run out of space to bury our trash, we’ll have to take note of how Euro countries handle their garbage…where they have even less space to bury it.
Lucky for the U.S. there’s enough land space to waste that we can turn flat plains into garbage mountains. Then, extract the methane gas to run cogen power plants. Watch out for them pipes while you’re skiing or snowboarding.
TechKid:
When did Canada become one of the U.S.A.’s “opposing countries”? That just sounds way off to me. I guarantee you would not want Canada as an enemy. If you don’t understand my comment, you might want to analyze the multi-purpose training programs of the canadian army (how any member of a team can fill in when a member of the team is killed in action and must be replaced in the field) as well as the results of recent NATO war games (might not be obvious to get access to such information).
Next, always remember basic geography. America is a continent, not your country. It goes all the way from the northern tip of North America to the southern tip of South America, passing through central America. Therefore you live in the United States of America, not just in “America”. Just as I live in Canada, not just in “da”.
One final thought… You were talking about intercepting communications (I suppose you mean for counter-intelligence use). Well, I know your counter-intelligence is called the C.I.A. I know what the building looks like and even WHERE it is. How is that for counter-intelligence? I know where they get their power from and the communication systems they use. Do you even know what Canada’s counter-intelligence is called?? Shows you how secretive americans are… Just my 2-cents here: don’t think too much of your own government just because they spend so much money on “stuff”.
I cannot believe I only registered to post that…
XJ076A said: “what if some of those needles would hit something altering their orbit. i know they probably took it in their calculations when they did this but would the needles if there’s enough cause any real damage to nearby satellites if this did happen?”
Read the beginning of the article. There were no satellites then.
OK. I’ll try to put this one down before it becomes another 150+ message post like the message board for the US invading Canada article.
Takemoto:
First, Americans don’t have a REAL problem with Canada. We just like to make fun of you guys beacause…well just ’cause. No evil intent, no malicous plotting. Just good-spirited, non-stop ribbing.
It’s just jokes, man.
Second, when we say America, we actually mean (The United States of) America much like “The Democratic Republic Korea” is commonly known as South Korea. To correct your correction, South America and North America are two seperate continents. Ask Jeeves if you don’t believe me.
Finally, the C.I.A. stands for Central Intelligence Agency.
I could go on but it’s just too easy.
So please, Canadians, grow a sense of humor. It’s just jokes man.
Americans love canadians. Canadians love americans. End of story.
People from each country who have opinions otherwise are in a great minority.
As for the needles.. Very interesting, but a very impracticle way to solve a problem. Its like lighting the entire state of new york on fire to send a smoke signal to europe… The classic “cannon to kill a gnat”.
I think it’s ingenious, very impressive.
Everyone loves Canadians! And the Americans, though we Brits might be a little unwilling to admit it at first (well, some of us). After all we watch all your TV shows!
I think the most interesting part of this is that it shows how not obvious things used to be. Ever since Arthur C. Clarke proposed the communications satellite, and scientists slapped their collective foreheads and filled the skies with them, we have taken for granted that they are the best solution to the communications problem. This article shows just how wrong that assumption is. I think it is a truly inspired, if somewhat misguided, idea that could very well have worked. I wonder if a cloud of this material dense enough to efficiently reflect radio signals would act as a sort of cosmic Faraday cage and shield us from harmful cosmic radiation? And if so, might that be of possible use on a Mars colony mission?
Marius,
Interesting thought, but I think that a Farady cage needs to have metallic conduction occuring. In this case, even the final ring would have been far to sparse to get anything like conduction going on between the needles, except in the rare cases that they collide.
Nice article… I wonder if you could see the rings from earth in their prime…
Pretty sweet project; what an awesome experiment to actually have work in those early days of space exploration. It would’ve been very disruptive for earth-bound radio astronomy, though, which would suck.
takemoto said: …Do you even know what Canada’s counter-intelligence is called??
…yeah, it’s call Second City.
(jus’ hav’in fun with ya…sorry, couldn’t resist).
Alias,
There were a number of attempts to visually detect the dipoles. Very early on there were a few faint photographs taken of the still-dispersing ring. The copy of the photograph that I was able to find was pretty poor, so I didn’t include it in the article. Within a few weeks after launch, though, all attempts to see the ring failed– except at microwave frequencies.
cutterjohn said: “As for the needles.. Very interesting, but a very impracticle way to solve a problem. Its like lighting the entire state of new york on fire to send a smoke signal to europe… The classic “cannon to kill a gnat”.”
Why would it be impractical? From the description it doesn’t sound as if it would have taken that much effort to get it up there (the test one weighed 20kg, a permanent one might be 200kg? 2000kg?) and it would cover the whole globe.
evilmrhenry said: “Basically, their large surface area/weight ratio gives a rather small terminal velocity; small enough to prevent burning up.”
Yep:
A falling object will continue to accelerate to higher speeds until they encounter an amount of air resistance which is equal to their weight
http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/GBSSCI/PHYS/CLASS/newtlaws/u2l3e.html
Nicely explained.
Marius said: “I think the most interesting part of this is that it shows how not obvious things used to be…”
Amen, brother. I found a batch of old docs my dad held onto for a project called “sunflower” from the late 50’s – basically a round, elliptical folding reflector designed to focus solar energy. The metalurgy, the design specifications, the methodology behind polishing the surface to improve reflectivity, the whole Buck Rogers black and white “high-technology” vibe of the 1950’s was all over the stuff…and comparatively the entire project produced something less impressive (by today’s standards) than some of my kids’ toys. Even their OLD toys. In the end, capturing solar energy and generating electricity in space was solved through rather more elegant means anyway, but they had to do the research, right?
That era of discovery – and the next…and the next… – is inevitable and cool (and what drives us to come here, I think?), but I smile when I think of a room full of 1950’s scientists hovering around a table, bad haircuts and funky suits and skinny ties and smoking, all nodding sagely and patting each other on the back over, say, a ballpoint pen that can write in zero gravity. What will our kids think of DVD’s and space shuttles and nanotubes and such?
And I have to add: It’s a good thing we Americans didn’t invade Canada. I’m married to a Canadian. Things would have been VERY uncomfortable at famliy reunions and holiday dinners. “Pass the freakin’ cranberry sauce or I’ll blow your freakin’ head off and scorch your earth, eh!”
takemoto said: “TechKid:
When did Canada become one of the U.S.A.’s “opposing countries”? That just sounds way off to me. I guarantee you would not want Canada as an enemy. If you don’t understand my comment, you might want to analyze the multi-purpose training programs of the canadian army (how any member of a team can fill in when a member of the team is killed in action and must be replaced in the field) as well as the results of recent NATO war games (might not be obvious to get access to such information).
Next, always remember basic geography. America is a continent, not your country. It goes all the way from the northern tip of North America to the southern tip of South America, passing through central America. Therefore you live in the United States of America, not just in “America”. Just as I live in Canada, not just in “da”.
One final thought… You were talking about intercepting communications (I suppose you mean for counter-intelligence use). Well, I know your counter-intelligence is called the C.I.A. I know what the building looks like and even WHERE it is. How is that for counter-intelligence? I know where they get their power from and the communication systems they use. Do you even know what Canada’s counter-intelligence is called?? Shows you how secretive americans are… Just my 2-cents here: don’t think too much of your own government just because they spend so much money on “stuff”.
I cannot believe I only registered to post that…”
Just my 2 centes here: Takemoto, shut up. America doesn’t care what “da”s counter-intelligence agency is called. I do know however that it is called Communications Security Establishment.If you don’t understand my comment maybe you should analyze America’s number of soldiers, weapons, the man that is leading us, and the middle east. By the way, as white matter plainly put, I was only joking. I can’t believe that you registered just to post that either. Also, C.I.A does not stand for counter-intelligence agency, duh.
pie
>> “What will our kids think of DVD’s and space shuttles and nanotubes and such?”
They will think of the Space Shuttle the same way we think of the Concorde: “what a waste of energy, we can never afford it again.”
“A falling object will continue to accelerate to higher speeds until they encounter an amount of air
resistance which is equal to their weight”
It’s not that simple, guys. These needles are not starting from zero. They are at orbital velocity when they start to hit the atmosphere – that’s 8km/sec
schuylercat said: That era of discovery – and the next…and the next… – is inevitable and cool (and what drives us to come here, I think?), but I smile when I think of a room full of 1950’s scientists hovering around a table, bad haircuts and funky suits and skinny ties and smoking, all nodding sagely and patting each other on the back over, say, a ballpoint pen that can write in zero gravity. What will our kids think of DVD’s and space shuttles and nanotubes and such?
If you want an interesting look at the ‘cutting edge’ of technology in the ’50’s do what I did a few months ago. Reread Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Therein you can find one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century worshipping at the altar of atomic energy, and completely failing to forsee even the home computer. Not that I am faulting Dr. Asimov, it just blows my mind how so many of our household items were not even imagined by the most prescient of men and women a scant half century ago. It gives me hope, and a little bit of dread, of what is to come.
techkid posts – Just my 2 centes here: Takemoto, shut up. America doesn’t care what “da”s counter-intelligence agency is called. I do know however that it is called Communications Security Establishment.
Have another slice of pie. It is actually called Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/index.asp
Byrden said: “”A falling object will continue to accelerate to higher speeds until they encounter an amount of air
resistance which is equal to their weight”
It’s not that simple, guys. These needles are not starting from zero. They are at orbital velocity when they start to hit the atmosphere – that’s 8km/sec”
True – but you have two wonderful factors working for you..
a) the density of the atmosphere varies with distance from the earth (so it slows gradually as the air density builds up – thus it doesn’t immediately generate a ton of heat)
b) Copper is one of the BEST heat conductors available and thus would tend to shed its heat quickly to the surrounding (quite cold) enviroment. Factor in its surface area to volume ratio – and I believe what I read – that the wouldnt burn up.
Sounds like that video game Halo
Takemoto, knowing the location and characteristics of a building is a bit different than knowing what business is being conducted…
–But as the technology to build highways and telephones has crept north of the American border, so too have illicit gambling, crack-whores and Shopping Cart abuse gangs.
Just came back to the grave to tell all of our good friends and subjects in the United States that it’s already too late. Years ago, Lorne Green spearheaded a systematic take over of the U.S. through the entertainment industry. Operatives are everywhere. We pretty much run everything now.
Marius said: “I wonder if a cloud of this material dense enough to efficiently reflect radio signals would act as a sort of cosmic Faraday cage and shield us from harmful cosmic radiation? And if so, might that be of possible use on a Mars colony mission?”
Good question–but this would not help at all with cosmic radiation, which is chiefly atomic nuclei having extremely high energies. The copper needles of West Ford strongly reflected only 8 GHz microwaves, for which they were designed; you’d need a dense cloud of needles of many different lengths in order to reflect other microwave and radio-frequency photons. (And you still would not reflect any cosmic rays.)
Various electromagnetic methods have been described (for instance, in Ben Bova’s novel Mars) for protecting space travelers from high-energy charged particles.
Simple mass is a good shield too, but of limited use on a spacecraft with a tight mass budget; it would be more practical on a space- or ground-based colony.
white_matter said: “Second, when we say America, we actually mean (The United States of) America much like “The Democratic Republic Korea” is commonly known as South Korea.”
Actually, what is known as South Korea is the Republic of Korea (ROK). What is known as North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Also, they are not exactly two different countries, they are actually rival governments of the same country, with control over seperate territory. Like Taiwan and China. An important distinction to Koreans. Small nitpick.
Ironclaw said: “True – but you have two wonderful factors working for you..
a) the density of the atmosphere varies with distance from the earth (so it slows gradually as the air density builds up – thus it doesn’t immediately generate a ton of heat)
b) Copper is one of the BEST heat conductors available and thus would tend to shed its heat quickly to the surrounding (quite cold) enviroment. Factor in its surface area to volume ratio – and I believe what I read – that the wouldnt burn up.”
ugh, both of you.
1) orbital velocity? There is no standard orbital velocity, plus that has nothing to do with rentry.
2) copper is the BEST heat conductor? eh, no sir, not to mention that has nothing to do with it anyways. Nor does waight to density ration or what ever.
The article said they were engineered to return to earth in 2 years, this does not mean come to some safe landing. Obviously they were meant to burn up in rentry. The point was they were give an orbit that had a rate of decay slow enough to remain un-assited in orbit for about 2 years.
Rate of decay is how slowly something gets closer to the earth (or any large mass) durring it’s orbit. Satelites are given minute amounts of feul to “burn” or adjust thier prbit as needed, otherwise they eventually renter the atmosphere and burn up. It is possible for an object to have enough velocity that it reaches equalibrium with earths (or, again, any large mass) gravity (for example a natural satelite like the moon).
white_matter said: “I think that it would be cool to have a ring around Earth. I’m tired of Saturn and Jupiter always flaunting there fancy rings at us. Wernstrum!!”
hell yeah it would be cool to have a ring around the earth! but instead of needles it should be made of something like fiber-optic cables, so we can have big pretty light shows in the sky every night.
July 4 2006
Kid of 1963
From my research, some of the copper needles (dipoles) where sent from Quebec, army base of Valcartier, using two decker rockets called Black Brent. So Canada was part of the West Ford Project. In the same years, a young engineer from Moncton (Chapman) was working on the project of geostationary satellites, Alouette I and Alouette II, Anik I and Anik B. I am not sure, but I recall the first launching of dipoles from Quebec as far back as 1962.
Canada has always been number one in world telecom, especially for circumpolar global telecommunication.
I would like to know if the West Ford Project has anything to do, technically, with the launching of chemtrails by stratotankers since 1998 by the US army (trails of chemical gases made of berilium and aluminum).
XJ076A said: “what if some of those needles would hit something altering their orbit. i know they probably took it in their calculations when they did this but would the needles if there’s enough cause any real damage to nearby satellites if this did happen?”
I dont believe there were any satellites in the sky in 1963.
Ironclaw said: “True – but you have two wonderful factors working for you..
I thought a22042 was going to cover how these two points are wrong, but I guess not.
a) the density of the atmosphere varies with distance from the earth (so it slows gradually as the air density builds up – thus it doesn’t immediately generate a ton of heat)
Actually, since the density high up is much lower, it would initially fall much faster since it will quite rapidly reach terminal velocity. At terminal velocity, change in gravitational potential energy exactly matches the viscous drag dissipation, and thus falling faster though the initially less dense air means it would “immediately generate a ton of heat” if it ever would.
b) Copper is one of the BEST heat conductors available and thus would tend to shed its heat quickly to the surrounding (quite cold) enviroment. Factor in its surface area to volume ratio – and I believe what I read – that the wouldnt burn up.”
Copper is a good conductor, so all the copper would be at the same temperature. Air is a terible conductor, so it won’t conduct heat away from the copper very quickly. If the copper can’t reject heat into its environment, it will get hotter. It’s own conductivity has nothing to do with its surface temperature.
In the end, these would never burn up because they are really freakin’ small. Think about how slowly a hair falls to the ground, or if you have a dog or cat, the cloud of fur that hangs around them after you pet them. These bad boys will never get up enough speed to generate any significant heat.
i have registered just so i can post this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar_1
aaand this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1
oh, and this too, in case everyone forgot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_program
Hey, I live in Westford, Massachusetts. I wonder if this was named after my boring-ass suburban town. It’s about an hour away from Millstone Hill, Massachusetts.
son todos ultra graciosos…. por suerte en nuestros paises no nos hace falta saber como se llaman las agencias de inteligencia ni cuantas armas tiene nuestro gobierno porque no andamos con tremenda paranoia de que el resto de los paises del mundo un buen dia nos ataquen y nos hagan la guerra… no tenemos miedo a que se nos estrellen aviones en nuestros edificios ni tenemos miedo de que nos invadan… tampoco es nuestra responsabilidad la muerte de miles de personas al otro lado del mundo solo por buscar petroleo… asi que cool . felices y aventurados los que no saben de sus agencias de inteligencia.
And we also know your language, so we can understand what you say! kisses!
Comprendo su lengua también.
What I don’t understand is your reason for posting this…
Devices have ANTENNAS. Bugs have antennae.
I recall hearing about Project West Ford in 1962 or 1963. I was working at Arthur D. Little, Inc. (Bldg. 15 – metallurgical group headed by Dick Davis) and attended a talk given by engineers from MIT-Lincoln Lab(?) about this project. My reaction was outrage. I asked what might happen to a ship, or worse still a man in a space-suit, if a clump of this trash was on an intersecting orbit. This question was met with near derision. The concept of what was to become EVA hadn’t been figured in. So much for the imagination, and responsibility, of some of our leading engineering/military thinkers. Only now is serious consideration being given to cleaning up all manner of debris in long lived orbits. Project West Ford was a testament to the bovine stupidity of certain sections of the science/military alliance that prevailed in those benighted years. Is that sort of thinking still prevalent? A rhetorical question.
kid of 1963 said: I would like to know if the West Ford Project has anything to do, technically, with the launching of chemtrails by stratotankers since 1998 by the US army (trails of chemical gases made of berilium and aluminum)
those are actually test to produce/control weather.. as in rain storms over parched land… there are also test going on to see if certain gases in bulk in the atmosphere have any control over the green house effect and our ozone layer. cant say how i know or can verify this information… but none the less, very neat.
those small needles of copper, pure copper, would do something very interesting with any moisture in the lower atmosphere… but thats a whole nother story. those needles are also actively impacting ISS. wonder how thats going>
Never mind the physicists.
Engineers are the true geniuses.
This came back so very soon.
This time, it is here as the result of the DI random article generator posted on Thanksgiving. I like randomness. It’s the stuff of life.