Omid soars

04Feb09

 By now all the papers are tumbling over each other to report upon Iran’s successful launch of the Omid satellite, mostly from a Western-Israeli perspective.  Is it a threat?  Can it carry a nuclear warhead? Will Iran be able to orbit battle stations able to bombard Israeli cities into submission? And so forth.   

No, not quite.  The most reliable reports (thanks to m.s.) are on the various space hobby wonk blogs that really appreciate the technological feat Iran has managed to display.  It also helps that Iran is demonstrating a high degree of transparency with its satellite program, complete with a cool CGI-generated simulation viewable here.

 According to one report,

 The satellite has a mass of 27 kg (ISA web) or 25 kg (IRINN news agency) and it is a 0.40m cube. It carries an instrument to measure the space environment, and a GPS receiver modified for use in the unstabilized (i.e. tumbling) satellite, according to the Iranian Space Agency web site isa.ir. (Thanks to Reza Farivar for translation). IRNA associates the project with “Saa Iran Industries”, and connects it with the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

The first Iranian satellite was launched into orbit on Feb 2 at around  1834 UTC +/- 5 min on a southeastern trajectory from an unidentified launch site in Iran. Two objects are in orbits of 245 x 378 km x 55.51 deg and 245 x 439 x 55.6 deg; radio signals picked up by Bob Christy, Sven Grahn and Greg Roberts confirm that 2009-04A is the Omid payload and the 2009-04B is the Safir rocket final stage. Omid’s rbit is close to the announced plan of a 250-350 km altitude. The Iranian Students News Agency calls the launch vehicle Safir-2; it’s not clear if this is represents a different vehicle type from Safir-1, or just a serial number. Pictures of the launch show “Safir – Omid (2) IRILV” painted on the side of the rocket. Based on an Iranian video showing an animation of the launch, it appears that Safir is a two-stage launch vehicle.….

TheSafir-2 resembles a “sounding rocket” more than a true ICBM.  The Omid is about the size of a microwave oven (appx. 18”) and quite a bit heavier, but nowhere approaching a useful military payload.  The Safir-2 has a range that permits strikes anywhere in Israel, but as an Israeli expert grumbled to the New York Times, this is not new.

But hit those alarm bells.  As US defense experts warn (with an eye to larger budget requests):

 
Iran's launch of a domestically made satellite into orbit demonstrates Tehran 

has moved one step closer to eventually building long-range nuclear missiles

that could reach Europe or the United States, experts said on Tuesday.
 

The ability to send a satellite into space -- combined with Tehran's disputed 

nuclear program and uranium enrichment -- raises the threat Iran could ultimately 

have an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) arsenal, US officials and experts 

say.  "In the case of Iran, one of the biggest concerns we've always had is that any 

country that can put a satellite into orbit has thereby demonstrated that they can 

send a nuclear weapon to intercontinental distances," said Rick Lehner, a 

spokesman of the US Missile Defense Agency.


NASA has confirmed a spot-on low earth orbit for the Omid, 
which marks this as a tremendous technological accomplishment 
and introduces Iran into an exclusive club of nations who have launched 
satellites themselves, as opposed to contracting with the 
US, Russia, France or Japan.  

  Omid (centre) and its launch vehicle  (FARS)


There is, of course, something disquieting about the Omid.  It’s the shape – a perfect 
cube.  Now, is this significant?  You bet.  Only one intergalactic species uses the cube 
form of interstellar spaceship – the Borg.  You know, the ones that kidnapped star ship 
Enterprise captain Jon-Luc Picard and threatened to assimilate all humanity.  
 

   Borg ship (not to scale)
 
Have the Iranians been assimilated by the Borg?  You be the judge.  
Check out page 147 of your Star Trek ®
convention notebook.  What?  You left it at home?  
 

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