LEE%SU-STAR@sri-unix.UUCP (09/04/84)
The Soviets certainly have a solar array power technology comparable to that of the US. It would seem that the motivation for using nuclear power is their payload. The use of radar, in which they lag several years behind the Western state of the art, probably imposes size and power requirements of a serious nature on these satellites. The array surface needed to supply power in the multi-Kw range probably results in bad ballistic coefficients. At their low orbit (174X162 st. miles) this means high decay rates. Why launch a new satellite every week when you can get a 60-70 day useful life out of them by just replacing the "wings" with RTG's? (NOT fission reactors as some members of the media claim!) This series of RORSats ( of which the infamous Cosmos 954 was a member) are typically of roughly cylindrical configuration, about 14 meters in length and 2 meters in diameter. The RTG unit occupies 6 m of its length and allows the radar sensor to have enough power to locate ships in any weather conditions. Note that those Soviet reconaissance satellites which operate in higher orbits usually are powered by solar arrays. Emilio P. Calius Stanford U. ------