On Thu, 27 May 2004, Roy M. Silvernail wrote: > >It seems to me that you'd need a pretty big dish in orbit to get that kind > >of resolution. > > > >The Keyholes(?) are for microwaves, right? > > > Where better to put the big dish than in orbit? Clarke-belt birds are > separated by what, 10 km? So a 5 km dish would be feasible.
No big dish should be needed for resolution. Radio astronomy is done by arrays of smaller antennas. Precise measurement of relative position of the satellites can be done about as well as with the antennas on the ground. Smaller dishes in known distance should work as well. We should also keep in mind that the high-sensitive receivers are cooled so they are rather low-noise.
