(meteorobs) re: Possibility of Electrostatic meteor detection.

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Larry and others,

While doing forward scatter meteor observing in New Mexico I used to always try and capture space shuttle re-entries when they were in my range. I consider a shuttle re-entry to be like a controlled fireball experiment since the various quantities and qualities of the shuttle are known; like mass, speed, time, altitude, high ionospheric conditions, etc.  

Here is a page with two re-entries in audio. In the first specimen, upon close listening, it seems to my ears like there might be instances of "direct reception" of the shuttle fireball amidst the normal forward scattering.  I don't know about that but it seems so.

http://www.heliotown.com/Radio_Fireball_Observatory_SpaceShuttle_reentries.html

Unfortunately there haven't been any opportunities for reentry capture since the Columbia accident. The recent re-entries have tended to take a path over Mexico on their way to landing in Florida.

Thomas Ashcraft
       
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