That picture shows the recovering a capsule ejected from the satellite. Maybe they're doing photographic film return? This is very old technology that others have abandoned but could still be useful for NK.
Replace the film canister with either a solid state hard drive or a bunch memory cards along with a Go-Pro camera (ITAR busting permitting). Then don't see why it would be old tech. One must remember that the DPRK don't operation a network of ground stations to downlink from orbital assets.
Quote from: Zed_Noir on 12/09/2017 09:26 pmReplace the film canister with either a solid state hard drive or a bunch memory cards along with a Go-Pro camera (ITAR busting permitting). Then don't see why it would be old tech. One must remember that the DPRK don't operation a network of ground stations to downlink from orbital assets.Or for all we know it could be re-entry vehicle that is used once life span of satelite is over thus hardware that can be recovered could be re-used in another satelite as cost cutting measure.
It's hard for me to believe you could save anything that way because you'd have to build additional hardware just to enable the return capsule, and some of that additional hardware would not be returned.
Quote from: ChrisWilson68 on 12/09/2017 10:54 pmIt's hard for me to believe you could save anything that way because you'd have to build additional hardware just to enable the return capsule, and some of that additional hardware would not be returned.It doesn't have to be additional if integrated with slight penalty.You could have satellite for imagery and rotate 180 degress to back that is designed for re-entry, solar panels would be ripped to pieces while everything else would survive if body is blunt enough to slow down re-entry to acceptable level. Maybe pop-out solids to further slowdown to increase chances of parachute working.Added benefit would be analyzing effects of space on hardware, modifying it and apllying lessons learned to next generation or two after it.
One should always treat North Korea's spaceflight plans with more than a little skepticism but I have just found the attached illustration apparently depicting the recovery of a North Korean satellite:https://engforum.pravda.ru/index.php?/topic/279773-north-korean-space-program/page-3Is it possible for someone to translate the captions, please?