
Recovering Iran’s NOUR 01 ‘Military Satellite’ - aaron695
https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/recovering-irans-nour-01-military-satellite/
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ggm
So the story is: Iran has a satellite, and like any other satellite it's not
very risky and this leads to the other story: is blocking Iran from science
and research in space actually helping? And the answer is probably not, and
also nobody is going to unwind this kind of stupidity very soon.

I think it would achieve more to help Iran with payloads than get snitty about
a cubesat.

And say they did get high resolution imaging into space and started looking at
US or Israeli or Saudi military and strategic assets.. isn't that kind of
normal? Might it not actually help _pacify_ things by giving them
incontrovertible evidence there isn't a risk of invasion?

~~~
sandworm101
The powers that been do not give a toss about Iran having access to cubesat
tech. That isn't the end of the rocket they are worried about. It is the
booster, the thing that can also throw bombs around as easily as cubesats,
that really worries them. The bans on payload-specific tech are just a tiny
extension of the more meaningful bans on core rocket technology.

~~~
ggm
The likelihood of a US ban preventing ICBM development when the basics are
inherent and already known?

Nothing in the story really related to this risk. But, you are probably right
it's the latent fear. The ban only drives Iran closer to Russia. Why buy US
tech when you can cut out the middleman and go to the same source the US does
for engines? (I know they don't buy much any more but they did for a while,
and presumably the Iranians can operate a Russian engine as well as the
Americans can)

~~~
sandworm101
>> US ban preventing ICBM development

The ban is about _delay_ , not the absolute of prevention. That much is
working. Iran is having to develop technology locally as opposed to simply
importing it. Without any restrictions, Iran would simply purchase ICBMs and
deploy them in a matter of weeks.

~~~
dingaling
A delay would be logical if it provided time to develop a countermeasure. But
other than point-defence ABM systems there is no universal countermeasure,
practical or in development.

~~~
icegreentea2
The delay isn't about just about technical countermeasures. It's about giving
time for other options to work. These could have included: engagement and
diplomacy, regime change, or direct action.

In addition, by increasing the cost of developing these systems, you force
hostile (or non-friendly) governments to split their resources. Every bit of
funding that went into building a rocket is a bit of funding that doesn't go
to Quds Force.

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appleflaxen
Super cool write-up!

The terminology in this hobby confused me a little bit, because it wasn't what
I expected. From the context it seems that "recovery" means locating,
identifying, and capturing data from the satellite.

~~~
a1369209993
Annoyingly, the actual legitimate terminogy for this is "acquiring" (ie as a
target or signal) which is just as confusing from a colloquial perspective.

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sswezey
If one wants to learn more about this, where can I go to find more information
about what they're doing, tools, getting started, etc.?

~~~
ChuckMcM
There are lots of "this" in that article. There is SDR, satellite downlinks,
Amateur Radio protocols, and receiving equipment.

My path started when I bought one of the RTL-SDR bundles from Nooelec
([https://www.nooelec.com/store/](https://www.nooelec.com/store/)). It came
with four different antennae and some adapters to connect it to your own
antenna.

I spent some time reconstructing projects that people had posted on rtl-
sdr.com ([https://www.rtl-sdr.com/](https://www.rtl-sdr.com/)). I installed
Gnuradio companion (and various Gnuradio bits) and built an FM receiver as
well as a receiver that could see the signals coming from a wireless light
switch.

I decided I wanted to transmit too so I bought a HackRF-one
([https://www.nooelec.com/store/hackrf.html](https://www.nooelec.com/store/hackrf.html)).
It covers way more spectrum than the RTL-SDR and it has great support in a lot
of packages. What I wasn't able to do very successfully with it was look at
cellular signals so when Crowd Supply ran a campaign for the Lime SDR
([https://www.crowdsupply.com/lime-
micro/limesdr](https://www.crowdsupply.com/lime-micro/limesdr)) I got one of
those. I recreated the cell basestation setup that the Myriad folks did using
an old GSM phone I had in my drawer (marked "Cingular" :-))

I realized I wanted to be able to send more complex things at different
frequencies so I took a detour and studied for, and received, my Amateur Radio
"Extra" license (AI6ZR). Which allows me to transmit at much higher powers on
many more bands.

There was a company near me that was making SDRs and they needed software
help, I offered to help if they would let me use their very well equipped lab
of RF gear. That gave me both access to and training on "real" RF gear and
helped me understand what would be useful and what wasn't needed in my own
explorations. Then I started haunting ebay, swap meets, and various auction
sites to track down the gear I was missing. (A spectrum analyzer, a vector
signal generator, and a vector network analyzer).

Bottom line, this rabbit hole just keeps going and going and going ...

~~~
cgpcraig
Oh man, you sent a CQ into the abyss and the abyss asked you for your contact
card, there's no saving you anymore.

~~~
ableal
Yep, he's probably started cheerfully doodling Smith charts by now ...

(I used Smith charts a couple of times in school, but did not inhale.)

P.S.

Just hit search for 'Amateur Radio "Extra" license curriculum', and it's
impressively comprehensive, at least from the first hit, a nice PDF at
[http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Instructor%20resources/Tiley,...](http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Instructor%20resources/Tiley,%20AD7FO/2016%20Extra%20Class%20rev%201%209.pdf)

(it features Smith charts at page 109, and at 118 ends with a full page blank
chart :)

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Gibbon1
> This sounded initially ominous as the IRGC is a declared terrorist
> organization in many western countries and this mission successfully entered
> orbit.

Looking this up we find.

> The IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization by the governments of
> Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United States

Really seriously?

~~~
aspenmayer
Well they did say many. How many? One? Is the Middle East part of the West
now? Or only allies of the West? I actually don’t even know how to answer that
question but I do see your point.

~~~
asah
As the risk of getting political, Iran (its leadership) is one of a handful of
countries that openly and repeatedly calls for the literal "annihilation" of
another country.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+statements+annihilation...](https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+statements+annihilation+jews)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+statements+death+to+Ame...](https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+statements+death+to+America)

~~~
hutzlibu
Ah, yes. One of the most escalating potential topics there is.

So is it already risky, to say, that most statements, "calling for
annihiliation" of israel, are not so drastic, when looked upon closer?

So, for example the famous quote from former president Ahmadinejad, about
wiping israel off the map:

" Ahmadinejad was quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini in the specific speech under
discussion: what he said was that "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should
vanish from the page of time." No state action is envisaged in this lament; it
denotes a spiritual wish, whereas the erroneous translation – "wipe Israel off
the map" – suggests a military threat. There is a huge chasm between the
correct and the incorrect translations. The notion that Iran can "wipe out"
U.S.-backed, nuclear-armed Israel is ludicrous."

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Isra...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel)

That still leaves plenty of other statements, though and support of hamas,
etc. who are less diplomatic in their words, but on the other side, you have
lots of direct war threats from US and Israel, too, who are indeed nuclear
armed. So who started it?

Complicated of course. And I don't really have much sympathy for the mullahs,
but the iranian people I met, were nice ones. And I doubt collective
punishments from the outside, like the ban on space tech, are helping them get
rid of the idiots. It just brings them closer together.

~~~
mirimir
Yes, it's complicated.

Here's an amusing (albeit ~neutral) summary:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-H5C_4UDU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-H5C_4UDU)

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spicyramen
Interesting mention of Mexico military sending a satellite. Historically
Mexico has been a peaceful country, it even signed the Tlalelolco treaty to
not develop Nuclear weapons. Probably in the war against drug cartels?

~~~
greglindahl
Many peaceful countries have military satellites that do earth observation by
optical and radar. It's not an offensive technology.

I'm pretty sure Mexico isn't out there developing ballistic missiles and then
selling them to other countries in violation of a treaty Mexico signed. That's
the actual problem with this particular launch.

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erwinh
For those interested, the Nour (or is it Noor?) satellite orbit
[https://space-search.io/?search=cospar%2020024](https://space-
search.io/?search=cospar%2020024)

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duxup
I didn't understand all those words but that was a fun read none the less.

