Goldstone dish to "paint" asteroid

An asteroid due to fly by earth this Halloween wil be examined by repurposing some NASA gear. Probably of interest to the Mojave "desert rats" is the Goldstone facility, which is adjacent to Fort Irwin. (Near Barstow, north of highway 58.) The facility is used for deep space communication, but for this asteroid, the dish will be used to paint (illuminate with radio waves) it.

During tracking, scientists will use the 34-meter, (110-foot), DSS 13 antenna at Goldstone to bounce radio waves off the asteroid. Radar echoes will in turn be collected by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center’s Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico. NASA scientists hope to obtain radar images of the asteroid as sharp as about 7 feet, (2 meters), per pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about the object’s surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties.

The receiving site will be in the national quiet zone:
en.m.wikipedia.org...
Of course, this zone is full of NSA surveillance gear.

www.euronews.com...

The Goldstone facility has a restricted airspace.
www.edwards.af.mil...

a reply to: gariac

Graffiti an asteroid... LOL

To find out what minerals of value it has such as gold, silver, etc.

would be a hoot if something responded unfavorably to this action.