15 September 2006

15 September 2006

A new solar array has been deployed aboard the ISS that doubles the energy output of the station. That probably means more than twice the surface area to reflect light. But these arrays are steerable so they will always point at the Sun (once another STS mission completes the assembly job). It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the brightness of ISS visible passes. Looking quickly at the pass listing on Heavens Above I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary to me.

Joe Rao posted an article about this on Space.com that says the ISS is the brightest manmade satellite. He said there is speculation that the ISS might reach Mag. -3, but nobody knows until they see it happen. That isn't anywhere near as bright as an Iridium flare, which can reach Mag. -8.


A NASA graphic showing the new ISS configuration. The new solar panels are in the lower right.

Space.com article about the bigger and brighter ISS

posted by Charlie at 05:09

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