My first question posed to the forum should be an easy one.

What are those three curving lines on the big screen when they show mission control on NASA television? They are three lines that are spaced equally,however they overlap on a curve in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.

I figured out the day night terminator line (pretty obvious seeing as how they made part of it dark and part of it light).

If anyone wants to touch on the other circles that appear somewhat random - that would be nice too. There are two really large squared circles, or squares with rounded corners, then there are smaller circles over various areas of the globe.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

Easy? How about taking a guess? I'll start you off with some short clues.
Current orbits.
Listening station ranges.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

By the way;
Follow this link if you want a good visualization:
http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtr.../JTrack3D.html

Select Hubble (or any of them)
Another window will show up with the earth in it. And you can click and drag your viewpoint.
Select
options -> update rate -> 1/4 sec
and
options -> timing -> x1000
Then pay attention to where "HST" is on each pass.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Current orbits are curved on a flat map due to axial tilt then? I suppose it should've been rather obvious.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

In 1962 I sent off for a map of the world showing the path of
John Glenn's capsule on its three orbits of the Earth. Looked
exactly like what you're talking about. I still have it but it's
buried in one of the many boxes I haven't dug into in years.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

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http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Wow, that is cool. I wish I could make that my windows background and keep it updating live.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."