[jhayward]

> The US government literally spends billions of dollars to track things in outer space, and a bunch of amateurs can do basically the same thing

There is a whole lot of difference between an amateur being able, once in a blue moon, to track something and a military duty desk being able to track everything, all the time, and get it imaged/located/whatever in seconds to minutes, every time.

[dsl]

The X-37B also favors mobility over stealth.

Many US spy satellites are virtually untrackable because of the Vantablack S-VIS paint they use, which reflects only .2% of the light that hits it. You have to literally look for the missing stars that should be behind it.

Other sats make this even harder by hiding behind giant mirrors that reflect empty space from a 45 degree angle down to earth.

[adminu]

I'd be interested in a source. I wonder how a giant mirror could persist in space without being shattered by debris and other elements hitting it from time to time.

[daveslash]

This is a patent for stealth satellite technology. It's not a mirror, per-se, but it does demonstrate that there's interest in concealing satellites. Additionally, I'd expect that anything that could "shatter" a mirror would also be capable of shattering the entire satellite beyond operation; if we assume that statement is true, then the fact that so many satellites remain in service suggests that a mirror would also survive.

[daveslash]

I posted my above comment late last night after a long trip... I neglected to include the patent URL. My apologies.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5345238A/en

[andbberger]

I think you have to leave your preconceptions about what a mirror is at the door when it comes to spaceflight. Much more likely to be something like aluminized mylar than a silvered glass mirror that could shatter.

[dsl]

I'll have to dig in to my bookshelf once I get home. I believe it was in The Wizards Of Langley, but Google book search is failing me at the moment.

[yencabulator]

How often have the ISS solar panels been shattered, so far?

[baybal2]

I doubt it will save them from detection in infrared