Fobos-Grunt: decay estimate

From: Ted Molczan (ssl3molcz@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Dec 19 2011 - 15:59:37 UTC

  • Next message: Paul Salanitri: "Re: Phobos-Grunt Orientation and Flare Prediction"

    The mean rate of decay of the semi-major axis of the twenty-two (22) USSTRATCOM TLEs from epoch 11348.50789148 to
    11353.15268437 (2011 Dec 14 12:11 - Dec 19 12:35 UTC) was 1.2988 km/d. 
    
    Using the STOAG propagator and actual space weather during that period, I found that the mean rate of decay could be
    accounted for using A/m = 0.0013035 mē/kg and Cd = 2.2.
    
    Using those values with predicted space weather, STOAG propagates the orbit to decay on 2012 Jan 13. Estimated
    uncertainty is +/- 5 days, based on the rule of thumb of 20 percent of the time remaining to decay.
    
    I extracted the actual and predicted space weather data required by STOAG from data provided by Celestrak.com, which
    compiles data issued by official sources (mainly NOAA) and presents it in a convenient format:
    
    http://celestrak.com/SpaceData
    
    http://celestrak.com/SpaceData/SpaceWx-format.asp
    
    Ted Molczan
    
     
    
    _______________________________________________
    Seesat-l mailing list
    http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 19 2011 - 16:00:19 UTC